Nearpeer CSS Monthly Press Pack January 2020

Nearpeer CSS Monthly Press Pack January 2020

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Nearpeer CSS Monthly Press Pack April 2020

How to use this document?

T his document was compiled by the CSS wing of Nearpeer to help CSS aspirants by
providing them with all the important articles of last month from local as well as
international newspapers.

This will serve as an important guide in preparation as well as revision of not only current
affairs but many other compulsory and optional subjects such as Islamic Studies, Pakistan
Affairs, Sociology, Gender Studies, International Relations and Political Science.

This issue is designed to help the you in the following ways:

1- It will help you with catching up with all the happenings of the last month
2- It contains analyses of various issues of importance. Analyses is as important as knowing
the content of news
3- A diverse range of articles are selected from among local as well as international newspapers
and journals, so now you know you do not have to go through old archives of old newspapers
4- This will also serve as a quick revision guide for aspirants just before the exams
5- Candidates can use this issue in order to brush up their analytical as well as comprehension
skills
6- Additionally, they can also use it to improve their vocabulary and its usage

All the Best!

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Contents

NEW WAYS TO LEARN BY: NEDA MULJI (DAWN) ...................................................... 6

CLIMATE LOCKDOWN BY: SARA HAYAT (DAWN) ..................................................... 7
HOW TO AVOID COMPLETE ECONOMIC DESTRUCTION (THE NEW YORK TIMES
EDITORIAL) ........................................................................................................................ 8
IRAN’S CRISIS (DAWN EDITORIAL) ............................................................................. 11
SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITIES BY: WAQAR MASOOD KHAN (THE NEWS) .......... 12
GLOBAL VACCINE BY: ASIM SAJJAD AKHTAR (DAWN) ......................................... 14
SURVEILLANCE CULTURE BY: ANUM MALKANI (DAWN) ..................................... 15
AN UNEQUAL PARTNERSHIP BY: SULEMA JAHANGIR (DAWN) ............................ 17
POWER EMERGENCY (DAILY TIMES EDITORIAL) .................................................... 19
WELCOME TO INDIA’S RENT-A-DIPLOMAT KASHMIR TOURS, WHERE THE
TRUTH IS ON HOLIDAY BY: MIRZA WAHEED (THE GUARDIAN) .......................... 20
My son is one of Kashmir’s ‘disappeared’. When will India tell the truth about their
fate?................................................................................................................................ 21
ONE OF CHINA’S MOST AMBITIOUS PROJECTS BECOMES A CORRIDOR TO
NOWHERE (BLOOMBERG SPECIAL REPORT) ............................................................ 22
AN AFGHAN BARGAIN LIKELY TO FAIL BY: SUSAN E. RICE ( THE NEW YORK
TIMES)............................................................................................................................... 27
INTERNATIONALISATION OF CAA (DAILY TIMES EDITORIAL) ............................. 29
PAKISTAN’S DEMOCRACY: IS IT REAL OR A CHARADE? BY: SYED
SHAHABUDDIN (DAILY TIMES) ................................................................................... 30
CAN 50 YEARS OF MINIMIZING NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION CONTINUE? (THE
NEW YORK TIMES) ......................................................................................................... 33
ARE DATA MORE LIKE OIL OR SUNLIGHT? (SPECIAL REPORT BY THE
ECONOMIST) .................................................................................................................... 35
VIOLENCE IN INDIA THREATENS ITS GLOBAL AMBITIONS (THE NEW YORK
TIMES)............................................................................................................................... 38
WHOSE CULTURE? (DAWN EDITORIAL) ..................................................................... 41
PAKSITANI TALIBAN’S FUTURE BY: MUHAMMAD AMIR RANA (DAWN) ........... 42
44
What Has Pakistan Gained From the US-Taliban Peace Deal? BY: UMAIR JAMAL (THE
DIPLOMAT) ...................................................................................................................... 44
GSP PLUS EXTENSION (DAWN EDITORIAL) ............................................................... 46
ON UNPAID LABOUR BY: TOOBA SYED ..................................................................... 47
DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS OF PAKISTAN OVER INDIA BY: KINZA SHAHEEN (DAILY
TIMES)............................................................................................................................... 48

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AFGHANS WONDER: IS THE PEACE DEAL JUST FOR AMERICANS? (FOREIGN

POLICY) ............................................................................................................................ 51
PRODUCTION OR REAL ESTATE? BY: IFTIKHAR AHMED (THE NEWS) ................ 53
NAB POWERS (THE NEWS) ............................................................................................ 54
NEW PROVINCE PLAN (DAWN EDITORIAL) ............................................................... 55
THE ANTI-TERROR FIGHT BY: TARIQ KHOSA ........................................................... 56
YUVAL NOAH HARARI: THE WORLD AFTER CORONAVIRUS (FINANCIAL TIMES)
........................................................................................................................................... 58
PREVENTING ABUSE BY: Akhlaq Ullah Tarar (DAWN) ................................................ 63

