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Posted on September 5, 2011 by Huma Yusuf
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PAKISTAN `irritates` Afghan President Hamid Karzai, says an official of his government quoted in . Fair enough.
In the midst of a decade-old war with no favourable outcome and mounting civilian casualties, an incorrigible neighbour with `safe havens` for militants is bound to feel like a major irritant. But that does not justify Kabul`s call for sanctions against Pakistan.
Indeed, there is something desperate about Afghan national security adviser Rangin Spanta`s recommendation that the US impose economic sanctions and deny Pakistani generals visas. Spanta`s call says more about the contradictions rife in the Afghan capital than the Pakistani state`s alleged policy to sponsor militancy. It also undermines recent overtures towards regional cooperation.
No doubt, the Afghans have the right to highlight Pakistan`s role in their country`s ongoing insurgency. Given the persistence of terrorist attacks within Pakistan it is clear that a double game is no longer tenable, and that Islamabad must crack down on militant safe havens within Pakistan`s borders.
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Posted on September 5, 2011 by Huma Yusuf
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Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi lashed out against the media for being over-critical of the government and its agencies in the context of flood relief, and warned that persistent negative coverage would weaken the world’s confidence in Pakistan. He should have reserved that castigation for the feudal landlords and political heavyweights of upper Sindh – their each-man-for-himself approach to the flooding could emerge as one of the most troubling outcomes of this natural disaster.
It is alleged that certain politically influential Sindhi landlords breached embankments in order to divert the floodwaters to Balochistan, thereby saving their holdings. The possibility that members of the ruling elite acted in a self-serving and shortsighted manner will certainly undermine the international community’s faith in the Pakistan government’s ability to manage this calamity. More importantly, a demonstrated tendency for acting in a politically expedient manner may be the greatest obstacle for recovery in the long term, particularly in terms of environmental rehabilitation.
It is therefore essential that the call for an independent inquiry into intentional diversions be heeded on an urgent basis. For the moment, attention is focused on the breach of the Torhi embankment, which led to a subsequent breach of the Jamali bypass in order to save Jacobabad from inundation. These actions purportedly aimed to protect the lands of a federal minister at the expense of dozens of outlying villages that could have otherwise escaped the wrath of the floods.
Any future inquiry should also identify the actors and motives behind breaches of the Khirthar and Saifullah Magsi canals, which led to flooding in the Baloch areas of Jaffarabad and Dera Allahyar. Accusations that members of the ruling government breached smaller embankments, such as Monarki and Surjani, in order to inundate the lands of their political rivals should also be investigated.
In each case of a suspect breach, it is essential to determine whether the action was politically motivated, the result of incompetence on the part of the irrigation authorities, or, as per some reports in the international press, the last-ditch attempt of desperate locals looking to save their homes and livestock. Answers to these questions are essential for holding the guilty accountable. But they are also necessary in order to plan for the future.
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Posted on September 5, 2011 by Huma Yusuf
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The Life’s Too Short Literary Review, the first edition of a magazine featuring new Pakistani writing, is now on the stands. The cover illustration depicts a parked ambulance on a typical Pakistani street – implying perhaps that this review is a saviour for the ongoing literary boom, which threatens to go bust in the absence of local publishing outlets. Indeed, editor Faiza Khan declares at the outset that the review is on a mission to encourage, promote, and discover new talent.
The inaugural edition is thus a collection of the best short stories submitted to the first Life’s Too Short short story prize, held last year and judged by Kamila Shamsie, Mohammed Hanif, and Daniyal Mueenuddin. Evolving from the competition, the review boasts brand new voices to the local literary landscape – and the strength of some of the entries bodes well for the future of English-language fiction in Pakistan.
