State of Pakistan

‘Aid curse’ adds to severity of Afghanistan’s forgotten crisis

2013-05-21T02:08:34Z

As long ago as 1841, those who tried to govern Afghanistan complained about the country’s paltry income. “But what can be done with a Kingdom whose net revenues are only fifteen Lakhs [1.5m] of Rupees per annum?” wrote a frustrated Sir William Macnaghten from Kabul to his East India Company bosses. Nearly two centuries later, those sentiments are echoed by the foreign advisers who have struggled to revive the Afghan economy since the overthrow of the Taliban government in 2001. Amid all the security concerns over the current withdrawal of Nato forces from Afghanistan after their failure to defeat the resurgent Taliban, the disastrous state of the landlocked Afghan economy has been all but forgotten. But once most Nato troops have gone in 2014, billions of dollars of annual aid for Afghanistan will be essential for decades if the country is to manage its own security, educate its children and modernise the economy, according to foreign donors and international financial institutions. The International Monetary Fund estimates Afghanistan’s current account deficit at 45 per cent of gross domestic product, and has postponed the prospect of “fiscal sustainability” until after the distant year 2032. Last year’s legal exports, including fruit and nuts, [...]

Before his murder, FIA prosecutor told reporters he had “solid evidence” that connected Mr. Musharraf with Ms. Bhutto’s death.

2013-05-18T10:09:19Z

By Declan Walsh, New York Times Gunmen on Friday May 3 killed a Pakistani prosecutor who had been investigating the murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Assailants opened fire on the prosecutor, Chaudhry Zulfikar Ali, as he drove to work from his home in a suburb of the capital, Islamabad, for a court hearing in which the former military leader, Pervez Musharraf, faces charges in relation to Ms. Bhutto’s death in 2007. The police said that gunmen traveling by motorbike and in a taxi sprayed Mr. Ali’s car with bullets, lightly wounding his bodyguard and killing a woman who was passing by when his car veered out of control. Television footage from the scene showed a bullet-riddled vehicle crashed by the roadside. Mr. Ali died before he reached a hospital in Islamabad, where a doctor said he had been shot 13 times. The police said that Mr. Ali’s bodyguard returned fire and managed to wound one of the attackers. The police are searching for the attackers, all of whom escaped. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, and the police said it was too early to comment on a possible motive. But [...]

After Big Vote, Pakistan’s Strongest Ally Should Be India

2013-05-13T05:31:49Z

May 10 (Bloomberg) As every leading candidate has proudly noted, tomorrow’s parliamentary elections in Pakistan will mark the first civilian transfer of power in that country’s 66-year history. To ensure it’s not the last, the winner should turn to an unlikely ally: India. Whichever party takes power in Islamabad will almost certainly have to cobble together a coalition to rule. The new government will inherit a looming foreign-exchange crisis, hours-long blackouts that have provoked street riots, and overlapping insurgencies and sectarian wars that have claimed thousands of lives. Though army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has resisted the temptation to restore military rule, he will retire soon. His successors may not be so restrained. None of Pakistan’s ills has a quick fix. But one key decision would immediately help jump-start the economy, lower regional tensions and reduce the army’s influence in politics: lifting long-standing barriers to trade with India. The benefits of a border more open to commerce are indisputable. Trade between India and Pakistan — currently less than $3 billion annually — may grow tenfold or more if existing restrictions were to be lifted, according to an April report produced by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Millions in [...]

Baitullah Mehsud: Dead or alive, his battle rages

2013-05-03T02:01:14Z

This article written by (late) Syed Saleem Shahzad and published in the Asia Times on August 9, 2009 remains relevant today. ISLAMABAD – Pakistan and United States officials are scrambling to verify reports that Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, head of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), was killed in a US Predator drone attack in the South Waziristan tribal area on Wednesday. “Our assertion is that Baitullah Mehsud is dead, based on the intelligence inputs provided to us. However, we will go for ground verification to 200% confirm that he has been killed in the air N/www/delivery/ck.php?n=a53e495a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE’ target=’_blank’&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img src=’incrediblyunlikelyfliename.22.23′ border=’0′ alt=”&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;am strike,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Friday. The TTP was reported by some news channels as confirming the death of Baitullah and his second wife in the August 5 drone strike. According to these reports, the TTP said Baitullah’s funeral had already been held and that his successor would be named on Friday. A Mehsud jirga (council) meeting in the capital Islamabad has not commented on the reports, but Baitullah’s biggest rival in South Waziristan, Haji Turkestan Bhitni, says Baitullah, who has a US$5 million bounty on his head, is dead. Baitullah, in his mid-thirties, has been linked [...]

