Posted on

REVIEW By Muneeza Shamsie

Aboard the democracy train: a journey through Pakistan’s last decade of democracy
By Nafisa Hoodbhoy, London, Anthem Press, 2011, 268 pp., £14.99, ISBN 978 0 8572 8967 4

In 1984, Nafisa Hoodbhoy became the first woman reporter at Pakistan’s leading English daily, Dawn, which had hitherto employed women journalists on its full-time staff only at desk jobs, as editors and subeditors. For a young woman reporter to travel to remote, conservative areas of Pakistan was both unusual and courageous. Hoodbhoy’s lively, and at times daring, eyewitness account provides many insights into Pakistan during her 16 years at Dawn.

In 1988, Benazir Bhutto returned in triumph to Pakistan from exile, after the mysterious death of General Zia ul Haq, the military dictator. Hoodbhoy was sent to cover Bhutto’s historic election campaign aboard her “Democracy Train” (a phrase coined by Bhutto) which was received at stations by tumultuous crowds. Hoodbhoy’s gender proved a great advantage: as the only woman reporter present, she enjoyed greater access than her colleagues to the young, unmarried Bhutto.

Over the next decade, Hoodbhoy observed at first hand the rise and fall of Bhutto’s two short-lived governments. These alternated with the equally brief tenures of her political rival Nawaz Sharif. The real power broker remained the Pakistan Army. Hoodbhoy’s chilling account reveals complex political machinations as well as the many shortcomings of the Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif governments, including flagrant corruption.

Hoodbhoy goes on to explore the terrifying miscarriages of justice created by Ziaul Haq’s notorious Hudood Ordinance, which does not differentiate between rape and adultery, and which neither Bhutto nor Sharif repealed. In the fierce battle for justice waged by women activists and civil rights groups, Hoodbhoy’s press reports played a crucial role.

Hoodbhoy reveals she met her future husband Javed Bhutto “while hunting for his sister’s killer” (115). Her harrowing and riveting tale names the murderer, a powerful politician, and also describes his ability to use power, influence and money to subvert the processes of law and have the charges dropped.

Hoodbhoy also records the ethnic tensions in Karachi between Sindhis and Mohajirs (migrants who came from India after Partition), as well as the ethnic riots of the 1990s and the rise of the controversial Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM). However, Zubeida Mustafa, then assistant editor of Dawn, says in her review of Hoodbhoy’s book:

“but she [Hoodbhoy] appears to have difficulty in getting to the roots of the ethnic problem. For instance the impression conveyed is that the MQM was a party of the Mohajirs with which the entire community identified itself. Her account hints at a degree of polarisation between her Sindhi-speaking and Urdu-speaking colleagues in Dawn which is far from true. The fact is that the MQM did not draw all Mohajirs to its fold. Many intellectuals as well as politically astute Mohajirs chose not to throw their loyalties with the party. (Mustafa 7)

Mustafa also points out that Hoodbhoy’s account does not mention MQM threats to Dawn and its “Mohajir” journalists for articles that incurred the party’s displeasure. Similar elisions and oversimplifications are reflected in Hoodbhoy’s historical analysis of Partition and the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto era. The book also suffers from a rather self-conscious and, at times, self-congratulatory tone, aimed at explaining Pakistan and herself to foreigners.

Hoodbhoy migrated to the United States in 2000 and her narrative covers terrorism and violence in Pakistan thereafter. The true value of her book, however, lies in the events that she reported and witnessed and which provide the key to the discordant forces battling for control in Pakistan today.

To read the original article, click on the URL below:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2012.670551

Journal of Postcolonial Writing
2012, iFirst Review, 1–2
ISSN 1744-9855 print/ISSN 1744-9863 online
http://www.tandfonline.com

Posted on

Curfew imposed in Gilgit after Sectarian Violence

Shoot on sight orders in Gilgit (Credit: nation.com.pk)

GILGIT, April 4 – The authorities issued shoot-on-sight orders to the law enforcement agencies to maintain law and order situation after 17 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in sectarian violence in Gilgit-Baltistan on Tuesday.