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NEW WAYS TO LEARN
BY: NEDA MULJI (DAWN)
T he coronavirus threat has thrown our
education system into disarray. We
live in a part of the world where
emergencies are not unprecedented, and we
are resilient enough to bounce back with
multiple solutions. However, it is a little
different this time, as it tests the capability of
our education system to deliver what it is
meant to.
Schools now have to find a way to teach
children while they are away from the
classroom, and keep up the expected pace
and level of learning. For us, this is a timely
reminder to rise up to the technological
demands — schools that have missed the
digital boat are finding themselves in the
throes of a tough challenge as they struggle
to devise new ways of delivering content.
Several methods are being used, from
Google Classroom to WhatsApp and
Facebook groups. There seems to be a
scramble to be useful and innovative. As they
say, ‘necessity is the mother of invention’.
Most schools that have kept blended learning
to a minimum, having resisted digital
learning tools due to large investments of
time, money and effort, now find themselves
scrambling to get onto the technological
bandwagon.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Rapid and unprecedented changes in this day
and age may actually propel us to learn
afresh, and perhaps recognise that learning
entails much more than a face-to-face
teacher-led model of instruction restricted to
classrooms. In this digital age, physical
spaces do not mean as much as they did
before — most experiences require a blend
of face-to-face and digital interaction and
this is true of teaching and learning as well.
While the coronavirus threat is raging
globally, it is also testing our ability to rise
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above our digital challenges and deliver the
education that our children deserve and the
standards that their parents expect. Whilst we
may not have the bandwidth and the outreach
that other, more advanced economies might,
we do have the tools and the willingness to
learn.
Some schools have made a huge effort to
reach out to students and parents who have
limited digital means — those who have not
been able to use Google Classrooms or
Moodle, have been provided with alternative
platforms such as closed Facebook groups.
Learning and education continually demand
reflection on and upgradation of skill sets,
just like any other profession. The current
school closure might be a great time for
teachers to reflect on ways they can use this
unprecedented experience to bring in newer
methods of designing content and reaching
out to students. This may be a good time to
hand over the reins of learning and devise
student-led approaches that rely on the
teachers’ guidance rather than instructional
control.
This is also a good time for ambitious
educators to use the immersive digital
experience to leave their own footprint in the
field — using online tools to encourage
learning through gamification, real-time
assessments and a record of progress. This
new wave of makeshift digital usage may
actually propel us to embed the resources in
our daily teaching once schools resume face-
to-face teaching.
Students may find themselves in greater
control, having learnt new ways of tapping
into content and producing work in digital
spaces. Some of them may discover intrinsic
motivation as they sit with their books
following online instructions, and not
actually going through the handholding that
goes on in class, where they are told exactly
what to do at each step of the learning
process.
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In these times of emergency, innovation and
discovery, much frustration abounds. Parents
lament that they have had to involve
themselves unduly in their child’s learning
and step in where teachers are now absent;
schools have had to produce content digitally
very quickly, and having to jump the
planning and synthesising process where
ideas culminate into action after some
deliberation and testing.
The coronavirus has left us with no testing or
experimentation time, resulting in fights
between parents and staff on these digital
forums. We also demonstrate in times of
crisis that we are resilient and impatient.
When we face glitches or come face to face
with our inability to crack something new,
we like to first point fingers, kick and
scream, before we eventually settle down
and accept the new reality.
As Charles Dickens put it in a Tale of Two
Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times”. Whilst we gear all our
efforts to keep our children and ourselves
safe from the overarching virus threat,
we discover so much about ourselves and our
ability to reflect, improvise, innovate and
survive. While there is obvious despair at
how we lag behind technologically, there is
hope in our ability to rise above the
challenge.
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CLIMATE LOCKDOWN
BY: SARA HAYAT (DAWN)
S
ome have forcefully attached a silver
lining to the coronavirus epidemic.
With human activity on a lockdown,
the planet is healing, they say.
There is no evidence to label the pressing
global crisis as ‘nature’s revenge’: the idea
that humans have brought Mother Earth to a
tipping point, and she is now fighting back.
Apart from knowing that the pandemic has
its epicentre in China, we cannot really
assume whether or not it is part of nature’s
‘cleansing’ ritual.
What we do have complete certainty on is
that humans are primarily responsible for
global greenhouse gas emissions, and that
this in turn causes global warming. As
provinces, states and entire nations are
forced into lockdown, greenhouse gas
emissions have fallen because schools are
closed, many distracting avenues such as
malls and restaurants are shut, factories have
been bolted, international and national sports
and entertainment events have been
postponed, and travel has been curtailed.
According to climate campaigners, global air
traffic decreased by 4.3 per cent in February.
Controlling the spread of Covid-19 in China
forcefully reduced emissions by 15pc to
40pc across key industrial sectors. The
Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air
has said that the reduction in emissions is
equivalent to 200 million tons of carbon
dioxide, which is more than half of what the
UK emits in an entire year, or what
Argentina, Egypt and Vietnam emit in one
year.
Air pollution is estimated to annually kill
over seven million people globally through
exposure to fine particulate matter, which is
highly dangerous for our lungs. China’s
ministry of ecology and environment
announced that the number of ‘good quality
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air days’ in Hubei province increased by
21.5pc in February, compared to last year.
Temporarily improved air quality over two
months in China can prevent between 50,000
to 75,000 premature deaths, as per Prof
Marshall Burke at Stanford University. So
far, Covid-19 has taken the lives of up to
3,255 people in China. The aim here is not to
undermine human fatalities due to the virus,
but to highlight how deadly a killer air
pollution is.
Other environmentalists have reported that
fine particulate matter has decreased by 40pc
in San Francisco, 28pc in New York, and
32pc in Seattle, compared to last year.
Meanwhile, researchers at Columbia
University say that carbon monoxide,
another greenhouse gas mostly emitted from
cars, has reduced by nearly 50pc in New
York as traffic is down by an estimated 35pc.
According to the European Space Agency’s
Sentinel-5P satellite, which measures
concentrations of greenhouse gases and other
pollutants, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels fell
drastically in northern Italy in recent days. A
potent greenhouse gas that affects the
respiratory system, NO2 is emitted primarily
from vehicles, diesel-powered construction
equipment, and power plants. High levels of
NO2 can be extremely dangerous for those
impacted by a virus which cripples the
respiratory system.
All these changes are temporary, and in light
of the pandemic, cannot even be termed good
news. They will most likely jump back as
countries race to recover once the immediate
threat dissipates. As environmentalist Bill
McKibben writes: “No environmentalist
should welcome a crisis, but they can learn
from it...”
The epidemic has drained stock markets and
is threatening to plummet nations into
economic recession. Bloomberg Economics
estimates it could cost the global economy up
to $2.7 trillion in lost output. An epidemic
enforced greenhouse gas emission reduction
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framework is temporary and not sustainable.
The promised recovery stimulus packages
suggest that as soon as the epidemic is under
control, an upsurge of carbon-intensive
projects to boost economies will incite
‘retaliatory pollution’. With competing
concerns such as debt, joblessness and
recession, emission reduction will be
brushed to the curb.
It is imperative that climate change be
considered a deadly threat to the human race,
expected to kill millions of people as it acts
as a poverty multiplier, induces involuntary
migration, exacerbates extreme weather
events, spreads diseases, and threatens food
security. We need a strict and sustained
transition to a carbon-neutral economy, not
short-term reductions in emissions, if we
wish to achieve the 1.5°C temperature goal
under the Paris Agreement. Governments
should remember green measures they can
take, such as tying emission reduction
actions to the bailout of airlines, or even
encouraging large companies to let some of
their employees work from home.
It is unfortunate that it has taken a pandemic
to make us realise that governments,
companies and societies can function
differently, and what these lifestyle changes
can mean for the planet and human health.
Once the epidemic is under control, we must
remember these clearer skies, and embrace
sustainable and eco-friendly practices.
HOW TO AVOID COMPLETE
ECONOMIC DESTRUCTION
(THE NEW YORK TIMES
EDITORIAL)
T he federal government has a chance to
save millions of Americans from
unemployment as the coronavirus
spreads, but policymakers must act
decisively.
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Employers, facing a revenue drought, are
laying off workers at a record pace.
Preliminary data indicates that more people
filed for unemployment benefits last week
than in any previous week in the nation’s
history, shattering a record set back in 1982.
The mass layoffs are depriving families of
income and, what is perhaps more important
in the middle of a pandemic, leaving many
without health insurance, too.
The necessary solution is a grand bargain:
The federal government provides the money
that companies are unable to earn, and
companies use the money to keep workers on
the payroll.
Time is of the essence. A unique feature of
the current recession is that the government
is determining the depth of the economic
damage in real time, through its actions and
inaction. To stanch job losses, policymakers
need to announce that help is on the way, and
that it will be retroactive to the beginning of
March. Then they need to deliver that help as
fast as possible.
Businesses already facing a steep drop in
revenue have been placed in an induced
coma by federal, state and local restrictions.
In a Goldman Sachs national survey of small
business owners, more than half said that
under current conditions, they would be
forced out of business in less than three
months. The only practical way to limit mass
unemployment, and to preserve previously
viable companies, is for the government to
pump money into the private sector.
The purpose of saving businesses is both to
preserve the productive capacity of the
economy and the welfare of workers. If all
the nation’s restaurants were to disappear,
new restaurants eventually would emerge in
many of the same spaces. But there is no
reason to incur the incalculable cost of
destroying the old businesses and creating
new ones. Far better to maintain, as much as
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possible, the fabric of the economy as it
existed before the crisis.
Congressional Republicans on Friday
proposed a bailout program that contains
many of the necessary elements, but it lacks
the necessary scale. It would provide $300
billion in funding for businesses with 500 or
fewer employees. Each company could
borrow up to $10 million, and any money
used to pay wages would not need to be
repaid, provided the company maintained
staffing and wages until the end of June. That
sum, however, is only sufficient to cover four
months of wages, at the median wage, for 20
million workers — or less than one third of
the workers employed by small companies.
And businesses also need to pay for benefits,
not to mention other expenses, like rent.
Michael Strain of the American Enterprise
Institute estimates that the amount small
businesses actually need is around $1.2
trillion.
The Senate should embrace an alternative
proposal by Senator Tammy Baldwin,
Democrat of Wisconsin, to forgive up to $10
million in borrowing no matter how the
money is used, so long as a company doesn’t
cut back on staff or wages. Better yet,
Congress should emulate the United
Kingdom, which said Friday that it would
provide companies with as much money as
was necessary to meet their payrolls and
preserve jobs. “There’s no limit on the
funding available for the scheme,” said Rishi
Sunak, chancellor of the Exchequer.
Under the Republican plan, the bailout
program would be managed by the Small
Business Administration and the loans would
be made by commercial banks. But the
S.B.A. is itself small, and banks are not
staffed to handle an emergency program. The
federal government’s reliance on banks to
modify mortgage loans during the last
financial crisis ended in disaster. In recent
weeks, the banking industry’s struggles to
handle a modest increase in mortgage
refinancing applications has offered a timely
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reminder of its limitations. The Federal
Reserve is better equipped to manage the
process than the S.B.A., but it’s unlikely to
be much faster. It has the legal authority to
create a lending program, and it could create
the money, too. But it would also need to
create a new bureaucracy, or else rely on the
banks.
Notwithstanding the urgency of action, it is
important to draw a distinction between
small companies, which are inherently
vulnerable to major disruptions, and larger
businesses whose vulnerability is partly a
product of poor choices, notably the vast
sums companies wasted in recent years
buying back shares of their own stock to
enrich their shareholders.
Boeing, for example, is seeking a $60 billion
bailout — which, as it happens, is almost
exactly the amount of money the company
has distributed to its shareholders since 2013,
in the form of $17.4 billion in dividend
payments and $43.1 billion spent
repurchasing its own shares.
The major airlines spent 96 percent of free
cash over the last decade buying back their
own stock to drive up share prices, living in
the moment with little regard to the future.
Among the beneficiaries? Airline executives,
who sold about $1.6 billion in shares during
that period.
Executives in the air travel business, which
includes Boeing, should have been ready for
a rainy day even if they could not reasonably
have been expected to anticipate the
particulars of the coronavirus crisis. This is,
after all, the third time in 20 years that the
industry has faced a debilitating surprise.
Accordingly, the responsible course for the
government is not just to provide another
bailout, but to require changes in behavior.
The Fed already is backstopping short-term
corporate borrowing, and it may need to
provide similar backing for long-term
corporate debt. The Republican plan would
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provide for an additional $208 billion in loan
guarantees — including $58 billion for
passenger and cargo airlines — for
companies unable to tap capital markets even
with the Fed’s assistance.
Businesses would pay interest, and the
legislation allows the Treasury to take an
equity stake in the companies it saves, so
taxpayers benefit from the recovery. It also
imposes temporary limits on executive
compensation. But that’s not good enough.
Big companies, too, must maintain payrolls
and wages. And they must eschew stock
buybacks.
Any bailout plan will come too late to avoid
a large increase in unemployment. The
federal government’s failure to prepare for
the arrival of the coronavirus, particularly the
lack of large-scale testing, has forced
policymakers to shut down many kinds of
commercial activity. California and New
York have ordered most workers to stay
home.
A proposal to send $2,000 to every American
would help, but the government needs to do
more for those who lose jobs by expanding
unemployment benefits. In most states, the
benefits cover about 45 percent of lost wages
for low-income workers, and a lot of workers
don’t qualify. Congress can get help to those
who need it most by requiring states to raise
the minimum benefit and to expand
eligibility, both at federal expense. The
government also should offer partial
unemployment benefits: Companies could
shift some workers to part-time
arrangements, and the government could
supplement their salaries.
There is no need to choose among the various
kinds of aid that Congress is considering. The
abrupt plunge in the nation’s economic
fortunes has no obvious precedents; it
requires a massive response. Send checks to
every American. Lend money to every
business. Strengthen the social safety net.
The risk of doing too much is greatly
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outweighed in this moment by the described as cruel and inhuman in such

consequences of failing to do enough. times of global crisis.

