Blasphemy and our minorities

It is with deep sadness that one contemplates how 2013 is turning out to be one of the worst years for minorities in Pakistan’s sordid history of sectarian violence.

Militant ire has been directed at the Shias throughout the first three months of this year and now mob frenzy has bared its teeth at a Christian colony in Lahore. On Friday, a rowdy and angry crowd of the ‘faithful’ gathered after being told of allegedly blasphemous remarks passed by a resident of Joseph Colony in the Badami Bagh area. The accuser led the mob of some 2,000 people to the man’s house and, upon not finding him, they spread their terror throughout the neighbourhood, forcing all the residents, particularly women and children, to flee. They did find the accused’s father and brutally beat him up.

They dispersed only when the police promised to register a first information report (FIR) against the accused — without any proof whatsoever, one might add. This is not the sorry conclusion. Even after all this commotion, this violent and obviously militant crowd made its way back to the colony the very next day, Saturday, with a mission even more sinister. They reached the Christian residential area and burned to the ground 150 homes, destroying in moments of irrational aggression the lives and assets of many Christian families. Just how these vigilantes were able to return to the scene of the crime the next day without any obstacle in their path is mindboggling.

There was not a single law enforcement officer present in Joseph Colony — an area under obvious threat after Friday’s events — which is why this mob found it easy to ransack the place and set ablaze the homes of so many Christians. How on earth could this happen? It seems as if the government in Punjab is either complacent about the goings on where such ‘defenders of the faith’ are concerned or are just indifferent to the plight of the minorities. The negligence on display is what led to this looting and destruction.

The Christian minority has reacted. On Saturday, hundreds of protesters stormed Ferozepur Road in Lahore and different areas in Karachi, demanding that something be done about this unforgivable act. In Lahore, they attacked an office of the Metro Bus System and in Karachi, Rangers had to resort to aerial firing. However, this was the first time one has really seen a minority in Pakistan fighting back. Pushed into a corner after repeated attacks — the Gojra incident in 2009 still sends a shiver down one’s spine — the Christians turned to violent protests themselves, burning tyres, smashing bus windows, etc, to show that they had had enough.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has announced Rs 0.5 million as compensation to the victims but this is not all that is needed. What is necessary is an adequate safeguard for the rights of minorities. The fact that any Tom, Dick or Harry can accuse anyone of blasphemy without any sort of evidence to back up the claim is what is leading to this insanity in the name of religion. It is so simple and the results are so murderous that the very suspicion of blasphemy is enough to make one cower in their boots. Usually, this country’s minorities are targeted and most of the time the accusations are bogus — revenge, hidden agendas and provocation are the only reasons blasphemy accusations are so common, and nothing is done to stop them.

Forget about the idealism of fixing or reforming the blasphemy laws, this nation’s people must reform their mentalities. The governments, provincial and federal, must wake up from their slumber and help our minorities against this targeted abuse and mayhem. Anyone can rent a crowd in Pakistan and have free licence to become rabid if blasphemy is even mentioned. This is ridiculous and it is high time that the government bring to book all those responsible for the Joseph Colony rampage. If they do not, no one will be safe. – DailyTimes

Raisanis and Balochistan

In an unexpected turn of events, one of the most prominent members of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in Balochistan, Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani, has announced his decision to part ways with the party and join the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

The meeting with the head of the PML-N, Mian Nawaz Sharif, which has been hailed as another ‘triumph’ for this party in the wake of growing resentment towards the incumbent PPP, underlines a number of factors that are the hallmark of mainstream politics in Pakistan. Raisani is the younger brother of the former chief minister of Balochistan, Nawabzada Aslam Raisani, who after his dismissal following the bomb blasts in Quetta and the imposition of Governor’s rule in the province, remains abroad (his extended private visit since January).
Laskhari Raisani served as the provincial president of the PPP since 2003, and the reason for his decision to resign from the post and departure from the party is his ‘disillusionment’ with the PPP-led government in the province. According to him, the vision of the late Benazir Bhutto seems to have been lost by the PPP. Realistically speaking, the five-year record of governance of the PPP-led government in Balochistan reads like a dismal report card of an errant student, underlined in red.