The attacks led to an army deployment and imposition of curfew in the city, confining the inhabitants to their homes, as the situation turned violent.

Gilgit-Baltistan map (sananews)

The ISPR in a statement said the Army has been summoned to Gilgit to control the law and order situation. The casualties occurred in two separate incidents in the northern towns of Gilgit and Chilas.

In Gilgit, gunmen opened fire during a strike called by Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) over the arrest of one of their leaders, Attaullah Saqib, for his alleged involvement in a sectarian attack in February that left 18 dead.

Gilgit Baltistan (facho01.blogspot.com)

The rioters ran amok when police refused to release Attaullah Saqib. Angry protesters opened fire and pelted the anti-riot police with stones, leaving several officers injured. Some unknown men hurled hand grenades at Ittehad Chowk that injured two policemen and a passerby. “At least seven people were killed and 50 others were wounded,” said an official.

Ahle Sunnat rally in Gilgit (brecorder.com)

Senior local police official Ali Sher told AFP the gunmen opened fire on a group of Sunnis appealing to people to close their shops in response to the strike call. It is pertinent to mention here that a complete shutterdown strike was observed against the arrest of Attaullah Saqib, who is said to be chief of Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Gilgit chapter.

A curfew was imposed in the city after the incident to bring the situation under control, the official said. Soldiers were given orders to shoot at anyone who defied the curfew order, the local media reported.

Shias protest Kohistan incident (nation.com.pk)

A total of 14 people have reportedly been arrested in the city following the clashes. In the February incident, gunmen disguised in military fatigues hauled 18 Shias off buses and shot them dead in cold blood in the northern district of Kohistan, which neighbours the Swat valley. A local intelligence official, who did not want to be identified, confirmed Tuesday’s death toll and also said a hand grenade had been used.

Noorbakshi sufi sect (siasat.pk)

“But we still don’t know who the attackers were,” he said. He added that tensions had been mounting between the Shias and Sunnis in recent weeks.

In Bonar Das area of Chilas, a Sunni-dominated town about 100 kilometres south of Gilgit, a mob blocked the main Karakoram Highway and killed ten Shias, local police official Alam Jan said.

Pakistan-Army in Gilgit (the newstribe.com)

“The mob took out ten men from buses and shot them dead,” an official said.

Hundreds of people took to the streets in Chilas protesting the killings in Gilgit, he said, adding that the rioters set four buses on fire.

A local intelligence official confirmed the death toll.

Meanwhile, a police officer and his bodyguard were also injured while driving to a bus station in the city to provide security for the passengers from Rawalpindi.

The deteriorating situation in Chilas had prompted the local authorities to impose a curfew there.

Gilgit is the capital of Gilgit-Baltistan region and is popular with mountaineers as a gateway to the Karakoram and Himalayan mountain ranges.

Posted on

Background of Sectarian Conflict in Gilgit-Baltistan

Around 75% of the region’s population follows some form of Shia Islam, almost an exact reversal of the norm in the rest of Pakistan. This makes the Northern Areas the only Shia majority political unit in Sunni-dominated Pakistan. There are four sects in Gilgit-Baltistan; Shia, Noorbakshi and Ismaili communities believe in the offices of Imamat, according to them, runs after the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) through Ali and his male successors. Whereas Sunnis believe in the office of the Khilafat and according to them Abu Bakr, Usman and Ali were the Caliphs after the death of Muhammad (PBUH).

Please click here to download the PDF document “PILDAT Background Paper: Sectarian Conflict in Gilgit-Baltistan”

Posted on

Producing Little Osamas on the Run

OBL children on right and grandchildren on left (Credit: worldblog.msnbc.msn)

HARIPUR, Pakistan: It’s an ornate but not lavish two-story house tucked away at the end of a mud clogged street. This is where Pakistan’s intelligence agency believes Osama bin Laden lived for nearly a year until he moved into the villa in which he was eventually killed.