The correct answer right now is D) All of the The US, for example, has refused to ease
Above. sanctions on Iran despite the fact that the
Islamic Republic is amongst the
countries hardest hit by the virus.

“Our policy of maximum pressure on the

regime continues,” Brian Hook,
Washington’s point man for Iranian
affairs, has said.

Even in normal circumstances it could be

argued that American sanctions against
Iran are wrong and unjustified.

But as Tehran grapples with a severe

health crisis, there is absolutely no
justification for the US to bully others in
order to prevent help getting to Iranians.

There has been valid criticism, even from

IRAN’S CRISIS within the Iranian establishment, that the
(DAWN EDITORIAL) authorities were not being transparent
about the number of infections and
deaths.

C
OVID-19 is pushing the
healthcare systems of even some
Indeed, if the government had been more
of the world’s most developed
open about the situation it may have been
states to the edge, with governments and
easier to deal with it when Covid-19 first
medical professionals battling to prevent
emerged.
infections from rising every day.
However, for now this is an academic
Meanwhile, the threat to less-developed
discussion; Iran needs urgent measures to
states is even greater, as dilapidated
combat the virus.
health systems in these countries means
that unless stringent measures are taken,
a disaster is likely. There have been some 1,500 deaths in the
country, while the Iranian health ministry
has said 50 people are being infected
Considering the situation, all states
every hour.
should be expected to put aside petty
differences and combine forces against
Keeping this alarming situation in mind,
the coronavirus — a foe that knows no
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood
borders.
Qureshi has urged world leaders to “show
utmost compassion” and lift the sanctions
However, it is clear that some in the
against Iran.
international community are bent upon
enforcing measures that can only be

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Also China, where the outbreak started,
has called for Iran to be given sanctions
relief for humanitarian reasons.
America’s differences with Iran are
geopolitical and ideological and go back
decades.
However, at this time nations must move
beyond such narrow considerations and
think purely along humanitarian lines.
The dire situation in Iran demands that
the world community work together to
fight the contagion and let essential
supplies into the country to save lives.
Politics can wait for another day.
SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITIES
BY: WAQAR MASOOD KHAN
(THE NEWS)
T he global turmoil triggered by the
Covid-19 pandemic has brought a
mixed bag of opportunities and
dangers. The massive fall in oil prices has
the potential to solve many of the
problems affecting the lives of common
men.
It can also help ease the burdens
associated with the IMF programme. But
the turmoil in the PSX and exchange rate
market have posed dangers that until
recently were believed to be behind us.
In this article, we first assess the likely
outcomes being unfolded and their
impact on key economic variables.
Second, we suggest some measures that
would be helpful in facing the emerging
challenges.
The declining oil prices will have an all-
encompassing effect in the economy.
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April 2020
The import bill would be nearly halved.
In the first seven months of the fiscal year
(Jul-Jan), the oil and gas import bill
amounted to $7.1 billion. At the current
prices, it is projected at $9.5 billion
compared to $14.4 last year, giving
savings of about $5.0 billion. This saving
would create liquidity in the inter-bank
market which, unless absorbed by the
central bank, would tend to appreciate the
rupee. The central bank should continue
to sweep such money as it did recently in
the face of a general reduction in the
demand for imports.
The lower oil prices would enable lower
prices for consumers. This is the greatest
stimulus that the government can help
unleash which would lead to improved
public welfare as their incomes would
rise and, consequently, spending too. The
prices would decline in general in the
secondary reaction to lower oil prices and
thus reduce inflation.
Reduced inflation would allow a much-
needed cut in the policy rate which in turn
would stimulate the demand for
investment and contribute to reduced cost
of production for existing businesses.
Need for utilities prices adjustment
would be lessened and can be deferred
for future recuperation and off-setting.
Let’s examine the dangers that lurk on
the horizon. First, the global slump will
affect our terms of trade for exports
adversely. Both price and quantity effects
would be adverse. Second, the main
suppliers of inputs for our exports
(China, for example) are facing export
disruptions of their own and thus affect
negatively supply of exports.
Third, there will be an exit of some of the
foreign capital we had encouraged in
government securities. The lower return
after decrease in the interest rate as well
as uncertainty about the evolving
situation would contribute to this exit.
Fourth, and perhaps most importantly,
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the response to the coronavirus will have
an internal dampening effect as schools
and universities shut down, travel
restrictions come into effect, and
businesses scale back their operations to
enable their employees to take the
mitigating measures to deal with the
virus. Finally, the dampened economy
will further slump the growth in FBR
revenues. This would pose a challenge to
meet the fiscal targets under the IMF
programme.
We believe that, on balance, these
changes can work in our favour if we
carefully craft a policy that would take
advantage of opportunities and ward-off
dangers. We give a road map.
First, and foremost, the government
should make arrangements to pass on the
reduced prices to consumers as early as
possible. To this effect, the government
should not wait until the next cycle of
price setting on April 1. This a
discretionary cycle that can be set for any
length of time. The new price can be
announced in a few days to trigger the
new scenario of increased consumer
spending. While setting the price, the
government would be justified in
ensuring revenue neutrality by adjusting
the rate of GST to off-set potential loss
due to lower prices.
Second, the SBP response of cutting the
rate by 75 bps has not inspired market
confidence. It would be imperative that
another MPC is called to reevaluate the
ground realities and adopt an interest rate
policy that is consistent with market
expectations. Clearly, the possibility of
an earlier meeting is mentioned in the
monetary policy statement and
governor’s video message. The bigger
rate cut is needed to punctuate the
message that would be conveyed by the
passage of reduced petroleum prices,
which is also getting late.
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Understandably, the central bank would
be concerned about the effect of a lower
interest rate on exchange rate, foreign
short-term capital and level of reserves.
We believe the interest rate cut, in the
backdrop of global turmoil, would have a
net positive effect on the economy after
all these factors are taken into account.
The exchange rate instability was a result
of stock market melt-down as those
exiting the stock market found shelter in
the dollar. However, a well justified
intervention by the SBP in the
penultimate hours on Friday restored
order in the market.
The exit of foreign capital could well
have basis in the global disruptions. The
Bank should not be hostage to the so-
called ‘hot-money’. As we noted earlier,
the import bill would be halved and
plenty of liquidity would be available in
the market to make up any amount of exit
of hot-money. In fact, as soon as some
sanity returns to the international capital
market, the government should access
the market and float Euro Bonds and
Sukuks to raise $3-5 billion so that the
vulnerability with the short-term money
can be removed.
Third, the government has already taken
some good measures to support exports
and more can be taken in response to the
results from these measures.
Fourth, to ward-off the slow-down in
economic activities, the government
should make good use of the IMF new
window as well as relief given on fiscal
targets by not counting expenditures on
fighting the coronavirus. The
government should use the Ehsaas
programme to reach out to the poorest
people and give them the requisite
support needed to survive this adversity.
The prime minister’s speech did not
cover the economic agenda to fight the
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virus, which all other governments have
given priority. His response has to start
with the passage of low petroleum prices
to the consumers which would be a real
shot in the arm to rejuvenate the
economy. If this opportunity is missed,
the melt-down seen in the stock market
would spread in other parts of the
economy. The time to act is now.
GLOBAL VACCINE
BY: ASIM SAJJAD AKHTAR
(DAWN)
T HE novel coronavirus spreading
rapidly through the world
represents an utterly historic
moment. If the immediate task is to do all
possible to ‘flatten the curve’, longer-
term questions about the shape of the
global political economy are equally
important to think through.
Perhaps the most likely scenario is that
18 months down the line — when a mass
vaccine is expected to be available
globally — we will resume business as
usual (pun intended). Slowly but surely,
MNCs and most nation states that preside
over the capitalist world system will
stealthily nurse us all back through a
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April 2020
standard dose of ‘post-disaster
reconstruction’.
Recent history suggests that this is
possible; it was barely over a decade ago
that the global financial crisis (GFC)
exposed the brittle, crisis-ridden and
polarising edifices of economic, political
and cultural power that structure our
lives. Marx was read widely again, the
Occupy Wall Street and Arab Spring
movements captured the imagination of a
new generation of young people, and the
term ‘crony capitalism’ was
mainstreamed. And at the end of it all we
got Trump, Boris Johnson, Narendra
Modi, Sisi, Imran Khan and others whose
leadership — or lack thereof — has been
exposed, once and for all, over the past
few weeks.
But COVID-19 can prove to be a very
different shot in our collective arm.
Historians use the term ‘contingency’ to
refer to the outcomes in social life
triggered by unpredictable events that
end up shaping the future in profound
ways. As we speak, people in Pakistan
and the rest of the world are breaking out
of their alienated shells to do whatever
they can to stem the virus, offsetting
ruling establishments without the ability
or willingness to respond to a burgeoning
human catastrophe.
Scientists tell us that COVID-19 is a
once-in-a-century epidemic, comparable
to the Spanish flu of 1918-20, which
claimed more than 50 million lives
worldwide. Today, we have both the
technology and means for collective
action for all the world’s people to be
healthy, educated, and live with dignity.
Here is why more of us need to come
forward to make this the contingent
outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic.
First, Western powers that have ruled the
world for so long now find themselves at
the whims of a globalised system, the
inherent crisis tendencies of which
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cannot be confined to ex-colonies and
other peripheral regions. The relentless
search for profit across borders explains
the origins of the virus — industrial
agriculture — along with its spread
across the world. Powerful interests in
China and beyond knew of COVID-19 in
December, but the logic of profit-making
trumped precautionary measures.
That the rich and powerful are calling this
a global crisis betrays the everyday crises
experienced by the poor, oppressed
ethnic/racial communities, women and
religious minorities in countries like
ours. They navigate unaccountable states
and brazen class privilege, let alone
successive imperialist wars, perpetual
state/non-state terror, and ecological
breakdown. Capitalism as it plays out
beyond the glam and glitter of shopping
malls, gated housing communities and
the fetish of commodities is a crisis, a
scandal, a blot on our collective
conscience. Indeed, in the event that the
virus spreads in the slums, markets and
farms of South Asia and Africa, the
wretched of the earth will again carry the
heaviest burden.
Second, even if this mass pandemic does
not do as much damage as is feared, it is
apparent that corporate agricultural and
industrial practices along with a reckless
financial sector will generate more
existential moments whether pandemics,
or fallouts, caused by global
warming/climate change.
Third, the US, UK and other
governments bailing out big business
confirms that the ‘free market’ is a sham.
Spain has nationalised private hospitals,
France waived utility bills and Europe is
in the throes of an unprecedented push
for indiscriminate basic income schemes
to get working people through impending
economic recession. The fact that public
health infrastructures in rich countries
like the US, UK and Italy are buckling
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April 2020
demolishes whatever claim to legitimacy
neoliberalism had left.
The survival of the fittest mentality that
dominates the world must give way to an
organised politics to transform ourselves
and the planet. For Pakistanis, March 23
represents an opportune moment for us to
think through hegemonic notions of
‘national security’ which explain why
our public health infrastructures are so
poor, why atom bombs cannot help us
now, and how we must move beyond the
rentier logics that guide our
establishment and its puppets.
On the one hand is the divide and rule of
capitalism encapsulated in smears like
‘Chinese’ virus and officialdom in Quetta
stigmatising the Hazara community. On
the other are the politically conscious
people now charged with discovering a
truly global vaccine to the structural virus
that is eating us alive.
SURVEILLANCE CULTURE
BY: ANUM MALKANI (DAWN)
T HE Ministry of Information
Technology
Telecommunication
published a deeply
and
has
misguided
notification announcing new rules to
‘protect’ citizens against ‘online harm’.
The rules are an egregious violation of
fundamental human rights, including
freedom of speech and the right to the
internet. For a government that has made
much show of its digital mindset and
cashed in on highly publicised initiatives
for a ‘Digital Pakistan’, this move is in
direct violation of all it claims to stand
for.
Considering how backward the country
otherwise is vis-à-vis the fourth industrial
revolution, Pakistan has been remarkably
adept at harnessing digital technologies
for surveillance and psychological
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warfare. In previous op-eds, I have
discussed the systematic use of human
and bot-run accounts on social media for
surveillance and harassment, as well as
the exploitation — often by the state —
of data footprints users leave online.
The citizen ‘protection’ rules are the most
recent in a long chain of events that
illustrate how the state is expanding its
surveillance apparatus. The inception of
Pakistan’s e-surveillance programme can
be traced back to the evolution of Nadra
into a national registry and centralised
database of all citizens.
Under the pretence of promoting security
and access to services, Nadra has
relentlessly crept deeper into our lives.
The CNIC number is now linked to
nearly everything we do, from banking
services and purchasing activity, to SIM
cards and travel, providing the state a
holistic view of our lives.
The launch of the FBR-Nadra portal last
year was a reminder that the state has no
qualms in using the data it has collected
as an intimidation tactic. To log into the
portal, I first had to pay an application fee
to access my own data. In addition to
several other data points, the portal
displays an account of my travel history
and mobile phone billing history. My
profile also states that “additional
information is being collected”. There is
no guidance on what this information is,
why it must be collected, and how I can
control my data.
This data has been collected without our
informed consent. ‘Informed’ is the
operative word as, even when we agree to
share our data, there is no way of
knowing who it will eventually be shared
with and what use it will be put to.
Moreover, the word ‘consent’ loses its
meaning where noncompliance means
exclusion from critical services. The
portal is a failure as a solution to
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April 2020
Pakistan’s tax collection problems. Its
only achievement so far is as a shock-
and-awe tactic instilling fear in a
citizenry that has no right to privacy.
The Safe Cities project is an extension of
this massive surveillance infrastructure.
The Nadra website boasts the installation
of “intelligent video surveillance”
through which “the population and their
activities are monitored”. The Safe Cities
video footage integrates with Nadra’s
database, allowing for facial recognition.
The HEC is now implementing a version
of this on campuses all over the country,
through the Smart and Safe Campus
projects.
The use of biometrics is also expanding,
with fingerprints collection and facial
and iris recognition technologies. In
addition to their use by Nadra, financial
inclusion and social protection
programmes including BISP make use of
biometrics for verification of
beneficiaries. While there is a case to be
made for the use of identification
technologies to enable citizens to access
social services, this must go hand in hand
with strong legal frameworks for data
protection and privacy.
The recent case of BISP fraud and the
removal of “undeserving beneficiaries”
from the database will serve as yet
another justification for collecting more
and more data. Citizens will continue to
be treated with suspicion and reduced to
data points, as they give up their right to
privacy in attempts to prove their
innocence and worthiness to avail basic
rights.
For the vulnerable and poor who may
have more immediate needs, many
believe that privacy is not a concern; it is
thought to be a ‘first world problem’.
Research conducted by CGAP in India
and Kenya has shown that the poor are
particularly vulnerable to “lax data
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policies” and, contrary to popular belief, the people of Pakistan rather than be used
value their privacy and are willing to pay as a weapon against them.
a premium to preserve it.