The failure of government to start any development work even after being awarded the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan package and the NFC award is a stark reminder of how the distribution of funds in an impoverished province serves as a lucrative business for the few in charge of public funds. The political structure, which at best sees a change of parties and faces, is a cabal of sardars, who in order to keep their draconian hold on the suffering masses, enrich their coffers while plunging the province into more misery.

There is an unchecked monopoly of policy in Balochistan by the military and its main tool, the Frontier Corps, which is responsible for the growing lawlessness in the wake of ongoing repression and persecution of the Baloch nationalists, whose missing persons continue to increase despite even the Supreme Court’s efforts as there is no accountability of the military-dictated system. The two bomb blasts in Quetta targeting the Shia Hazaras and culminating in more than 200 deaths has left a huge question mark on the governance of the PPP.

The cyclical blame game continues, and Balochistan continues to suffer in the tug-of-power between the army and the civilian authorities. The latest development of one Raisani leaving the PPP to join the PML-N — as it seems to be gaining a foothold in areas where hitherto it had limited electoral power — while the other brother, the man held responsible for the mismanagement of Balochistan remains abroad, is odd, to say the least. How the ‘lost’ manifesto of the PPP will be redefined by Raisani while being in the PML-N, only time will tell. The Balochistan Assembly, which had 61 of its 62 members on the treasury benches in an ‘unholy’ alliance bound together to reap the full monetary and other benefits of incumbency, brought forth a reign of failed policies, chaotic governance, abysmal law and order and almost non-existent development.

In addition, the allegation on the Raisanis of being the masterminds of a ‘mafia’ of kidnapping for ransom in Balochistan leaves an even bigger question on the credibility of those who control the power reins of the province. To leave one party to join another may be a mere opportunistic move, practised in Pakistani politics without accountability, but the fate of Balochistan hangs in uncertainty as one group of apathetic rulers is replaced by an almost identical one, and the misery of Balochistan remains unchanged. – DailyTimes

For quality elections

Elections are too serious a matter to be left to the political parties alone. The Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP’s) stance to rein in the candidates and parties through a stringent code of conduct has at least created a baseline for quality elections. The ECP has issued a laundry list to ensure violence- and corruption-free elections.

Anything that could influence the results of the election is taken seriously into consideration and its limits specified to avoid rigging and violence. Those in high positions who will remain in office through the elections like the speakers, deputy speakers, governors, etc, would not be allowed to participate in election campaigning. Even the caretaker prime minister and chief ministers, not to mention the president, would be barred from taking part in electioneering. The right of voters to cast their vote for their desired representatives cannot be influenced either through intimidation or bribery.

No public meeting would be allowed within 400 yards of any polling station. Any action leading to violence such as verbal abuse, aerial firing, wall chalking against opponents and instigatory remarks is prohibited. No loudspeakers will be allowed during campaigning except in public meetings. In short, every civilised democratic norm is included in the code of conduct. However, one area that has been left vague and needs definition as well as reckoning is the ideology of Pakistan touched upon by the ECP. According to the code, no one would be allowed to propagate any opinion or act in any manner prejudicial to the ideology of Pakistan, a restriction enshrined in Article 63(g) of the constitution.

It would have been a great service to the nation had the ideology of Pakistan been finally defined by the ECP, since, right from the day of its inclusion in the constitution of Pakistan through the 8th Amendment, the terminology is waiting to be defined or elaborated. Unfortunately, Article 63 could not be amended while agreeing the 18th Amendment because of lack of consensus. Since its origin during General Yahya’s tenure, the concept of the ideology of Pakistan remains undefined and lacking in substance, despite having done enormous damage for its myriad hyperbolic and Islam-centric interpretations. How an unsubstantiated and undefined category can earn respect or be adhered to, calls for a logical answer. If the ECP could put us wise on this, perhaps the country would be saved from further psychological and material destruction.

Another matter that needs the ECP’s intervention is the stoppage of the dissemination of hate material done through seemingly innocuous means. This includes not only wall chalking (which has been banned by the ECP) but rickshaw advertisements that also require a complete ban on hate speech. A country right on the edge in terms of sectarian and ethnic strife, not to mention terrorism, requires caution and restraint applied on any act, verbal or written, that could destabilise the situation.