Pakistan’s brutal elections

2013-04-30T10:25:56Z

By Myra MacDonald One day, a 10-year-old girl died. The next, a seven-year-old boy. The victims of the relentless attacks on election meetings in Pakistan are so very rarely named that you have to start counting the ages of the children to give some kind of human meaning to the deaths. More than 50 people have been killed ahead of elections on May 11 that should have been a milestone in the country’s history, the first time a democratically elected government completed its term and handed power to another through the polls. Instead it has turned into a bewildering bloodbath where a mother or father taking their child out to watch history being made cannot be sure of bringing them home alive. At one level, the violence is neither without meaning nor bewildering. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which have claimed responsibility for most of the attacks, have given it a very specific meaning. They have said repeatedly they will attack the Peshawar-based Awami National Party (ANP), the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which has its roots in Sindh province, and the Karachi-based Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM). They have been as good as their word. All three have been bombed, although the [...]

Democracy in a confessional state

2013-04-30T05:08:15Z

By Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed There is no denying that the erstwhile modernist Pakistani leadership tried to make Pakistan both democratic and Islamic, but no constitutional formula could find the proper balance The May 11, 2013 general election is most likely to be held as planned. After nearly 66 years a milestone would be reached: an elected government will succeed another elected government with a brief interlude of a caretaker administration. The vetting process carried out by overzealous inquisitional examining officers has, mercifully, on instructions from their superiors, abated and the election commission has very wisely forbidden the invocation of religion and sect. No doubt, democracy is better served if an elected government completes its full term and another one succeeds it. Institutional theory assures us that if democratic practices and procedures are followed and repeated, the institutionalisation of democracy takes place. The more consistently it happens the more democracy deepens. However, democracy is not simply a set or cycle of procedures, it is also an idea, a value and a worldview. In Pakistan, the record of non-elected governments has on some counts been better in terms of democratisation of society. Field Marshal Ayub Khan had the guts to modernise Muslim [...]

Self-deceptive indoctrination

2013-04-30T05:10:38Z

By Mohammad Nafees How can a society indoctrinated for years on a self-righteous ideology be led to take an inquisitive look at itself? An irresolvable dilemma has gripped the country and its establishment Indoctrination leads a nation to progress or self-destruction, depending on the way it is inculcated in the minds of the people and how they follow it. Japan learnt this lesson after the meltdown of its nuclear power plant because of the tsunami that hit its territories on March 11, 2011. The indoctrination campaign unleashed in Japan after World War II had convinced the whole nation that their nuclear plants were absolutely safe. This absolute-safety concept was badly shattered when the nuclear meltdown began unfolding the safety lapses that disallowed them to reignite the generators that could cool down the rising temperature of the plant. Another interesting example of a self-deceptive indoctrination based on absolutism can be cited from an advice that the premier of the former USSR, Nikita Khrushchev had once offered to the visiting UN Secretary General Dag Hammerskjold by saying, “Don’t reject socialism. Don’t put your money on the dead horse of capitalism; put it on the good horse of socialism.” How seriously the UN [...]