The citizen protection rules also show

that the government is continuing on the
misguided path of data localisation —
demanding that social media companies
store Pakistani users’ data in servers
located in-country. Considering
Pakistan’s track record with data
protection and cybersecurity, this is
alarming. In addition to surveillance and
misuse of data by the state, reported data
breaches such as the NSA accessing
Nadra records are enough to believe that
Pakistani authorities cannot be trusted
with our data.

Data protection and privacy laws must be

a cornerstone of the Digital Pakistan AN UNEQUAL PARTNERSHIP
policy. Without a strong regulatory BY: SULEMA JAHANGIR
framework and legal protection,
Pakistan’s citizens are, at best, excluded (DAWN)
from the benefits of the internet and, at
worst, at serious risk of violation of their
fundamental rights.

The Digital Pakistan initiative, launched

by Prime Minister Imran Khan amidst
much pomp and show, recognises the
internet as “a fundamental right” and
promises “to ensure every Pakistani has
access to the internet”. However, moves
such as the citizen protection rules make
the initiative appear as a publicity
campaign rather than a genuine attempt
to harness the democratising power of the
internet for the good of the Pakistani
people.
The protagonist of the Digital Pakistan
initiative, Ms Tania Aidrus, with her
experience at leading technology
institutions, should be advising IT
policymakers against such misguided
policy changes. It is hoped she will help
develop a more strategic and meaningful
vision of how digitisation can empower
R ECENTLY, our prime minister
attracted wide criticism for
blaming the rising divorce rate on
the influence of foreign media. Pakistanis
usually pride themselves on their
traditional family values and the respect
they have for the sanctity of marriage.
Yet Pakistan is one of the easiest
countries in which to obtain a divorce,
especially for men. Breaking up a
marriage has minimal consequences as
there is no concept of joint or marital
ownership or income; maintenance
awarded to children is usually paltry and
a wife, even after a lifetime of service to
her family, has no right to claim a share
in the assets or income of her husband.
The clergy in Pakistan has had a big
influence on the formulation of laws
governing marital relationships. The
Rashid Commission that was set up to
formulate Pakistan’s family laws merely
recommended that a talaq should be
registered but even this was unpalatable!