The residence in the frontier town of Haripur was one of five safe houses used by the slain al-Qaeda leader while on the run in Pakistan according to information revealed by his youngest wife, who has been detained.

Retired Pakistani Brig. Shaukat Qadir, who has spent the last eight months tracking bin Laden’s movements, told The Associated Press that he was taken to the Haripur house last November by intelligence agents who located it from a description they got from Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada.

Al-Sada, a 30-year-old Yemeni, has been in Pakistani custody since May 2 when US Navy SEALs overran the Abbottabad compound, killing bin Laden and four other people inside. Since then, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, known as the ISI, has been trying to uncover the trail that brought him to Abbottabad villa in the summer of 2005.

The best information appears to have come from al-Sada, who was believed to be his favourite and who traveled with bin Laden since his escape from Afghanistan’s eastern Tora Bora mountain range in 2001.

Qadir, a 35-year army veteran who is now a security consultant, was given rare access to transcripts of Pakistani intelligence’s interrogation of al-Sada and access to other documents on bin-Laden’s movements. He provided the AP with details in a recent interview.

The details of bin Laden’s life as a fugitive – which were first published by the Pakistani newspaper Dawn – raise fresh questions over how bin Laden was able to remain undetected for so long in Pakistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, despite being the subject of a massive international manhunt.

Yet a senior US official, who is familiar with the contents recovered in bin Laden’s Abbottabad house, said there was no evidence that Pakistani officials were aware of bin Laden’s presence.

“There was no smoking gun. We didn’t find anything,” he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak about the contents of the Abbottabad house.

According to the interrogation report, bin Laden lived in five safe houses and fathered four children – the two youngest born in a public hospital in Abbotabad. But investigators have only located the houses in Abbottabad and Haripur.

Al-Sada’s descriptions of the homes have been vague and the Haripur house was found only after a series of hits and misses.

She knew only that it was located on the edge of Haripur, it was two stories and it had a basement. It apparently was used by bin Laden while he waited for construction crews to finish his new home Abbottabad, a garrison town just 30 kilometers away.

Investigators scoured the area looking for properties until they found the Haripur house in Naseem Town, a chaotic suburb where relatively affluent houses bump up against sun-baked mud huts that belong to nomadic Afghans.

Like the CIA, the Pakistani agency also tracked the movements of bin Laden’s Pakistani courier who used the pseudonym Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti and his brother. The two were ethnic Pashtuns from Pakistan’s Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province on the border with Afghanistan. They were bin Laden’s front men.

The ISI discovered that the Haripur house, like the land on which bin Laden’s Abbottabad villa was built, was rented by two Pashtun brothers claiming to be from Charsadda, a Pashtun dominated town about 110 kilometers away.

The AP located the Haripur house that Qadir said ISI agents had taken him to last November and found the real estate broker, Pir Mohammed, who rented the four-bedroom house to the two brothers, Salim and Javed Khan from Charsadda, for $150 a month.

At the time Pir Mohammed ran a small real estate firm called Mashallah. He said his meeting with the brothers was random.

“They must have seen my sign and come in,” Mohammed said, adding that he had met the brothers only three times – when they signed the contract, when they moved into the house and when they moved out 11 months later.

Two months ago several ISI agents took all the records of the house and its tenants since its construction in 2000, said Qasi Anis Rahman, the brother of the widow who owns the house.

“All they said was that it was for ‘security purposes,’” said Rahman.

Al-Sada is currently in Pakistani custody, along with bin Laden’s two other wives and several children. They were arrested after the raid. The US Navy SEALs shot al-Sada in the leg during the operation.

Mohammed Amir Khalil, a lawyer for the three widows, said the women would be formally charged for illegally staying in Pakistan on April 2. That charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

Posted on

Pak Politics Dyed in Feudal Colors

Good lawyers are often judged by their stance when they run out of truth as well as legal arguments at the same time.  Many tend to fall back on theatrics, histrionics, distortion and even poetry as supplements to beef up the deficiency in the main menu.  Barrister Aitzaz however touched new heights of judicial decadence when he pleaded that notwithstanding the offence, his client being a ‘pir’ and a ‘gaddi nashin’ be treated differently from other ordinary citizens.  Mercifully he did not demand that the seven judges come down from their raised platform to kiss the hands and touch the feet of the accused even before beginning to hear the first argument.