Sadaf Halai’s ‘Lucky People’ – the winning entry – is the most engrossing story. It tells the simple tale of Asma, a housewife who rents the ground floor of her house to a young, westernized couple. As she shares her space, Asma begins to articulate her silent frustrations – with her husband, their home, and lifestyle – by way of comparison with her hip tenants. In a few pages, Halai touches on the poignancy and pitfalls of familiarity, class difference, and existential musings, making her contribution a compelling read.
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Posted on September 5, 2011 by Huma Yusuf
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The floodwaters in some parts are beginning to subside. As the Indus returns to the confine of its banks, pressing issues such as extremism, the energy crisis, and regional stability will start to creep back into the headlines. Moving on from this crisis, Islamabad will have to balance rehabilitation with the ripple effect the floods will have on matters as diverse as the economy, security, and foreign policy. Our government would do well to analyze the far-reaching consequences of the flooding, and plan accordingly. Without foresight and determination at this juncture, the country could struggle to stay afloat for decades to come.
Much has already been written about the economic impact of the floods and the dangers of over-reliance on international aid. It has also been documented that flood-affected communities deprived of their livelihoods and aided in their hour of need by different extremist organizations are now more vulnerable to radicalization. Another aspect to consider is the impact of the floods on energy and regional stability, particularly in the context of Pakistan-Iran relations.
One important initiative that may fall victim to the flooding is the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project. Islamabad had recently announced that it would generate domestic funding for the project in light of intensified US and UN sanctions against Iran’s energy sector that are bound to discourage international investors. In the wake of the ‘super flood,’ economic collapse in Pakistan seems imminent, and Islamabad is scrambling to cut or divert spending to facilitate flood relief. It is unlikely that a multi-billion dollar energy project can proceed in this climate.
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Posted on September 5, 2011 by Huma Yusuf
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The Pentagon counts Karachi among the “feral, failed cities” that are expected to be the battlefields of the 21st century. In these millennial war zones, fighting is instigated by poverty, urban squalor, degrading housing conditions, and unemployment. But the rhetoric of the battle cry is framed in terms of political rivalry, ethnic tensions, and sectarianism. As such, the multifaceted problems of ‘failed’ cities such as Karachi pose some of the greatest challenges of the contemporary era.
It is apt to describe Karachi as a battlefield in light of the recent escalation in ‘target killings’—there were over 300 politically or ethnically motivated deaths in the city this year, before the assassination of MQM MPA Raza Haider on August 2 sparked a killing spree that claimed 97 lives, and counting. This violence is a cause for national concern because, as politicians like to remind us, destabilizing Karachi is akin to destabilizing Pakistan. Seventy per cent of the income tax and 62 per cent of the sales tax collected by the government comes from Sindh, and of that, 94 per cent is generated in Karachi. When gunfire and arson attacks shut down the financial capital, the repercussions can be felt across the country.
It was not meant to be this way. In August 1947, the Dawn newspaper celebrated independence by lauding Karachi as a “city with a future” that is “supremely blessed by not having a long history.” Sixty-three years on, Karachi’s history has been marred by recurring waves of violence. In the 1980s, the violence was described as ethnically motivated. In the early 1990s, it was in turn political or sectarian. Now, the nebulous ‘third force’ of militancy is being held responsible for Karachi’s woes. But the underlying causes of strife in the city have been fairly consistent, and they begin with a gross failure in urban planning.
Since the 1950s, Karachi’s integrity as a city has been threatened by schismatic urban policy-making. The first master plan of 1952 called for the separation of the city and the Federal Captial Area. Though it was never implemented, that plan set a precedent for future master plans, which have all emphasized cleaving the city, rather than making it a coherent whole. As early as 1958, the Greater Karachi Resettlement Plan aimed at relocating Karachi’s migrant and working class population at a 25-kilometre distance from the city centre. This initiative transformed Karachi into an area of low-density sprawl, in which the corridors between the port, central business district, markets, and new satellite towns were soon crowded with squatter settlements.