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Maulana Thanvi, representing the clergy,
stated that the registration of divorce or
any intervention of the courts was
“ridiculous and repugnant to Sharia”. He
reasoned that if a man’s right to divorce
was fettered in any way including
through registration, it would prompt
couples to resort to “vice and adultery” to
obtain a divorce, following which
“Muslim society would sink to the lowest
depths of disgrace”. On this point only he
was overruled.
Some 60 years later, we are at the same
juncture. Judges rule according to their
individual perceptions of religious rules
and some believe that under Islam a man
has an unfettered right to divorce.
Despite judicial precedents, high courts
have made inconsistent decisions, some
holding that for an effective divorce the
talaq has to be notified to the Union
Council and the 90 days waiting period
has to expire, while others say that a talaq
is effective even if it is not notified.
The injustice to one half of the
population, many of whom are dependent
upon the goodwill of the other half, is the
most glaring example of social inequality
but receives no attention. Each
commission set up to recommend
changes to the law made known their
concern about the lack of any recognition
of matrimonial assets or income. The
Zahid Commission in 1993 stated that “at
the very heart of the vulnerability to
which women are exposed is the lack of
sharing of assets and property upon
termination of marriage”. The Zahid
Commission went on to state that this
principle of sharing is in accordance with
the principle of mata’a or kindness to a
divorced woman. Mata’a is also part of
Islamic principles and is mentioned in the
Holy Quran.
In some Muslim countries such as
Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Syria,
Libya and Tunisia, mata’a is paid to the
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April 2020
wife in addition to dower and
maintenance. In Pakistan, there is no
concept of mata’a. Similarly, in many
Middle Eastern countries, there is a
strong tradition of adding conditions for
financial maintenance and capital awards
in the nikahnama as haq meher, yet in an
overwhelming majority of marriages in
Pakistan the sum remains paltry as people
consider it a bad omen to speculate on a
breakdown of marital ties at the time of
marriage.
Pakistan is a signatory to Convention on
the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination Against Women and
other international standards which
stipulate that women’s non-financial
contributions to a marriage must be
recognised to enable an equal standing
between spouses. The fact that women
are entirely dependent either upon their
fathers or husbands for financial
maintenance in exchange for their
obedience is unworkable. Therefore, in
several Muslim countries more progress
has been made to recognise women’s
non-financial contributions to a marriage.
In accepting women’s right to resources
acquired through the joint efforts of
parties to a marriage, these Muslim
countries do not believe they are acting
contrary to Islamic principles.
In Malaysia, the court can order a
division of matrimonial assets after
assessing each party’s contributions.
Where a wife has not made financial
contributions she would still be entitled
to a third share of the assets depending on
the length of the marriage. In Singapore,
Sharia courts have the discretion to take
into account the wife’s contributions to
the family, such as caring for the home
and the children. Where a wife has made
no direct financial contribution, she is
usually still entitled to about 35 per cent
of the assets. In Turkey, revisions to the
Civil Code stipulate that the equal
division of property and assets acquired
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during the marriage is the default
property regime. In Indonesia, women’s
non-financial contributions are
recognised and the court has the
discretion to split the matrimonial
property upon divorce.
Ironically, while the concept of the
family is usually touted as sacred, laws
regulating family relationships are the
last to be brought in line with the
changing global trends. In England,
divorce is still fault-based as the state is
too worried to tread on a sensitive
subject. In India, in 1985 the Congress
government almost fell when the Muslim
community were up in arms over a
supreme court judgement granting a 62-
year-old divorced woman, Shah Bano,
maintenance of Rs179.20 per month
from her well-to-do husband who had
thrown her out of the house after 46 years
of marriage. The Indian government
quickly introduced a new law to override
the judgement and keep its voters happy.
Reforms empowering women within
their homes become an emotive issue but
until a woman does not have some
semblance of security within her home, it
is difficult for her to make any
contribution to society or the economy.
Many women stay in abusive marriages
for fear of finding themselves on the
street. Regulations regarding violence,
harassment and polygamy are of course
beneficial, but a man will only appreciate
the sanctity of marriage and the value of
good behaviour at home when he has to
share his assets and income fairly.
POWER EMERGENCY
(DAILY TIMES EDITORIAL)
T he genie of circular debt is
haunting the power sector again
and this time the National Electric
Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA)
has been forced to seek power emergency
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April 2020
to tackle the Rs1.93 trillion black hole.
Asking Prime Minister Imran Khan to
take emergency measures to save the
sector from the never-ending vicious
circle of the debt, the power regulatory
department says the volume of the debt is
higher than previously reported by the
power division. No matter what POL
prices in the international market and no
matter how much power rates are
increased domestically, circular debt
keeps rising. The power regulator has
reached out the prime minister and in a
presentation said that circular debt rose
by an average Rs42 billion a month in
2018-19, which means it went up by
Rs492 billion in the fiscal year 2018-
19.Figures are conflicting as the power
division has been reporting an average
Rs10 -12 billion per month increase. As
per the power division figures, released
in mid-February, overall circular debt as
well as fresh payables and old stock
parked in the Power Holding Company
Limited stood at Rs1.782 trillion as of
December 31, 2019. In January, total
payables were Rs1.882 trillion. The
conflict warrants a third party audit to
ascertain the correct figures. We have
seen that during the Pakistan People’s
Party tenure from 2008-13, the
independent power producers claimed
Rs500 billion owed to them under
circular debt but the government
withheld the sum and insisted on a third
party audit, to which IPPs were reluctant.
Neither the government released the
money, nor did IPPs stop production until
the Pakistan Muslim League-N took
over, which released the amount without
any audit. Since then, circular debt has
become a permanent feature which keeps
swelling.
NEPRA states that of the Rs492 billion
circular build-up, Rs325 billion are the
direct result of inefficiencies of the power
companies such as recoverable amounts,
mark-up on delayed payments, inability
of the power companies to meet 15.7pc
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target for losses and inefficient
generation companies. The sector has
been a blood sucker of the national
economy and over the years government
after government has focused only on
generation to play to the galley. Now,
NEPRA’s appeal for power emergency is
a powerful case, which the prime
minister must consider.
WELCOME TO INDIA’S RENT-
A-DIPLOMAT KASHMIR
TOURS, WHERE THE TRUTH IS
ON HOLIDAY
BY: MIRZA WAHEED (THE
GUARDIAN)
T hree weeks ago, the Indian state
took yet another delegation of
foreign envoys on a tour of
Kashmir, the disputed region it has
placed under a devastating lockdown
since illegally revoking its autonomy in
August last year. Mass incarcerations,
torture and the longest digital siege ever
imposed in a democracy mean that daily
life for most Kashmiris has now become
a dire struggle.
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April 2020
The purpose of these rent-a-diplomat
tours is to shore up a narrative of
normalcy in Kashmir. But as I saw
images of carefully choreographed
meetings with officials, spooks,
businessmen and newly birthed political
stooges, I thought of other places of
interest that the delegates might be
persuaded to see, should they or others
like them visit again.
Kashmiris have for years been writing in
blood that they want 'Aazadi', to self-
determine their destiny
Since I happen to know Srinagar – the
city of my birth and youth – probably
slightly better than, let’s say, the visiting
French envoy and his handlers, I suggest
you start in the immediate vicinity of the
majestic palace-turned-hotel where the
international delegates – brought in to see
Kashmiris, with their own eyes, no less –
were forced to stay.
Take a short walk around the hills here
and you could take photos of a
gorgeously redecorated building known
as Papa II or Fairview. This was one of
the most notorious torture centres where
detained Kashmiris – suspected of
involvement in insurgency against Indian
rule – were subjected to unspeakable
torture in the 1990s. It has since been
redecorated and turned into an official
residence where Kashmir’s last chief
minister lived. A few echoes of those
tormented inside might ring faintly, but
what’s a postcard-pretty, old villa
without fitting sound effects?
Not too far from there, you could visit the
beautifully appointed guesthouses and
hotels in which various species of
Kashmiri politician have been kept as
grumpy guests of the state. They won’t
talk freely, as it’s kind of illegal in
Kashmir, but, hey, those codes of modern
democracy and freedom of speech, as
practised in Berlin or Paris (and
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sometimes in Delhi), need not apply to an
indigenous people in a faraway
mountainous region.
If you like your medieval towns full of
exotic charms, a quick detour into the
Martyr’s Graveyard of Srinagar – where
a cross-section of those slain by India’s
armed forces over the years are buried –
could get you face-to-face with lots of
Arabesque gravestones. You must recite
Rumi here.
Just a few minutes from the Dal Lake,
where you grudgingly had to take photos
as you reclined in the traditional
Kashmiri water taxi, you could go on a
historical walk in the labyrinths of the old
city. Here you could embark on a tour of
the families who have lost their boys and
girls to Indian bullets over the years. But
if seeing memorial rooms of loss and
death so soon after selfies at an idyllic
lake isn’t your cup of tea, you could
speak to living victims, those who have
dark holes in place of eyes. Please note
that it might be rude to ask your hosts
how and why these kids were blinded.
My son is one of Kashmir’s
‘disappeared’. When will India tell the
truth about their fate?
In the photos posted by a news agency
which is known for its alacrity in
reporting lovely things for the state, one
couldn’t see any common Kashmiris. But
worry not, the next time you go, you
could ask your local fixers to find a
funeral and join in with prayers for the
soul of the departed. To see ordinary
Kashmiris, of all shapes, sizes, and ages,
you need not even visit Kashmir. Many
are scattered across north Indian prisons
– most have not been charged, and do not
have robust legal aid – providing a real
chance to talk to people in their natural
habitat.
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April 2020
You must then visit the only psychiatric
hospital in Srinagar. Here you can find
your average distressed native anywhere
you look, as the incidence of deep trauma
among us has risen because of the long
siege of our earthly paradise. Previously,
only one in two Kashmiris suffered from
some form of post-traumatic stress
disorder; now, you will have to politely
ask your hosts, who imposed the siege six
months ago, about the curve of that
statistic.
The envoys might deserve some credit
for their assiduous devotion to the great
Indian democracy roadshow. It’s not the
first time that European diplomatics in
India have made themselves useful on the
Kashmir front. In 2013, the then German
ambassador, Michael Steiner, put on a
concert for the conductor Zubin Mehta in
a picturesque garden on the shores of Dal
Lake. We were told it was to bring peace
and harmony to the people of Kashmir.
Attended mainly by spooks, bureaucrats,
officials, politicians and a few fawning
journalists, the concert ended up
resembling a dark skit straight out of a
war comedy: hours before the concert a
motorist was shot and wounded for
failing to obey orders to stop. Meanwhile
in south Kashmir, four Kashmiris were
killed by Indian paramilitaries, as the
invitation-only guests listened to
rhapsodic orchestral music in a walled
garden surrounded by soldiers with semi-
automatic weapons.
Tourist envoys have occasionally visited
Kashmir to examine, ascertain and report
on we are told, what Kashmiris really
want, despite Kashmiris having for years
written in blood that they want azadi, to
self-determine their destiny. As one is
unable to compute how boatloads of
foreign and Indian delegates are going to
help, one is compelled to conclude that it
may just be a good old freebie, a fully
paid trip to one of the most beautiful
places on the planet.
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It doesn’t matter that Kashmiris have
been subject to conquistadorial silencing,
to surveillance that brings to mind the