Coming from someone considered a leading lawyer and a champion of democracy, such an undemocratic and dynastic statement reflects the true reality of the nature of politics and society in Pakistan.    It confirms that the change that an average Pakistani is looking forward to is surely not around the bend. Not only that the voter is inextricably bound in the chains of the landlord, the ‘Pir’, the ‘Gaddi Nashin’, the ‘Sardars’,  the ‘Biradari’, the sectarian and the ethnic influence but the ruling classes are equally  united in their manipulations  to sanctify  these undemocratic and  dynastic institutions.

In an apparently unrelated incident, a totally disgusted and disappointed acid victim Fakhra committed suicide by jumping from her 6th floor apartment in Rome.  Ironically her suicide comes in the wake of the new acid throwing legislation in Pakistan and Chinoy’s  Oscar winning film ‘saving face’.  Clearly neither the laws nor  ‘saving face’ could save the face or the life of Fakhra.   Our focus lies only in awards, ceremonies and seminars,  and not on putting an end to the tragedies displayed in the film. Somewhere in the Bar Rooms, a yet  another worthy barrister must be getting ready to defend the rich acid-thrower  Bilal Khar.  After all,  Khar is the scion of  a  powerful  political dynasty of the landed ‘waderas’ of Pakistan, and cannot be equated with those petty street acid-slingers.

Pakistan is  caught in a time warp and the prognosis is not entirely cheerful. Its masses have been kept too backward, poor and uneducated  to go beyond the dotted line and its ruling cartel too happy to exploit its monopoly.  The second and third generation of the ruling  elite is being groomed to take over and prove that their elders were novices in the art of plunder.   The educated professional  class is happy to sit on the sidelines as it can have all the fun without sharing any responsibility.   When sufficiently motivated it could even invent new jurisprudence on why a ‘Pir’ should not be punished.

So where do we go from here.  Is there a political party that is willing to be  the party of the ordinary people.  One that is willing to nominate no candidate  who is a ‘sardar, ‘wadera’, ‘pir’ or whose claim to fame is his political or spiritual lineage.    Pakistanis should not expect reforms from leaders  who are  unwilling to reform themselves or their parties.  Those who proceed abroad for medical treatment (at the state expense) in specially chartered aeroplanes are not likely to spend much time on improving the local hospitals.  Likewise those whose hands are kissed and feet are touched by the mindless millions are not likely to exhibit a democratic  or egalitarian behavior.

It is astonishing that the educated elite of Pakistan is ever so ready to defend the swampy cesspool, but not willing to organize and push for much needed reforms.  These are urgently needed in the dynastic and ‘bhatta collecting’  political parties, the atrophied Election Commission, the non-functional educational system and  the tortoisian justice system, to name a few. The  parties must declare that  henceforth they will not accept candidates who use  titles like  ‘sajjada nashin’, ‘pir’,  ‘makhdoom’, ‘sardar’, ‘gaddi nashin’, ‘wadera’ etc, or those who receive  ‘offerings’  and ‘nazranas’.  Their candidates will not have fake degrees, will not collect ‘bhatta’, will not be dual nationals and will voluntarily surrender all weapons that they hold.

The Election Commission could  learn a lesson or two from its Indian counterpart.  How come the civil society accepted  the 37 million fake-vote election without batting an eyelid or without demanding accountability or  overhaul of the electoral process.  Clearly the educated, rich and the powerful segment of the civil society has sided with the ‘status quo’ by refusing to grow out of its 5 star, foreign funded seminar mode or to push for reforms and accountability.  Not protesting to eliminate  the root causes (such as official proliferation of weapons) and hoping to achieve peace through candlelit vigils is neither rational nor likely to make the dead horse gallop again.