No real winning for Pakistani politicians

2013-04-28T01:14:54Z

By Shamila N. Chaudhary The life of a Pakistani politician is fraught with life-threatening situations. In recent years, several high-profile politicians have been assassinated: former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007, and Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti in 2011. The dangerous trend has continued this month with the targeting of lower-profile candidates running for office in the upcoming May 11 parliamentary elections. In these instances, the Pakistani Taliban or religious extremists were the perpetrators, choosing their targets for either “un-Islamic” secular and progressive values or their perceived cooperation with the United States against Pakistani militants and in the war in Afghanistan. Beyond the tragic loss of life, the assassinations have the added casualty of limiting the space within which Pakistani leaders can safely operate. Taliban attacks have pressured willing and able voices against extremism into silence on issues-such as minority rights, girls’ education, and trade with India-that Pakistani society must publicly debate in order to fully embrace and institutionalize them. Those who remain vocal do so at great personal and professional risk: Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman faces charges in Pakistani courts for her support of revisions to the blasphemy law. In [...]

Veero Kolhi – a poor hindu woman is running for PA seat from Hyderabad

2013-04-17T11:37:35Z

By Matthew Green (Reuters) – When Veero Kolhi made the asset declaration required of candidates for Pakistan’s May elections, she listed the following items: two beds, five mattresses, cooking pots and a bank account with life savings of 2,800 rupees ($28). While she may lack the fortune that is the customary entry ticket to Pakistani politics, Kolhi can make a claim that may resonate more powerfully with poor voters than the wearily familiar promises of her rivals. For Kolhi embodies a new phenomenon on the campaign trail – she is the first contestant to have escaped the thrall of a feudal-style land owner who forced his workers to toil in conditions akin to modern-day slavery. “The landlords are sucking our blood,” Kolhi told Reuters at her one-room home of mud and bamboo on the outskirts of the southern city of Hyderabad. “Their managers behave like pimps – they take our daughters and give them to the landlords.” To her supporters, Kolhi’s stand embodies a wider hope that the elections – Pakistan’s first transition between elected civilian governments – will be a step towards a more progressive future for a country plagued by Islamic militancy, frequent political gridlock and the worsening [...]

UK Parliament’s Report on Afghanistan

2013-04-16T10:52:11Z

The following are the “Conclusions and recommendations” of the report on Afghanistan published by the United Kingdom’s parliamentary defence select committee on April 10, 2013 1. Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has suffered many years of conflict. Prime Minister Tony Blair promised ‘The conflict will not be the end, we will not walk away as the outside world has done so many times before.’ Throughout this inquiry into securing the future of Afghanistan, we have received starkly opposing evidence and narratives of future scenarios following the withdrawal of combat forces from those which are overly optimistic to those which see only gloom and doom. The fact is that the UK will have limited influence and, indeed, it is for the Afghan people themselves to determine for their future. The best the UK can do is to withdraw in good order and engage with external partners to improve the chances of Afghanistan going forward. In so doing the UK and its international partners must show the Afghan people that they will abide by their obligations to continue to support them in their efforts including in the area of women’s rights which, at the start of the conflict, the then [...]

Devil’s Game – How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam

2013-04-16T10:55:49Z

This book – Devils’ Game- by Robert Dreyfus is a must read for anyone who wants to have a better understanding of the Political Islam in the global context. Robert Dreyfuss is an investigative journalist whose work has appeared in The Nation, Rolling Stone, The Diplomat, Mother Jones, The American Prospect, and other progressive publications. He has appeared on scores of radio and television talk shows, including on Fox News, C-Span, CNBC, MSNBC, Court TV, and, on National Public Radio. In 2003, he was awarded Project Censored’s first prize for a story on the role of oil in U.S. policy toward Iraq. The attached is a PDF copy of the introduction to the book. The book can be ordered through amazon.com Click here to read the introduction to Devil-s-Game

What did Jinnah say? How relevant it is today?

2013-04-09T09:22:06Z

By Yousuf Nazar Recently during an exchange on Twitter, I was struck by the ignorance of some people who write for the opinion pages in local newspapers. One gentleman insisted that Jinnah never made any reference to Quran or Sunnah in relation to the system envisaged for Pakistan. This literalist (fundamentalist or Wahabi style) obsession whether he made a reference to “Quran” or “Shariah” surprised me. The crux of the matter is whether he stood for a secular state or an Islamic one. My firm opinion is one can pick and choose from Jinnah’s statements depending on one’s bias. It may be difficult for many to digest but the truth is Pakistan was born with many contradictions. It is almost a futile debate as to what Jinnah really wanted for two reasons. Jinnah was a brilliant lawyer and politician. Hence, his positions changed with time. Second, today only the people and only the people have the right to decide what do they want and how they want to be governed. Their collective will is the foundation of a state’s social contract which by no means is indestructible or designed to last till eternity. Mr. Jinnah made several speeches about independence, [...]