Stasi, to torture and mass incarceration,
suppression of assembly, a draconian
internet shutdown, the crushing of their
free press, the devastation of their
economy, the crippling of the education
system, the criminalisation of speech
(those who’ve been set free have literally
had to sign “bonds of silence”) and the
gagging of their civil society.
It doesn’t matter that the natives are
being punished en masse. You can
always keep them out of the frame, as a
young Afghan counsel to India gleefully
did during the latest PR expedition, when
he told reporters: “Everything is normal
and alright here. We saw children on the
way to their school, which is a sign of
normalcy.” This is a curious statement:
schools and colleges in Kashmir are
firmly shut during the long and harsh
winters. It doesn’t matter that everyone in
Kashmir knows this is a state-crafted
sojourn. It clearly didn’t matter that the
young Afghan diplomat ended up saying
precisely what his hosts in Delhi wanted
to be said.
Because that was both the job description
and the objective.
ONE OF CHINA’S MOST
AMBITIOUS PROJECTS
BECOMES A CORRIDOR TO
NOWHERE
(BLOOMBERG SPECIAL
REPORT)
T he four-times-a-week propeller
plane from Karachi whips up a
cloud of dust as it lands on an arid
airstrip. Passengers cross the tarmac in
the scorching sun and enter an arrivals
terminal not much larger than a tractor-
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April 2020
trailer. Outside, soldiers carrying AK-47s
are waiting. This is Gwadar, a remote
scratch of land on Pakistan’s southwest
coast. Its port is the last stop on a planned
$62 billion corridor connecting China’s
landlocked westernmost province to the
Arabian Sea, the crown jewel of
President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road
Initiative, designed to build infrastructure
and influence around the world.
Plans originally called for a seaport,
roads, railways, pipelines, dozens of
factories and the largest airport in
Pakistan. But, almost seven years after
the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
was established, there’s little evidence of
that vision being realized. The site of the
new airport, which was supposed to have
been completed with Chinese funding
more than three years ago, is a fenced-off
area of scrub and dun-colored sand.
Specks of mica in the dirt are the only
things that glitter. The factories have yet
to materialize on a stretch of beach along
the bay south of the airport. And traffic at
Gwadar’s tiny, three-berth port is sparse.
A Pakistan Navy frigate is the only ship
docked there during a recent visit, and
there’s no sign of the sole scheduled
weekly cargo run from Karachi.
Less than one-third of announced CPEC
projects have been completed, totaling
about $19 billion, according to
government statements. Pakistan bears
much of the blame. It has repeatedly
missed construction targets as it ran out
of money; it got a $6 billion bailout from
the International Monetary Fund last
year, the country’s 13th since the late
1980s. Two successive prime ministers
have been jailed on corruption charges.
And the Baloch Liberation Army’s desire
for a separate homeland in Balochistan
province, where Gwadar is located, has
made life there uneasy. In May, militants
stormed the city’s only luxury hotel,
shooting up the white-marbled lobby and
killing five people.
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But setbacks in Gwadar point to larger
problems along the Belt and Road. China
is scaling back its ambitions, not just in
Pakistan but around the world. Its
economic growth has slowed to the
lowest rate in three decades, inflation is
rising and the country has been feeling
the effects of a trade war with the U.S.
The picture is getting even darker as a
coronavirus epidemic that originated in
central China threatens to cause further
delays and cutbacks. “The biggest
constraint for China now is its own
economy,” says Jonathan Hillman, a
senior fellow at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies in Washington.
In a number of countries, projects have
been canceled, downsized or scrutinized.
Malaysia renegotiated the terms of a rail
link being built by China and scrapped $3
billion of planned pipelines. In Kenya, a
court halted construction last year on a $2
billion power plant financed by China.
And in Sri Lanka, new leaders said they
want to regain control of a port in
Hambantota that was leased to a Chinese
company for 99 years when the previous
government couldn’t pay back a loan.
That takeover sparked concern in many
Belt and Road countries that China’s
largesse comes with the risk of ceding
critical infrastructure. And it has
increased wariness about the price of
indebtedness to China, which the
Washington-based Center for Global
Development says puts at least eight
nations, including Pakistan, at high risk
of debt distress.
All that could result in shaving hundreds
of billions of dollars off an estimated $1
trillion of planned Belt and Road
spending, according to a September
report by law firm Baker McKenzie.
While the value of signed projects
increased last year, data from China’s
Ministry of Commerce show actual
spending stalled at $75 billion in 2019
after falling 14% the previous year. Total
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April 2020
spending from the beginning of 2014,
shortly after President Xi announced the
initiative, through November 2019 is
$337 billion, government figures show,
far short of China’s ambitious goals.
Pakistan may be a harbinger of bigger
problems, according to Hillman, who
directs Reconnecting Asia, a project that
tracks Belt and Road progress. “That is
generally where the rest of the Belt and
Road seems to be going,” he says. “It’s
not dead in the water, but I’m skeptical
whether China is going to be able to
achieve what it set out to do.”
Gwadar is shaped like a barbell dangling
from Pakistan’s coastline. A strip of
sandbar and rocks less than 1 kilometer
wide at its narrowest connects to a rocky
outcrop where the luxury Zaver Pearl-
Continental hotel sits like fortress. The
city of 140,000 is closer to the Iranian
border than to Karachi, a 10-hour drive,
in an area so remote it was part of the
Sultanate of Oman until 1958.
Just getting around is a challenge.
Foreign visitors must be accompanied by
an entourage of 10 Pakistani soldiers in
flatbed trucks. At the deep-water port on
the eastern side of the barbell, there’s
little sign of commerce on a hot October
day. The only cargo ship that calls in
Gwadar, operated by China’s Cosco
Shipping Holdings Co., delivers
construction materials and sometimes
departs with seafood. Occasionally, it
doesn’t arrive at all. A manager who
answers Cosco’s phone in Karachi,
where the weekly run originates, says the
line is operational, but it’s up to the
captain whether he wants to stop in
Gwadar or go directly to Oman. The
captain recently had a cold and didn’t
want to stop, the manager says.
Yet Naseer Khan Kashani, chairman of
the Gwadar Port Authority, maintains
that all is well. Cosco was frustrated by
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problems with a web-based customs
system, but it has been sorted out, he
says, sitting in his office at the port. He
declines to give figures for cargo volume.
“Everything is going to be fine,” Kashani
says. “The volume of trade is going to
increase tremendously.”
That view is echoed by Zhang Baozhong,
chairman of China Overseas Ports
Holding Co., which operates Gwadar’s
port and free-trade zone. He dismisses
the apparent inactivity with a wave of his
hand, comparing it to four years earlier
when he first arrived. Then, there was
only one flight a week to Gwadar, with a
handful of people on it. “My impression
was that this place was completely
neglected by the whole world,” Zhang
says. “I felt this was a mission
impossible.”
Now, he says, there’s progress—$250
million in port renovations, including
new cranes for unloading cargo, a
business center, a desalination plant and
sewage disposal. “This port is now
becoming a node in international
shipping,” he says. “Of course, the
quantity is not big enough, but it takes
time. By 2030, we believe Gwadar will
be a new economic hub of Pakistan and
will be the highest GDP contributor to
Pakistan’s economy.”
A free-trade zone was established in
Gwadar in 2015, and officials say nine or
10 companies, including a Chinese
steelmaker and a Pakistani producer of
edible oils, have signed up. But there are
no signs of any factories operating. An
additional 30 are targeted for the Free
Zone’s Phase II, closer to the site of the
new airport, officials say, and $400
million has been invested so far. Zhang
says twice that number of companies
applied, including some from European
countries. “It’s going to be established in
the near future,” says Kashani. “They talk
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April 2020
about CPEC slowing down, but nothing
is slowing down.”
The zones still need critical
infrastructure, including water and
power, according to CPEC’s website.
Construction began in November on a
300-megawatt, $542 million plant, which
will run on imported coal and is expected
to reduce the frequency of power cuts. An
acute scarcity of water, with annual
rainfall less than 4 inches, was alleviated
by freak rains in 2018 that temporarily
filled reservoirs, according to Shahzeb
Kakar, director general of the Gwadar
Development Authority. He says the city
will meet future needs by building
desalination plants. A plan for a “safe
city” project with surveillance cameras
may reduce the need for Gwadar to feel
like it’s under military occupation. “We
have three basic issues—power, water
and security,” Kakar says. “All three of
these issues have now been taken care of.
Now things are moving in the right
direction.”
Not everyone is so upbeat. Mariyam
Suleman, the Gwadar-based editor of the
Balochistan Review, says life for people
in the area hasn’t improved much after
five years of planned developments.
“Their neighborhoods are still without
good infrastructure; there's a sewage
issue; there isn’t electricity for long
hours, especially in summer; and the
water crisis has always been an issue,”
she says.
Even if Gwadar weren’t under threat of
violence and had sufficient power and
water to build and operate 40 factories, it
doesn’t have enough people to work in
them. The city’s population, mostly
fishermen and their families, is about
one-fifth that of Washington’s. A
proposal for a project called China-Pak
Hills envisages a gated community with
a “Hong Kong financial district” and
luxury housing for 500,000 Chinese
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professionals who could move to Gwadar
and provide a labor force by 2022—an
influx that wouldn’t sit well with either
Baloch separatists or the Pakistani
government, according to Asad Sayeed,
an economist at the Collective for Social
Science Research in Karachi.
It’s also hard to imagine how Gwadar
would need Pakistan’s largest airport,
with capacity for Airbus A300 jets and
30,000 tons of cargo annually. Yet that’s
the plan for the 4,300-acre area
demarcated by razor-wire fence on the
outskirts of town. Announced in 2014,
the new airport was supposed to have
been built by China Communications
Construction Co., the largest builder of
projects along the Belt and Road, with a
$230 million loan from China and a grant
from Oman. But construction never
started. The following year, the Chinese
government said it would convert the
loan to a grant, and Pakistani officials
said the airport would be completed by
the end of 2016, then by October 2017.
Still nothing.
Last year, Prime Minister Imran Khan
traveled to Gwadar and broke ground on
a new airport site. And a new contractor
was announced to take over from CCCC:
a branch of state-owned China Railway
Engineering Corp. that would also build
schools and a hospital. Completion is
now scheduled for 2022.
During a visit in October, a tractor started
up and began driving around the empty,
dusty stretch of land without evident
purpose. “They are doing as much as they
can at the moment to show it is still
happening,” says Andrew Small, author
of the 2015 book “The China-Pakistan
Axis” and a senior fellow at the
Washington-based German Marshall
Fund. Small says Khan’s government is
simply trying to complete about $20
billion worth of CPEC projects already in
the works, mostly power plants, under
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April 2020
pressure from China. “The full-scale
version is not really in the cards,” he says.
“It’s going to land in a far more modest
place than envisaged. It’s not going to be
a game changer.”
The CPEC project was intended to reduce
oil and gas routes from the Middle East
by thousands of miles, a way to cut
overland into western China instead of
going thousands of miles around South
Asia and Southeast Asia by ship.
Pakistan was supposed to get 2.3 million
jobs and a 2.5 percentage-point boost to
its gross domestic product. The deal,
negotiated by former Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif and touted in a 2017
communique by his successor Shahid
Khaqan Abbasi after Sharif was jailed on
corruption charges, called for the corridor
to start taking shape by 2020. It was
described as a pilot project, a model for
Belt and Road countries around the
world.
Pakistan, long allied with China to
counter the regional weight of India,
wanted help developing its mineral-rich
but poorest and most restive province. It
also wanted to quell separatists in the
Baloch Liberation Army who not only
attacked the Pearl-Continental last year
but also killed four people at the Chinese
consulate in Karachi in 2018. The
militant group was seeking to halt plans
they believed would enable Pakistan’s