Posted on

Pakistan’s Wish List for How to Censor Internet Access

You know that “overwhelmed” feeling you get when trying to censor the entire Internet manually? Pakistan does. Its current Internet censorship regime is run by hand at its two major Internet backbone companies, PTCL and TWA, and at various local Internet providers. The system isn’t working, says the government, which instead plans to deploy automated Internet censorship hardware capable of filtering up to 50 million URLs per box.

“Pakistani ISPs and backbone providers have expressed their inability to block millions of undesirable websites using current manual blocking systems,” said the government’s request for proposals (PDF) last week. “A national URL filtering and blocking system is therefore required to be deployed at national IP backbone [sic] of the country.”

The plan is to install the hardware on backbone links in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad, from which it can be “centrally managed by a small and efficient team.”

The spec sheet

Pakistan has a long wish list for this censorship gear. It should be “capable of URL filtering and blocking, from domain level to sub folder, file levels and file types.” The hardware should be standalone and carrier-grade with redundant power supplies and “100 percent uptime.” it should provide for remote monitoring through SNMP, and it should do its dirty business on layers 2 or 3 of the 7-layer standard OSI networking model (those are the “data link” and “network” levels; particular application traffic, such as that from Skype or a Web browser, is way up at level 7).

Each installation should be scalable—Pakistan’s total Internet bandwidth is growing at around 50 percent each year—and each installation should be capable of filtering 100Gbps traffic with less than 1 millisecond of delay. Each piece of hardware must be able to “handle a block list of up to 50 million URLs,” and the system must support a Web-based app to update the block list categories.

Although the proposal makes clear that “Internet access in Pakistan is mostly unrestricted and unfiltered,” the new scheme isn’t leaving much to chance. In addition to filtering Web traffic, Pakistan also demands that the system be “rapidly programmable to support new protocols and applications.” In a follow-up document (PDF) answering questions about the system, the government makes clear that this refers to future filtering “for other well-known protocols like SMTP, FTP, etc.” So in addition to Web filtering, Pakistanis can soon look forward to having their e-mail scanned and censored by the government.

It’s impossible to know exactly what might be blocked, but Pakistan appears ready to grab international child porn blacklists from the Internet Watch Foundation in the UK to supplement its own lists.

Making censorship more efficient

As the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes, Pakistan has had a long history with Internet censorship.

Ever since the Pakistan Telecommunication Act, passed in 1996, enacted a prohibition on people from transmitting messages that are “false‚ fabricated‚ indecent or obscene,” the PTA has increasingly intensified their efforts to censor content online. The PTA blocked thousands of sites in 2007—not just those containing pornographic material or content offensive to Islam, but numerous vital websites and services—in response to a Supreme Court ruling that ordered the blocking of “blasphemous” websites. In 2008, they briefly blocked YouTube because the site hosted Geert Wilder’s film “Fitna.” They blocked it again in 2010, over a hosted clip of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari telling an unruly audience member to “shut up.” In May of 2010, the PTA blocked Facebook in response to a controversy over a competition to draw the Prophet Mohammed.

Most recently in November of last year, the PTA sent a notice to Pakistani mobile carriers to ban 1,600 terms and phrases from SMS texts within seven days or they would face legal penalties. It was soon revealed that the list originated from an American National Football League’s “naughty words” list—words that were banned from being printing on American football jerseys.

Not all Pakistanis like this. Bytes for All, a local tech organization, called on foreign firms to stay out of the bidding to “show their support for freedom of expression, speech and opinion in Pakistan.”

“A society without fundamental rights, particularly freedom of expression, speech, opinion and choice cannot call itself a democratic society,” the group’s statement concluded. “Let’s join hands to stop the coldblooded murder of the Internet in Pakistan!”

Posted on

Shia Hazaras Massacred in Balochistan – Again!

Shia Hazara Grieved - blogs.com.tribune.pk

QUETTA, March 29: At least five people were gunned down, and six others sustained injuries, when a van carrying people belonging to the Hazara community was ambushed on Spini road in Quetta Thursday morning.