Challenges Post the 18th Amendment

2013-03-27T23:30:09Z

Published in DAWN By Yousuf Nazar The three political parties leading in the opinion polls have promised to dramatically increase spending on education to nearly double, or even slightly more, than the current level of around 2.1 per cent of the GDP. Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) claims to have a vision to transform Pakistan’s education system to be ‘among the world’s best’. The Pakistan Peoples Party promises to treat universal and quality education as a national emergency while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) makes a case for ‘one education system’ for all, which caters to every citizen and removes poverty as a barrier for children to realise their potential. These declarations are welcome notwithstanding Pakistan’s history of broken election promises and poor record of military and civil governments to treat education as a national priority. If implemented, expenditure on education may exceed defence spending. That would be nothing short of a revolution. That aside, there is a minor problem. After the passage of the 18th Constitutional Amendment in 2010, the ministry of education was abolished at the federal level. In fact, Pakistan became the only country in the world, besides Canada, without a federal education ministry because 17 ministries including that of [...]

The Three Es of Pakistan’s Political Economy

2013-04-16T11:19:03Z

Published in DAWN March 18, 2013 The large size of Pakistan’s ‘unofficial’ or ‘informal’ economy is sometimes cited as an indicator of the country’s resilience and its potential but it is also symptomatic of the debilitated structures of a state that has become so weak over time to the point where its very survival has become a moot point. If all goes well, Pakistanis will go to elections this May and elect a new government. The polls show the incumbent PPP government is likely to be defeated. If so, it may come down to who wins Punjab between Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). More than six years ago, writing for these pages about Musharraf-Benazir deal, I had noted, “Power sharing adjustments between military leaders and civilian politicians have taken place before but failed to bring either stability or prosperity to the country. This time, the stakes are even higher.” I find it difficult to be more optimistic than I was then. Here is why. In 2009, an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study concluded that half the workers of the world — close to 1.8 billion people — were working in informal economy, in jobs that were [...]

Balkanisation and Political Economy of Pakistan

2013-03-28T10:48:29Z

At the request of Mr. Yousuf Nazar, we are releasing his book (published in 2011) online. Click on the link Balkanisation and Political Economy of Pakistan Kindel Farrukh Siddiqui, Editor

Lt. General Shahid Aziz – a hypocrite and a liar

2013-03-27T23:31:27Z

By Zahid Hussain The recently-published memoirs of Lt. General (Retd) Shahid Aziz is more of an apology than an honest documentation of his life and time in the Army. At best, he comes across as a self-righteous retired general. The voluminous and somewhat elegiac memoirs, titled ‘Yeh Khamoshi Kaha Tak, Ek Spy Ki Dastan-e-Ishaq-o-Janoon,’ gives some insight into a twisted mindset of a man who was until recently a part of the highest echelon of the country’s national security establishment. His narrative brings out a deeply conflicted and hypocritical worldview, though not uncommon among many of our retired senior military officers. It is all about self-aggrandizement of his religiosity and uprightness that sounds a bit hollow, given the general’s past. His sympathy for the militants fighting the Army and who are found beheading Pakistani soldiers raises questions about his allegiance. The general opposes the military campaign against insurgents in the tribal areas. Yet there is no criticism of militants who orchestrate the violence and suicide bombings that have killed thousands of innocent Pakistanis. He attributes terrorist violence entirely to the US and Western conspiracy to destabilize Pakistan. The apologists of the Taliban often present such conspiracy theories, but this coming [...]