government to take more resources from
the area, rather than aid residents. Further
attacks in recent months have killed more
than a dozen Pakistani soldiers and
security personnel.
China may have objectives besides better
oil and gas routes. Western governments
have long been concerned that Belt and
Road spending is helping China develop
what’s known as a “string of pearls”—
ports that can be used by its navy, from
the South China Sea across the Arabian
Sea and on to Africa. Though China and
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Pakistan both deny any military
intentions, Gwadar could be a stopping
point on the way from Sri Lanka through
the Maldives to Djibouti, where China
has built its first military base on the
Horn of Africa. China’s plans for the
Pakistan corridor also include
development in Xinjiang province, where
it has attempted to curb unrest. The
United Nations has estimated that 1
million Uighur people were being held in
camps there, which the Chinese
government has said was for reeducation
and training.
If China’s interests were purely
economic, says economist Sayeed, it
could have helped expand the port of
Karachi, already connected to the
highway from China, instead of seeking
to build new roads through desolate,
dusty and dangerous Balochistan.
Whatever their ambitions, China and
Pakistan have had to scale them back.
Khan, the former cricketer who was
elected in 2018 on an anti-corruption
platform and who had criticized
expensive infrastructure deals signed
with China by previous governments,
inherited an economic disaster. To
address its current account deficit, his
administration has cut imports,
depreciated the rupee, slashed spending
and raised taxes. GDP growth fell to an
estimated 2.4% last year, from 5.8% in
2018, as manufacturing experienced
double-digit declines and exports
remained flat.
As for China, which has become the
world’s largest creditor, it is refocusing
on smaller projects crafted for the needs
of recipient countries. Winning hearts
and minds has become more important
than announcements of gargantuan
airports. Instead, according to guidelines
issued by President Xi in late 2018,
people-to-people exchanges in
education, science and technology,
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April 2020
culture, and tourism will help make Belt
and Road projects “deeply rooted in the
hearts of the people.”
All this seeks to downplay the more
strategic aspects of what China has
sought to achieve, says Nadege Rolland,
senior fellow at the Washington-based
National Bureau of Asian Research. “My
hunch is there won’t be big splashes of
money anymore,” she says. “The
investments were only an incentive.”
China’s ultimate objective, she says, “is
not to build connectivity but to increase
Beijing's political and strategic
influence.”
This means that even if Belt and Road
spending ends up being a third of what
was originally forecast, China may still
have gotten its money’s worth. It will
have broadened its influence in countries
that are potential providers of natural
resources, as well as future markets, and
gained allies in international arenas such
as the United Nations at a time when the
U.S. is pulling back.
In Pakistan, an oil refinery in Gwadar and
a railway and oil pipeline to China are
among projects that have yet to
materialize. An expressway connecting
the new airport to Gwadar was supposed
to have been completed by CCCC in
2018 for $168 million. It’s now
scheduled to open later this year. In
October, dump trucks with piles of rocks
were parked on the edge of the existing
roadway nearby, but no work was being
done. The Chinese site manager says he’s
too busy to speak. His assistant explains
there’s no need for an interview, as all
information about CCCC’s work can be
found on the internet.
On a visit to Beijing in October, Khan
assured Chinese officials that CPEC
plans are proceeding. But with Pakistan’s
budget maxed out and austerity imposed
by the International Monetary Fund, it is
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clear there won’t be any big, new projects
and unclear how many of the current ones
can be finished, says CSIS’s Hillman.
Still, both Pakistan and China pledged
during Khan’s visit “to speedily execute
the CPEC so that its growth potential can
be fully realized,” according to an official
communique.
Full realization may mean figuring out
how much can be built to save face,
provide some benefit to both sides and
declare success. An update on the project
from Pakistan’s ambassador to Beijing,
published in Chinese state media last
year, said 11 projects had been completed
in the past five years and another 11 were
underway, with total spending of $18.9
billion. It said an additional 20 were
planned, without giving amounts, details
or a time frame. There’s no longer any
mention of the original $62 billion
pledged.
Adding to Gwadar’s development
challenges, other parts of Pakistan such
as Karachi have started their own special
economic zones. Even if the corridor to
Gwadar could be developed and security
issues resolved, there’s only the
Karakoram Highway, an inhospitable,
two-lane route through the treacherous
mountains separating China and
Pakistan. It is prone to landslides
and threatened by attacks, and has yet to
be connected to roads leading to Gwadar,
says Alyssa Ayres, Washington-based
senior fellow for India, Pakistan and
South Asia at the Council on Foreign
Relations. “It’s hard to imagine this as a
viable freight corridor,” she says.
Hillman has come to a similar
conclusion, though one with wider
implications. “The Chinese are having
some regret about making Pakistan the
flagship,” he says. “There’s a lot more
caution on all sides.”
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April 2020
AN AFGHAN BARGAIN LIKELY
TO FAIL
BY: SUSAN E. RICE ( THE NEW
YORK TIMES)
S
ometimes, foreign policy consists
of trying to make lemonade out of
lemons.
In the case of the recently signed U.S.-
Taliban agreement on Afghanistan,
President Trump provided the lemons,
and the lead U.S. negotiator, Zalmay
Khalilzad, and his team did the
squeezing. Mr. Trump made clear that he
intended to withdraw American forces
from Afghanistan — with or without a
“deal.” Then NATO partners pressured
the United States not to reward the
Taliban by conceding their long-held
objective of forcing an American
withdrawal for free. So, the president
reportedly gave his negotiators a finite
window to explore whether some deal
was achievable.
Lacking the backing of a resolute
American commander in chief, Mr.
Khalilzad got what he could — a deeply
flawed agreement that has the potential to
lead to peace but is very unlikely to
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Nearpeer CSS Monthly Press Pack
achieve it. In short, the United States
gave away a lot and got relatively little in
return.
To start, the United States dropped its
longstanding, principled opposition to
negotiating directly with the Taliban
(including the terrorist Haqqani network,
which has killed countless American
service members) without our key
partner, the Afghan government, at the
table. Next, following a seven-day,
roughly 80 percent “reduction in
violence,” the United States acceded to
the Taliban’s primary demand — that
America fully withdraw all of its own and
NATO forces as well as intelligence
personnel from Afghanistan.
Mr. Trump agreed to draw down from
our current force level of approximately
12,000 U.S. troops to 8,600 (the level he
inherited from President Barack Obama)
within four and a half months. Within 14
months, he will drop American and
NATO troops to zero — leaving only an
embassy-based diplomatic presence.
Senior U.S. officials insist that the
American withdrawal is “conditions-
based,” but no political or military
requirements have been specified.
Additionally, the United States
announced it intended to lift all American
and United Nations sanctions against the
Taliban by the end of August.
In exchange, the Taliban pledged not to
cooperate with, and to prevent the use of
its territory by, terrorists who threaten or
target the United States and our allies.
The Taliban also agreed to enter intra-
Afghan talks, including with government
representatives, by March 10, to discuss
a cease-fire and future political
settlement. The start of talks seems
contingent on the Afghan government
releasing up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners,
and the Taliban responding by freeing up
to 1,000 government prisoners. However,
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April 2020
Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani,
has already balked, because he knows
that releasing Taliban prisoners before
negotiations would amount to
relinquishing his minimal leverage in
talks with the Taliban.
In assessing the U.S.-Taliban agreement,
it is important to first acknowledge the
positive results. Any end to the war in
Afghanistan can come only through a
settlement between the Afghan
government and the Taliban. To the
extent that the present document, barely
four pages long, could become a first step
that culminates in talks to discuss such a
settlement, it is better than nothing.
Moreover, if the reduction in violence by
80 percent is sustained and the Taliban
curtail attacks not only against American
and coalition forces, but also against
Afghan government forces, it would
lessen the bloodshed and help create
conditions more conducive for
negotiations.
Unfortunately, there are troubling early
signs that the Taliban are already
resuming attacks against civilians and
Afghan forces.
And in the long run, the fundamental
weaknesses of the U.S.-Taliban
agreement will most likely endanger
America’s national security and doom
prospects for a just and lasting peace in
Afghanistan.
Why is that? First, under President
Trump, the United States is widely seen
to be committed to withdrawing from
Afghanistan under almost any
circumstances. There are no indications
of what “conditions” might slow or halt
an American drawdown of troops short of
a major attack by Al Qaeda launched
with clear Taliban support. Not sustained
violence against Afghan forces, nor
smaller-scale terrorist attacks, nor
continued Islamic State operations seem
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likely to prompt the United States to
reverse course. The Taliban know this
and so does the Afghan government,
reducing nearly to nil America’s
influence over events in Afghanistan.
For those reasons, intra-Afghan
negotiations, if they begin, will strongly
favor the Taliban. By cutting a deal with
the Taliban that excluded (and even
failed to mention) the Afghan
government, the United States
legitimated the Taliban and further
weakened the Afghan government. In
committing to the Taliban to end the
American military presence and drop
sanctions, the United States also
sacrificed its remaining leverage to help
the government in intra-Afghan
negotiations achieve critical shared
objectives, like protecting democratic
gains and preserving the rights of
women. Given that intra-Afghan talks
will take many months, if not years, to
yield any progress, the United States is
likely to withdraw before any deal is
done, abandoning Afghanistan to the
Taliban wolves.
Worse, after 14 months, the United States
will be left without any military or
counterterrorism capacity in
Afghanistan, effectively subcontracting
America’s security to the Taliban.
During the Obama administration, we
considered and rejected the idea of
reverting to a civilian U.S. Embassy-only
presence, because we understood that
such a posture would leave American
diplomats highly vulnerable to attack and
increase the prospect of a Vietnam-style
withdrawal of Americans under fire.
Finally, in lauding his capitulation to the
Taliban as a diplomatic triumph denied to
his predecessors, Mr. Trump reiterated
his intention to meet with Taliban
leaders, potentially even at Camp David.
Meanwhile, he bragged about his “very
good” relationship with the Taliban
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April 2020
leader after calling its senior leader on
Tuesday. More shockingly, Mr. Trump
also revealed his own true feelings about
Afghanistan, stating: “We should never
have gotten in in the first place.”
Now we know America is led in wartime
by a commander in chief who not only
cheapens the sacrifice of the 3,500
American and NATO service members
who perished in Afghanistan. More
dangerously, Mr. Trump told the world
he believes that the terrorists who
murdered 3,000 Americans on 9/11 never
deserved to be fought.
INTERNATIONALISATION OF
CAA
(DAILY TIMES EDITORIAL)
T he Modi government is coming
under increasing pressure from
the world over the enactment of
the controversial Citizen Amendment
Law and ensuing sectarian and ethnic
violence in New Delhi under the alleged
patronage of the Bharati Janata Party. In
one such significant move, Sikh MPs
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi and Preet Gill
Kaur, members of United Kingdom
parliament, who have Indian origin, have
raised concern over the Delhi violence
demanding the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office (FCO) to come
up with details of its talks with the Indian
government on this subject. Condemning
the Indian government, Labour MP
Dhesi likened the recent sectarian
violence to the 1984 genocide of the
Sikhs, sharing the painful memories of
those days when he was a student in
India. Recalling the cruel cycle of
history, the MP said the world must learn
from history that the BJP’s aim was to
destroy religious places and kill people in
the name of religion. “I ask the minister,
what message has he given to his Indian
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counterpart [regarding] that persecution