Law enforcement agencies and the police put security on high alert in the city after the incident.

According to a senior police official, the van was on its way to Marriabad from Hazara Town when a group of armed men opened indiscriminate fire near Killi Mubarak.

Five people, including a woman, died on the spot while six other were wounded.  The assailants fled the scene after the incident.

A heavy contingent of police and security forces reached the spot and cordoned off the area to collect evidence.

The bodies and injured were shifted to Provincial Sandeman Hospital and Bolan Medical Complex where an emergency had been declared. The injured were later shifted to Combined Military Hospital.

Policeman killed in protests

The incident sparked protest in different parts of the city, especially in areas dominated by the Hazara community on Brewery Road.

Protestors shot at security personnel, killing one policeman, Mukham Raza, and injuring a protestor.

Government Girls College Quetta College on Brewery Road was set alight, and fire brigades were called in to extinguish the blaze that engulfed the outer wall of the college building.

Protesters also intercepted two motorbikes and torched them.

The Hazara Democratic Party called for a shutter-down strike in Quetta on Friday (today) to protest the killings. Jamhoori Watan Party, Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and the Awami Nation Party backed the strike call.

A senior police official said that Frontier Corps and police have jointly launched a search operation in different areas of Quetta, including Saryab, and arrested 45 suspects.

No group had claimed responsibility for the attack till the filing of this report.

The government has decided to form an exclusive force for the protection of the Hazara community following frequent incidents of targeted killings last year. Meanwhile, attacks on the community have intensified in the past few days.

2 UN workers shot dead

Two local UN workers were shot dead by unknown assailants in Mastung, about 50km from Quetta.

According to official sources, three persons, identified as Habibullah, Irfan and Mohammad Zahid were en route to Mastung from Quetta when armed men on a motorbike opened fire on their vehicle near Mastung Stadium bypass, killing two of them on the spot. Irfan sustained bullet wounds.

Law enforcement agencies rushed to the spot soon after the incident and cordoned off the area.

“They were working for UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and were coming to Mastung to visit their office,” sources said, adding that the victims were residents of Quetta.

The bodies of the deceased and the injured were taken to Provincial Sandeman Hospital for autopsy and later handed over to the heirs for burial.

Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani strongly condemned the killings in Quetta and Mastung and directed law enforcing agencies to arrest the culprits involved.

Posted on

Bhambore – Crossroad of Ancient Trade Route to China & Middle East

Bhambore sea route - flicker.com

KUDOS to Sindh’s culture department for holding a series of moots at heritage sites to highlight the latter’s significance. The latest conference held last week at Bhambore with participation from national and international scholars and local citizens was part of the effort to draw public attention to the province’s rich heritage. The ruins at Bhambore date back, arguably, to at least the early eighth century CE when the young Arab general Mohammad Bin Qasim conquered the port city of Deebal after a battle with a local raja.

Excavated pottery and building structures at the site reveal that it was indeed a thriving city located at a crossroads of the trade route that connected this part of the world with China in the northeast and the Middle East to the west. Much of the ruins at Bhambore still lie buried under the rubble of time, and only further excavations will reveal the true significance of this ancient site, which is waiting to be placed on Unesco’s List of World Heritage Sites.

Sindh is home to some of the world’s most spectacular historical sites, with prehistoric Moenjodaro being the envy of archaeologists anywhere. Together with Moenjodaro, the medieval-time Makli necropolis near Thatta, with its largely intact carved stone mausoleums, is already on Unesco’s list. It is indeed sad that a chronic paucity of funds and the government’s lack of interest in the past have not been able to solicit the international attention that these and other heritage sites in Sindh deserve.

Now with the culture department playing a more proactive role to streamline the importance of owning our heritage, it is hoped that conservation work will start at those sites in most need of it. The effort needs to be focused, sustained and carried out under the supervision of qualified conservation experts.