This urban chaos is exacerbated by the fact that the city’s development falls to over 20 government institutions that vie for planning projects and operate independently of each other without guidance from a centralized metropolitan authority. The Karachi Strategic Development Plan 2020 acknowledges that this multiplicity of ownership has resulted in a “lack of a holistic and unified vision for the city,” “unplanned and haphazard growth,” poor crisis management, and environmental degradation. In the absence of top-down management of Karachi’s resources, it is no wonder that land mafias have emerged as the most powerful stakeholders in this city of 17 million, and are willing to resort to violence to retain control or their urban territories.
Of course, the need to control land and profit from rampant encroachment has a political dimension. Karachi’s slums are, in essence, teeming vote banks. Political parties are compelled to maintain ties with the ubiquitous land mafia for electoral – if not more sinister – reasons. And the ballots of slum dwellers are most easily secured with the promise of providing water, electricity, roads, and other infrastructure in areas that have been illegally, and thus poorly, developed. This explains the historic triangulation of Karachi’s violence between the ethnically defined MQM, ANP, and PPP parties.
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Posted on September 5, 2011 by Huma Yusuf
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“If you want to save Karachi, the face and index of Pakistan, then deweaponize it.” These wise words were uttered by Azam Swati, Minister for Science and Technology, in the Senate on Thursday as the Karachi killings continued unabated. But they are words we have heard before, from General Pervez Musharraf, in the wake of the May 2007 violence; from former interior minister Moinuddin Haider, during the deweaponization campaign of 2001; and countless times in between over the past decade.
The term ‘deweaponization’ has become a strong candidate for inclusion in the mantra of meaningless phrases uttered by our politicians in response to severe security lapses, along with ‘inquiry,’ ‘foreign element,’ and ‘destabilize.’ And yet, the only concrete government response to the recent killing spree – the issuance of shoot-on-sight orders – contradicts the goal of reducing small arms in the city, and instead aims to fight fire with fire.
The prime minister on Friday established a commission to investigate recent target killings and identify the perpetrators on all sides. In the past, such commissions have failed to deliver, and suspects are often acquitted by Anti-Terrorism Courts for lack of evidence. The commission could better serve the people of Karachi by brainstorming ways in which to make the dream of deweaponization a reality. Eliminating small arms is, ultimately, the only solution to Karachi’s persistent turmoil. Sadly, it is also one that requires the most strategic thinking, institutional commitment and capacity, and financial resources. In the chronic absence of these, Karachiites have little cause for optimism.
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Posted on September 5, 2011 by Huma Yusuf
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The murder of a politician on Monday sparked deadly riots in ‘s southern port city of in which 35 people were killed and at least 80 wounded.
The death of , a member of parliament and senior leader of the secular (MQM) party, is the latest and most high-profile in a series of political assassinations that have deepened ethnic tensions in Pakistan’s financial capital. Over 300 people have been assassinated for ethnic or political reasons in Karachi this year. But now, the government claims that militant groups are behind Haider’s assassination.
That may be the case, but Pakistani society is seeing a of both religious and ethnic polarization. There have been attacks by militants on in other parts of the country. And while retaliation has been limited so far, there were signs of further trouble in the overnight rioting. The MQM represents Karachi’s majority Urdu-speaking population and are rivals for political leadership and land ownership with minority Pashtuns who have migrated from northwestern Pakistan seeking employment.
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Posted on September 5, 2011 by Huma Yusuf
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As the Pakistani media has become more influential, government efforts to curtail it have become more creative. In early July, the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting proposed a new media code of conduct. The bill calls for a ban on graphic footage of terrorist attacks and forbids the media from airing the statements of violent extremists.
Although Farahnaz Ispahani, a spokesperson for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, has insisted that this bill respects media freedom, it includes a clause warning against broadcasting “anything defamatory against the organs of the State.” For this reason, the proposed bill has already been criticised as a new form of censorship.