Now that the ECP is preparing to stage the elections, it is imperative that the government announce the date of the election and the caretaker setup for the exercise. The sooner this is done the better, otherwise the way conspiracy theories are being spun, things could go wrong in the run up to the country’s crucial tryst with destiny. It is time to lay to rest all the conspiracy theories, if not actual conspiracies to halt or even delay the elections. There is no other way to do this except forging agreement on a caretaker set-up and announcing the elections at the earliest possible. – DailyTimes

Balochistan crisis

The families of the Hazara Shias killed in the bomb blasts in Quetta have been sitting in protest in freezing weather for the last three days.

Their demands are that the Balochistan government be replaced by Governor’s rule, the city be handed over to the military, and the perpetrators of these atrocities be brought to justice. They are adamant that until their demands are met, they will neither disperse nor bury the 87 bodies they have placed in the street in the middle of their sit-in. Although they have reposed their faith in the army as the only force capable of protecting them and bringing the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi self-confessed murderers to justice, some amongst them have angrily demanded to know what COAS General Kayani has done with the three years extension he got from the government.

The sight of men, women and children sitting in freezing, wet weather with the dead bodies of their loved ones lying unburied under the pouring skies has shaken the country. Protests in solidarity with the Shias being subjected to a virtual genocide have broken out all over the country, from north to south. Highways have been blocked, at least one case of blocking the railway near Lahore has been reported, strikes called and shutdowns in a number of cities in evidence. While the protestors freeze, it appears the authorities’ hearts melted at least to the extent of a flurry of sudden activity to somehow try and defuse the protest. PPP federal minister Khursheed Shah was dispatched to Quetta to negotiate an end to the sit-in with the Quetta protestors.

However, since he threw up his hands to say the government could not give in to their demands, the protestors could not be persuaded to end their sit-in. He was followed by a posse of federal ministers and finally the Prime Minister (PM) himself. The President is said to be following the situation closely. The PM has ordered Chief Minister (CM) Aslam Raisani to return from Dubai (he is expected today). The government has ordered police powers to be given to the Frontier Corps (FC), announced compensation for the victims, and ordered a special air force plane to take the injured to Karachi for treatment. However, it appears the government is reluctant or unable to impose Governor’s rule, which according to the Balochistan Advocate General, can only be imposed at the request of the CM or if the provincial assembly passes a resolution to this effect.

Failing these, parliament can take up the matter. The government appears reluctant to hand over Quetta to the army, fearing this could be the thin edge of the wedge of ‘third force’ intervention, based on past experience. Hence the resort to the FC. However, it is common knowledge that the FC is the most hated force in the province because accusations of following a ‘kill and dump’ policy have been laid at its door and even endorsed by the Supreme Court (SC).

The SC’s strictures against the Balochistan government have been vindicated by these latest developments and all Aslam Raisani’s manoeuvrings in the Assembly to remove the Speaker and garner a vote of confidence seem to have been washed away in the cold rain pelting down on the participants of the sit-in on Alamdar Road, Quetta. The only other option open to the government could be an in-house change of bringing in another CM from within the PPP ranks, but it is not certain at this stage whether that would satisfy the protestors and help defuse the crisis, especially since the miseries of the Hazaras are by no means at an end.

On Saturday, two more were killed in Quetta by a bomb blast and targeted shooting.Since the last four years, 900 Hazaras have been killed and thousands injured in Balochistan, according to Hazara Democratic Party leader Abdul Khaliq, who is on a three day hunger strike along with his supporters in front of the provincial police chief’s office. The desperate community has finally decided to take things in its own hands. The support it has received from across the political spectrum and citizens all over the country is heartening.

However, it would be even better if people all across the country spared a thought for the Baloch being killed and dumped allover the province by the security forces. With whatever new dispensation being introduced in Quetta, while it must deal with the terrorist bloodbath, it may also be afforded an opportunity open channels of negotiation with the Baloch nationalist insurgents to bring a just peace to the troubled province. – DailyTimes

Reko Diq fiasco

The Supreme Court (SC) in its reserved judgement in the Reko Diq case has through a short order held the original agreement to explore and later mine the copper and gold reserves in the area null and void, and as a consequence, all later agreements stemming from the original one.