 

Posted on

Pakistan Third Largest Arms Importer in Asia – SIPRI

STOCKHOLM, March 19: Asia tops other regions when it comes to weapon imports, according to a study released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Over the past five years, Asia and Oceania accounted for 44 percent in volume of conventional arm imports, the institute said.

That compared with 19 percent for Europe, 17 percent for the Middle East, 11 percent for North and South America, and 9 percent for Africa, said the report.

India was the first world importer over the period, accounting for 10 percent in weapons volume.

It was followed by South Korea (6 percent), China and Pakistan (both 5 percent), and Singapore (4 percent), according to the independent institute which specialises in arms control and disarmament matters.

These five countries accounted for 30 percent of the volume of international arms imports, said SIPRI.

“India’s imports of major weapons increased by 38 percent between 2002-2006 and 2007-11,” SIPRI said.

“Notable deliveries of combat aircraft during 2007-11 included 120 Su-30MKs and 16 MiG-29Ks from Russia and 20 Jaguar Ss from the United Kingdom,” it said.

While India was the world’s largest importer, its neighbour and sometime foe Pakistan was the third largest.

Pakistan took delivery of “a significant quantity of combat aircraft during this period: 50 JF-17s from China and 30 F-16s,” the report added.

Both countries “have taken and will continue to take delivery of large quantities of tanks,” it also noted.

“Major Asian importing states are seeking to develop their own arms industries and decrease their reliance on external sources of supply,” said Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme.

China, which in 2006 and 2007 was the world’s top arms importer, has now dropped to fourth place.

“The decline in the volume of Chinese imports coincides with the improvements in China’s arms industry and rising arms exports,” according to the report.

But “while the volume of China’s arms exports is increasing, this is largely a result of Pakistan importing more arms from China,” it added.

“China has not yet achieved a major breakthrough in any other significant market.”

China is however the sixth largest world exporter of weapons behind, the United States, Russia, Germany, France, and Britain.

In Europe, Greece was the largest importer between 2007 and 2011, the institute said.

Between 2002 and 2011, Syria increased its imports of weapons by 580 percent, while Venezuela boosted its imports over the same period by 555 percent, it reported.

Morocco saw its own imports increase by 443 percent, it added.

The volume of international transfers of major conventional weapons was 24 percent higher in the period 2007-11 compared to the 2002-2006 period. (AFP)

Posted on

Govt Claims Crackdown on Extortion Mafias after Big Protests

Traders Demand Protection from Extortionists (Credit: thenews.com.pk)

Karachi, March 19: “In our profession, we don’t look at whether we’re strong, but if the other party is able to pay up,” says I*, with a 9mm pistol in hand, as he sits outside his apartment in District East. “This is give and take. No one is doing a favour. We ask for money to spare someone’s life and they pay up for the same reason. It’s a simple formula.”

Becoming an extortionist in Karachi is the easy way out to not just bankrolling a political party’s operations but also to rise in the murky hierarchy of criminal operations in Karachi.

Small-time criminals with no affiliation to gangs or political parties can easily call someone up, say that they are from so-and-so party or gang and make an extortion demand. Their entry into the city’s criminal operations has complicated how extortion works in Karachi, since it has become difficult to identify where the demand is actually coming from.

Instead of relying on other sources, every gang and criminal group in town is extorting money to be able to meet its budgetary needs. Almost all political and nationalist parties are involved in extorting money in Karachi, say observers. By one estimate, over Rs50 million is collected from traders, businessmen, shopkeepers, industrialists, factory owners and construction companies in Karachi, relying on a tried-and-tested formula of blackmail or asking for a ‘donation’ or ‘protection money’ on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

They are assisted by a network of employees, relatives, guards and drivers, and use cell phones, verbal demands conveyed by boys on motorcycles and written slips of papers to convey their calls for money. There is also a system of surveillance in place, so traders are told of where their children go to school and what their family members are up to so that they know that the extortionists are keeping an eye on them.

A*, who works at a textile mill in SITE, is one of the many victims of extortionists.

“I had to stop going to the office for a few days. If I didn’t have anyone to support me I would have gone crazy,” he said.