This bill is a continuation of the state’s uneasy relationship with media, which has seen both new freedoms and new restrictions in the past decade. Flipping through Pakistani television channels today, a viewer will catch glimpses of diverse and often contradictory programming: feisty political talk shows, news coverage of brutal terrorist attacks, satirical, anti-government songs and cartoons, music videos, religious programming, footage of scantily clad models at fashion shows and sports.
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Posted on September 5, 2011 by Huma Yusuf
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Like most Ali Zafar fans, I hope that members of our Culture Ministry and Central Board of Film Censors spend the weekend remembering that Pakistanis have a highly developed sense of humour (consider, for instance, how they are ever-willing to laugh off the antics of our parliamentarians). If it is upheld, the government’s decision to ban screenings of ‘Tere bin Laden’ will be the latest in a series of terrible ideas pertaining to the Pakistani media landscape.
Censors have argued that the film could offend Muslims, make Osama bin Laden seem “ridiculous,” and stir the wrath of violent extremists. None of these estimations, however, are compelling enough to justify censorship. May I remind our authorities that it is not their place to decide what Pakistani audiences may find offensive, but that they are responsible for ensuring security at public venues such as cinemas?
Much has already been written about our government’s increased willingness to censor content on a flimsy pretext. In March, the Culture Ministry banned Ajoka Theatre’s satirical production, ‘Burqavaganza,’ on the basis that it “pollutes young minds”. In May, YouTube and Facebook were blocked for hosting ‘blasphemous’ and ‘offensive’ content. It is now July, and ‘Tere bin Laden’ seems fated to be next in the firing line.
It is clear that these bans constitute gross violations of Pakistanis’ freedom of expression. Seen in the broader context of the government’s recent announcement of a new code of conduct for the media, the bans begin to highlight a troubling trend: space for thoughtful, informed, and productive debates about extremism and terrorism in Pakistan is shrinking. While our government encourages dialogue canadian cialis pills terrorists at the proverbial negotiating table, it seems hell-bent on stifling any dialogue canadian cialis pills terrorists in the public sphere.
The fact is, productions such as ‘Tere bin Laden’ and ‘Burqavaganza’ can trigger conversations about extremist ideologies in apolitical, non-violent contexts. By discussing irreverent – and seemingly irrelevant – things like films and plays, Pakistanis can begin to safely interrogate the rhetoric of extremist groups. Such low-stakes debates can allow an increasingly right-leaning and terrorized population to critique extreme viewpoints and thrash out alternatives.
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Posted on September 5, 2011 by Huma Yusuf
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On the fifth anniversary this week of the July 7 terrorist attacks in London, a leading counter-terrorism official reiterated what many in the British government have been slow to realize. Speaking to the Guardian, Dr. Robert Lambert – who served as an officer with Scotland Yard’s special branch for 30 years, and was the head of a counter-terrorism squad called the Muslim Contact Unit – described Britain’s fight against terrorism as a ‘disaster’.
His complaint: “neo-conservative” anti-terror policies have targeted all Muslims who are devout or have grievances with foreign policy decisions in Iraq, Palestine, and Afghanistan, rather than terrorists alone. Dr. Lambert concludes that such policies have further alienated the British Muslim population and spurred recruitment by extremist organizations.
Almost as if on cue, news broke the same day of Abid Naseer’s arrest, on a US warrant, in northeast England. Naseer, a Pakistani national who was first arrested last year along with 11 other men in a botched counter-terrorist raid, is accused of planning attacks against British and American targets. The US Justice Department alleges that Naseer was involved in a failed plot to bomb the New York subway and was coordinating with Pakistan-based Al Qaeda leaders to carry out attacks in Manchester.
Naseer’s arrest, and its throwback to last year’s clumsily executed operation, is a reminder that Britain continues to struggle with the terrorist threat posed by disenfranchised, radicalized Muslim youth – and confirms Dr. Lambert’s view that developments in recent years have driven, not curtailed, the spread of extremism in Britain.
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