The Balochistan government had signed a Chaghai Hills Exploration Joint Venture Agreement (CHEJVA) with Australian mining group Broken Hill Propriety (BHP) in 1993 when a caretaker government under Moeen Qureshi at the Centre and Mohammad Nasir Mengal in Balochistan was in office. The appropriateness of a caretaker government signing such a far reaching deal regarding a precious natural resource is certainly questionable, but this seems to have been a repeated pattern ever since. In 2002, when governor’s rule existed in Balochistan before the elections under Musharraf that year, the Governor, Justice (retd) Amir-ul-Mulk Mengal signed an addendum to CHEJVA to overcome certain legal lacunae that stood in the way of BHP’s successor company Tethyan Copper Co (TCC) acquiring assignment of the interest of the parties to CHEJVA.

The original 1993 CHEJVA, an addendum to the exploration agreement of March 2000, an option agreement of April 2000 and a novation agreement of April 2006 have all been found “illegal, void and non est” on the touchstone of the Mineral Development Act 1948, the Mining Concession Rules 1970 framed under it, the Contract Act 1872 and the Transfer of Property Act 1882. The judgement can only be welcomed since all this skullduggery and bending of the laws and rules seems to be typical of the manner in which the mineral wealth of Balochistan has been handled since independence. Nothing, no law, no rule, seems to stand in the way of concessions to foreign interests and their local collaborators in selling the natural resources of the poorest province of Pakistan for a song. This has led Baloch nationalists to bitterly oppose such blatant exploitation and appropriation of the rights of the people of the province over their natural resources.

One only has to cast one’s mind over the sorry history of Sui gas, the Saindak copper and gold project, Gwadar Port and sundry others to understand the depth of bitterness generated amongst generation after generation of the Baloch since independence at the ‘internal colonialist’ policies they have been subjected to. Unfortunately, instances of redress or compensating for past wrongs too have been conspicuous by their absence in the case of Balochistan. Hence the current Baloch generation’s veering towards separatism, having given up hope of justice or equity from the state.

To return to Reko Diq, a few facts will highlight the literal gold mine it represents. Reko Diq lies in Chaghai District, 70 kilometres northeast of Naukundi, close to the confluence of the Afghanistan and Iran borders. The desert site is estimated to hold 5.9 billion tons of copper ore, of which 2.2 billion tons is considered mineable. This would yield 200,000 tonnes of copper and 250,000 ounces of gold per annum. Estimates of the value of the deposits vary according to the fluctuations in the price of copper and gold, but the lowest estimate is a worth of $ 3.3 billion and rising because of price escalation in the international market.

The struck down agreement between the Balochistan government and TCC gave the former a 25 percent stake and the latter the remaining 75 percent. Baloch anger over one more instance of the exploitation by outsiders (foreign and other provinces of Pakistan) of its natural resources had been rising since 2010 and eventually dragged Aslam Raisani’s government into the ‘nationalist’ camp. Now, after the original and later agreements have been declared null and void by the SC, certain questions linger.

First, what effect will the SC decision have on the international arbitration proceedings initiated by TTC and what will be the fallout on foreign investment in Pakistan as a whole? Second, lacking the finance and expertise, how will the Balochistan or federal government develop the Reko Diq reserves of copper and gold? The weight of the SC decision has come down on the side of Pakistani and Baloch interests, as it should. But what follows will be interesting to watch. Dr Samar Mubarakmand, our prominent nuclear scientist, has been offering his services all over the place, first for the Thar coal project (his underground gasification proposal having proved unfeasible by now) and now the Reko Diq copper and gold project. With due respect, nuclear science is a different discipline from mining.

What the Balochistan and federal governments should do is seek finance and expertise internationally, but this time sign agreements in an open, transparent manner according to the laws and rules of the land and best international practice, and that too not by any interim or caretaker setup, but by a government mandated by the people to do so while upholding the interests of the local people of the area, province, and country. Are we capable of getting this right? Given the track record revealed by the SC case, it remains to be seen. – DailyTimes

The President’s travels

President Asif Ali Zardari has travelled in recent days from his visit to Malala Yousafzai in Birmingham to Paris and now Ankara.

In Paris, having spoken at the ceremony to launch the Malala Plan for universal education of girls all over the world and announced Pakistan’s donation of $ 10 million to the Fund created for this purpose, he has sat down with French President Francoise Hollande to discuss the whole gamut of Franco-Pakistan relations. While Monsieur Hollande has been as forthcoming regarding the Malala Plan as our president, he hss also, given the dire energy crisis that Pakistan is passing through, offered France’s help in the energy field.