Extortionists are known to call up traders and industrialists with their demands. While A never paid up, he was convinced that someone from his inner circle had provided his details to criminal groups.

Others have paid up or negotiated the amounts asked for them. According to one account, the amount can be discussed and brought down. Others have just shifted their families to other cities or countries.

Those targeted by extortionists play a cloak-and-dagger game, changing vehicles and cell phone numbers to escape their insistent calls.

The police also help traders deal with extortionists and advise them to negotiate. One industrialist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that he shifted his family abroad because he was convinced that they would always use them as a way to get to his cheque book.

Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan and police officials have said that extortionist groups are not new to Karachi. But while it was once easy to know who was behind that mysterious phone call asking for hundreds of thousands of rupees, Karachi is far more complicated now with the myriad groups operating throughout the city, and those using their names to inspire fear in their victims.

Resistance isn’t a strategy either. Over half a dozen traders in Karachi, especially in the South district, have been killed for refusing to pay up.

Problems have also emerged with different groups battling out for turfs.

Paying extortion doesn’t mean the other group won’t approach you for money, and this has also seen a decrease in share for groups that were traditionally the sole operator in extortion. In some areas, the turfs are neatly demarcated and work with mutual understanding, given the political deals between the groups’ leaders or parties. But with the involvement of criminal groups with no political affiliation, a turf war has emerged and results in a renewal of target-based killings.

But there is no one to turn to. The police have been deemed as being ineffective in dealing with the situation; since it is highly politicised, few traders actually lodge First Information Reports (FIRs) with the city’s cops.

Even with the initiation of an Anti Extortion Cell, few have stepped up to register complaints and prefer to reply on personal connections to rid themselves of the extortionists. Despite the furore over extortion, Karachi police chief Akhtar Hussain Gorchani has only received 15 complaints in 10 days. “I thought extortion had reached a limit but I am confused at the few numbers of complaints received by the Anti Extortion Cell,” he told The Express Tribune. “Either people can’t develop trust in the police or there’s some other reason.”

Crime Investigation Department SSP Fayyaz Khan said that criminal gangs have complicated the city’s situation, since they use the names of influential political parties to back up their demands. He said there is violent retribution for those who refuse to pay up.

This also makes it difficult to estimate how much money is extorted from Karachi, though a source said that at least Rs10.5 million was demanded from the traders on Tariq Road each month. In his testimony to the Supreme Court of Pakistan last August, the DG Rangers said that extortion is a ‘normal practice’ and at least Rs10 million is collected every day, from shopkeepers to the city’s prominent businessmen. The negotiated amount that is paid is far less than what is being demanded.

For complainants who don’t have someone influential backing them up, they can’t find a way to track who has made the extortion demands over the phone. Often, a caller will use a single phone number to dial 20 traders and make demands, but the process of verification is difficult. The police do not appear to have access to trace calls, and requests end up going through several levels, from the SHO to the SSP to the DIG to the additional IG, who will then forward it to the Intelligence Bureau who will ask the Inter-Services Intelligence to help. It can take up to three months to trace calls through the official route, which makes the notion of listing the cell phone numbers being used in complaints useless.

*Names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals

SOME BHATTA PRONE AREAS (according to police sources):

Gulshan-e-Maymar, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Sacchal, Gadap, Malir, Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Bin Qasim, Lyari, Old city areas, Garden, Golimar, Pak Colony, Site, Shershah scrap market, Saddar, Napier Road, Kharadar, Mithadar, New Karachi, Surjani, Ranchore Line, Soldier Bazaar, Shah Faisal Colony, Korangi, Landhi, Kharadar, Liaquatabad, Sohrab Goth, Orangi, Qasba, Banaras, Kati Pahari, SITE, Baldia, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Essa Nagri, Old Sabzi Mandi, Abul Hassan Ispahani Road, Hassan Square, Bahadurabad, Quaidabad, Keamari, Tariq Road, Sharafi Goth, Korangi, Lyari, Kharadar, Mithadar, New Karachi and Quaidabad.