Foreign Policy Needs a New Vision in a Non-Polar World

2013-05-03T01:58:02Z

Published in the Express Tribune That militancy is the biggest near term threat Pakistan faces is obvious. What may not be obvious is that the roots of militancy go deeper than just Pakistan’s links with the Afghan Talibans or its support of various other militant groups. They can be traced to Pakistan’s foreign policy since 1947. The greatest challenge for Pakistan is to transform itself from a client national security state to a modern viable nation state. Pakistan cannot meet this challenge without making major changes in its foreign policy, the centre-piece of which would be a gradual shift in its focus from the West to the East. Although Pakistan must continue to expand ties with China, it should not think in terms of replacing the US with China as the largest source of aid. An eastward-looking policy would attach the highest priority to the normalisation of relations with India and secure peace on the western borders because the ‘peace dividend’ alone can unlock the full potential of the region which is home to about one–fifth of humanity. As the US prepares to withdraw from Afghanistan and reduce its involvement in the region in the backdrop of serious economic crisis, [...]

The Mainstreaming of the Afghan Taliban

2013-03-20T12:46:08Z

The Stratfor ( a private US intelligence service) just released this report under the above title which is quite meaningful. The first-ever publicized meetings between representatives of the Taliban and their nemesis, the former Northern Alliance, beginning Wednesday in Paris represent a major milestone in the efforts to shape a post-NATO Afghanistan. If there is to be a power-sharing agreement that can bring an end to the insurgency before the departure of Western forces in 2014, much more has to happen between now and then. The three-day dialogue between the two sides and Afghan government officials organized by a French think tank, however, is a significant development. The Taliban, a largely Pashtun force, came to power in 1996 after wresting control of Kabul from the Tajik-led coalition of minorities that came to be known as the Northern Alliance. Over the next several years, the Taliban continued to make advances against the alliance and captured most of northern Afghanistan. By the time the 9/11 attacks took place, the Taliban were trying to gain control of a tiny sliver of territory from the Northern Alliance near the Afghan-Tajikistani border. Two days prior to 9/11, the Northern Alliance’s illustrious leader, Ahmed Shah Massoud, [...]

A Review of Acemoglu and Robinson’s Why Nations Fail

2013-03-21T01:11:01Z

by David K. Levine (John H. Biggs Distinguished Professor of Economics, Washington University), Michele Boldrin, and Salvatore Modica Acemoglu and Robinson’s Why Nations Fail [2012] is a grand history in the style of Diamond [1997] or McNeil [1963]. Like those books, this book is exceptionally fun to read and full of interesting historical examples and provocative ideas. The basic theme of the book is that what matters most in why some nations fail – and others succeed, for the book is as much about success as failure – are not – as earlier authors have argued – economic policies, geography, culture, or value systems – but rather institutions, more precisely the political institutions that determine economic institutions. Acemoglu and Robinson theorize that political institutions can be divided into two kinds – “extractive” institutions in which a “small” group of individuals do their best to exploit – in the sense of Marx – the rest of the population, and “inclusive” institutions in which “many” people are included in the process of governing hence the exploitation process is either attenuated or absent. Needless to say Acemoglu and Robinson’s theory is more subtle than this simple summary. They argue that for any economic [...]

The endless war: Saudi Arabia goes on the offensive against Iran

2013-03-21T01:10:13Z

From Pravda , 29.08.2012 By Felix Imonti Saudi Arabia has gone on the offensive against Iran to protect its interests. Their involvement in Syria is the first battle in what is going to be a long bloody conflict that will know no frontiers or limits. Ongoing Disorders in the island kingdom of Bahrain since February of 2011 have set off alarm bells in Riyadh. The Saudis are convinced that Iran is directing the protests and fear that the problems will spill over the twenty-five kilometer long COSWAY into oil rich Al-Qatif, where The bulk of the two million Shia in the kingdom are concentrated. So far, the Saudis have not had to deal with demonstrations a serious as those in Bahrain, but success in the island kingdom could encourage the protestors to become more violent. Protecting the oil is the first concern of the government. Oil is the sole source of the national wealth and it is managed by the state owned Saudi Aramco Corporation. The monopoly of political power by the members of the Saud family means that all of the wealth of the kingdom is their personal property. Saudi Arabia is a company country with the twenty-eight million citizens [...]