Alongside this area, Paris is promising to further increase cooperation in the fields of education, health, and the economy. The two heads of state also discussed the struggle against the extremist mindset, drug trafficking, Afghanistan post-withdrawal, and Pakistan’s role in the region. France is hosting a rare face-to-face gathering of Afghanistan’s major players, i.e. countries and groups across the divide. The synergy visible in this interaction at the top level has not always attended relations between the two countries. There is a chequered past in which, sequence-wise, the nuclear issue and the scandal surrounding the Agosta submarines programme take pride of place.

However, those negatives from the past were nowhere in sight, the French president even being willing to discuss the nuclear issue despite its sensitivity and the track record of Paris backing out of its commitment decades ago to provide a nuclear reprocessing plant.From Paris, President Zardari flew to Ankara for a tripartite meeting with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The host president is expected to mediate the latest fracas between Pakistan and Afghanistan centring on President Karzai’s public accusation that the recent assassination attempt on the Afghan National Directorate of Security chief Asadullah Khalid was planned in Pakistan. Things are never easy between Islamabad and Kabul, despite ostensibly being allies in the war on terror. Afghan sensitivity to Pakistani interference in Afghan internal affairs is of long standing and rooted in Islamabad’s role in the Afghan wars dating back four decades. Nevertheless, the Turkish mediation has a good chance of succeeding since Ankara enjoys the confidence of both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

An intriguing controversy has arisen even as the president is on the wing. A visit to Tehran to sign the agreement regarding the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline was widely expected. Its postponement has given rise to a rash of speculations whether this was deliberate or merely a scheduling issue. The Pakistani authorities are trying to put across the latter explanation, but this has failed to quell the misgivings being voiced that the postponement (if not cancellation) of the visit has to do with US opposition to, and pressure to abandon, the IP project.

The $ 7.5 billion project has run into repeated difficulties over US opposition because of Iran’s nuclear programme and Pakistan’s difficulty in finding funding for it. The 2010 agreement between Pakistan and Iran laid down that Iran would supply 750 million cubic feet per day of natural gas through the IP pipeline. Naturally, this source is critical for Pakistan’s energy (and gas) starved economy that has brought large parts of industry and trade to their knees. In March this year, a Chinese bank pulled out of funding the project out of fears about sanctions likely to be imposed on any entity dealing with Iran.

Tehran has now offered Pakistan a loan of at least $ 250 million, which Islamabad would like extended to $ 500 million as a contribution to Pakistan’s share of $ 1.6 billion for the project. The situation remains cloudy, and will perhaps only be cleared if President Zardari’s visit and signing of the agreement on the IP project actually transpires. There is no gainsaying the argument that Pakistan desperately needs new sources of energy, but it remains to be seen how far Islamabad is prepared to go in defiance of Washington’s pressure and in its own national interest. – Dailytimes

Verification of voters

The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the Election.Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct a door-to-door verification of the electoral rolls in Karachi with the aid of the army and Frontier Corps (FC).

The order was passed on Wednesday in the judgement on sundry petitions moved before the SC by the PPP, PML-N, PTI, and JI asking the court to order verification of voters in the city. The MQM had objected to the request. Its chief, Altaf Hussain, had countered the proposal with the argument that if at all such verification was found necessary, it should be conducted countrywide rather than just in Karachi. The court brushed aside this contention on the grounds that it was in Karachi that the issue of accurate voters list had arisen and not for the country as a whole.

Reports say 2.7 million votes of people who have been residents of Karachi for decades and voted there in previous elections have had their votes ‘transferred’ to their places of origin. The judgement says categorically that no voter should be transferred from the list in Karachi without their consent, since this violates their fundamental right to franchise. The verdict goes on to say that the objective of a transparent, free, fair election cannot, it is apprehended, be achieved without this step. The ECP has responded through Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim by saying the ECP was ready to implement the court’s order to the letter.

It may be recalled that it was during General Musharraf’s regime that the MQM was advantaged by gerrymandering constituencies in Karachi and other cities of Sindh. This historical wrong has been reinforced by the recently passed Sindh People’s Local Government Act that is seen by the Sindhi nationalists and even dissenters within the PPP as electorally surrendering the cities of Sindh to the MQM in perpetuity. That is why the Sindhi nationalists’ strike against the Act found wide resonance across the board in interior Sindh.

Now whether the 2.7 million voters in question have been ‘transferred’ out of Karachi at the wish of the MQM or not is not known, but suspicions have been aroused in this regard because it is only the MQM who will gain by this manoeuvre. Pakistan can no longer afford this kind of sleight of hand if the democratic system is to be consolidated and carried forward through fair, free and transparent elections.

Of course there are other, even more serious problems afflicting Karachi, but these were not before the court in this case. The daily toll of lives in the metropolis has reduced the life of its citizens to a hell. Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif has pointed to one of the reasons why this is so. He argues that all political parties in Karachi have armed militias that are responsible for the disturbed conditions of the city. However, he says, there is no solution to this conundrum at present because most of these parties are in the Sindh governing coalition.

He may as well have also included in the list of usual suspects extremists of a terrorist and sectarian hue, as well as criminal elements that have taken full advantage of the opportunity provided by the disturbances in Karachi. There is therefore a full panoply of armed groups that have reduced the city to a killing field. What effect this may have on the project of fair, free, transparent general elections in the city can only be conjectured at this point, but it certainly does not bode well. As it is the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Rights is seized of the matter of violations of the code of conduct laid down by the ECP in the by-polls conducted the other day in Punjab and Sindh, which involved display and aerial firing of weapons as well as violence between rival groups.

Imagine if polls are conducted in Karachi, awash with weapons and killers of all shades, what might transpire. The thought is chilling. The government, the SC, as well as the ECP, while the exercise of verifying the voters door-to-door is about to be conducted, must also ponder the very real danger of a violence-wracked Karachi exploding amidst the heat of an electoral contest. The killers and their weapons have to be cleansed if Karachi is not to see a bloodbath when the general elections are held.  – Dailytimes

A defective strategy

One has to be cautious while making generalisations. Any conclusion drawn from the bye-polls held on Tuesday about the elections to come would at best be a matter of conjecture.

The results nevertheless lead one to an inescapable conclusion: the strategy devised by the PPP and PML-Q was based on wishful thinking. It was simplistic to assume that by combining their respective vote banks the two allies would easily trump the PML-N.The formula was based on two assumptions which the results have made questionable. It was assumed that the popularity of the PPP and the PML-Q in Punjab has either increased or remains at the level of 2008.

The results have shown that it has in fact gone down, at least in the constituencies where the elections were held. Another assumption was that most, if not all, voters of both the parties would support their joint candidates. This too has failed to happen. The polling results are therefore likely to increase distrust between the PPP and PML-Q.

An outstanding example of the failure of the policy is NA-107 Gujrat-IV where their joint nominee lost the elections. In 2008, he had polled 69,101 votes and the candidate belonging to PPP 14,948 votes. Their combined strength of over 84,000 votes was considered enough to defeat the PML-N whose candidate had then polled 75,202 votes. One constituency after another bears witness to the miscalculation.

While the PML-Q managed to win a provincial assembly seat from Narowal, its defeat in Gujrat would lead many to question the party’s claim that the district remains its stronghold.That the PPP failed to get even a single seat in bye-elections in eight constituencies of Punjab would raise questions about its standing in the province. A party candidate in Gujranwala who polled 23,892 votes in 2008, could get only 16,492 this time. And this was not the only case of the type. In Sahiwal, the PPP could put up no candidate of its own and relied instead on a pro-PTI independent who failed to win the seat.

The PML-N’s performance was also below that of 2008. The party ruling Punjab lost two provincial seats that it had won last time. A winner running as an independent, however, announced joining the party soon after.One had hoped that those losing the elections would gracefully concede the defeat and draw the right conclusions for the future. The elections were conducted by the first independent EC. Barring minor incidents of violence and celebratory firing here and there, the polling was by and large peaceful. To call it “worst kind of rigging”, as PML-Q’s information secretary has done, amounts to putting a gloss over the alliance’s own failures. – PT

Playing with powder keg

Issues that can best be settled through political dialogue are landing up in SC, thanks rigid stands taken by the political parties.

Lack of flexibility on the part of the ruling coalition on the one hand and the nationalist parties on the other has already caused enough turmoil in Sindh. The SC has been approached to adjudicate on the issue of the controversial Sindh People’s Local Government law recently passed by the Sindh Assembly. With the province polarised as never before, whatever verdict the court might deliver, it is going to be criticised by large sections of population.

The issue of hundreds of thousands of voters who have not been registered in Karachi despite their being residents of the city for over a decade should also have been resolved through talks between the parties concerned. Rigidity on the part of the MQM standing in the way, a petition on behalf of the aggrieved and duly endorsed by the leaders of PPP, PML-N, PTI and several other parties has been filed in the SC.

That reports of the Black Day flashed by all major Sindhi papers on their front pages failed to find a place in many Karachi newspapers again underlines the gravity of the prevailing urban rural divide. While the Black Day was initially being observed against the new Local Bodies law, LHC verdict on KB dam was also included in the list of grievances by Sindh Bachayo Committee. The verdict has been strongly condemned by the nationalist parties and by the Sindhi media. Sindh information minister has, meanwhile, announced that the issue would be taken up in the Sindh Assembly session on December 6.

The Supreme Court has directed the ECP to look into the possibility of undertaking the delimitation of Karachi’s constituencies. Any move in the direction amounts to entering a minefield. Many would agree with the idea of doing way with the gerrymandering of the city’s constituencies. Constituencies based on ethnic lines, it is argued, can only play a divisive role. While reportedly 13 political parties told the Secretary ECP that they supported the idea of delimitation, the MQM however adamantly opposed it.

The courts move by apolitical standards. They are supposed to decide issues on the basis of merit determined by the facts presented before them. In the world of politics, however, facts often take the back seat while perceptions acquire a more relevant substantiality. Courts are of little help when large communities motivated by group interests take decisions they perceive to be crucial. What is required in situations of the type are not verdicts by courts but mediation by political parties which alone can arbitrate through persuasion and bargaining. -  PT

Statesman-like attitude

Emerging out of the archaic political thought of considering rivals as permanent enemies, Nawaz Sharif has extended his cooperation to keep the political process afloat over the last five years.

In an interview with a local TV channel, in answer to a question, Nawaz Sharif said that if elected prime minister he would be more than happy to accept Asif Ali Zardari as the president and take his oath of office from him. Nawaz Sharif’s statement can be interpreted in two ways. Either, as has often seemed the case in recent years, he represents the dovish pragmatic school of thought within the PML-N while the other school is hawkish in its attitude towards the ruling PPP, represented, as Nawaz Sharif gently chided, by the sometimes harsh statements of his younger brother and Chief Minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, against the president.

Or, both ‘wings’ of the party are actually united and the same but playing ‘good cop, bad cop’ towards the PPP to keep it under pressure and on the hop. Nevertheless, the Nawaz Sharif who came back from exile seemed a changed man. Certainly, cooling your heels in exile for 10 years gives ample scope for introspection. Later, his interaction with the late slain leader of the PPP Benazir Bhutto persuaded him that the past mistakes of politicians to go running to the army or president to topple the rival’s incumbent government had not helped democracy prosper, and even given the ‘third force’ waiting in the wings the opportunity to overthrow an elected government and capture power through a military coup.

That convergence in thought based on experience was later codified in the Charter of Democracy. Nawaz’s thrust during the last five years therefore has been to allow the system to continue and not upset the apple cart by any undemocratic moves. This implies respecting the mandate of the people and legitimately vying for that mandate through the ballot box. Nawaz Sharif therefore seems to have come a long way in his political journey from a protégé of the establishment to now arguably its bête noire.The political actors of the country are finally gravitating, it seems, towards the idea that it is only on the continuation of democracy that the survival of Pakistan depends.

This maturity of political thought gives hope that despite all the difficulties that Pakistan is faced with, especially from terrorism and extremism, the democratic political process offers the only hope of overcoming this menace and all the other afflictions of the state and society. To ensure the consolidation of the democratic system, Pakistan would need to go through elections regularly on schedule, and thereby settle the manner in which governments would henceforth be changed: peacefully, through the ballot box. It is a sign of growing political maturity that Nawaz Sharif has not allowed himself to be provoked by the taunts thrown at him over the last five years of being a ‘friendly’ opposition.

That is what the opposition in a parliamentary democracy is supposed to be, not an enemy of the incumbents. In many parliamentary democracies, including the mother of all parliaments in Britain, the opposition even describes itself as a ‘loyal’ opposition. Vying for the support of the electorate is not considered a zero-sum game but a healthy contention with ideas and policies in the interests of the country’s growth and development. Without such an underlying philosophy of the contending rival political forces, the state cannot deliver to its people a better future. – Dailytimes