of Indian Muslims?”

Minister of State at FCO Nigel Adams

has promised to stand up to violence in
the name of religion, adding that the
British high commission in New Delhi
and others across India were monitoring
the recent violence and developments
around the Citizenship (Amendment) Act
2019.

The Indian government must also be

feeling the heat from an application from
the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights, a UN body, filed in the
Indian Supreme Court against the CAA.
The Indian government’s response, as
expected to the UN body and UK MPs’
demands would be unwarranted
interference into its internal matters.
Internally, 140 petitions have been filed
against the CAA which discriminates
against immigrants on the basis of their
religion. Though it is very unlikely that
the court would allow the UN high
commission to present its views, the
Indian government must note that the
salutary provisions of international
conventions reject such discriminatory
laws. It is just a matter of time before the
Modi government is standing in the court
of international law for its anti-Muslim
approach. Indian opposition along with
civil society has spoken against the
exploitation of religion and nationalism
by the Modi government. The recent
developments by the UN body and UK
parliament are going to wake the whole
world.
PAKISTAN’S DEMOCRACY: IS
IT REAL OR A CHARADE?
BY: SYED SHAHABUDDIN
(DAILY TIMES)
D emocracy refers to a system of
government in which supreme
power is vested in the people and
exercised through a system of direct or
indirect representation, which is decided
through periodic free elections. The term
“democracy” comes from two Greek
words: “demos” (the people) and “kratia”
(power or authority). Thus, democracy is
a form of government that gives power to
the people. However, even though the
power lies with the people, they give it to
their elected representatives temporarily
on the assumption that the elected
representatives know the issues and
problems of their constituents and will
take care of them.

Therefore, to properly represent the

constituents, the representatives must
speak the language and know the
environment and problems of their
constituents. To keep up-to-date on the
issues of their constituents,
representatives must regularly hold town
hall meetings to communicate with the

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Nearpeer CSS Monthly Press Pack
constituents about legislation the
representative is working on or
introducing in the assembly or other
actions taking place to solve the problems
of the constituents and the country. The
representatives must listen and
communicate with the constituents in the
language the majority of them
understand; conversely, the constituents
must be allowed to express their concerns
using their native language. Therefore,
the representatives must be from the
district/province they represent because
they understand the environment people
are living in, the culture of the
district/province, and the language of the
people. Without this background, the
representative cannot understand the
constituents or appreciate their
conditions and problems. Therefore,
representatives trying to be elected from
a district/province where they do not live
cannot represent the constituents they
claim to represent.
The courts in the United States often
articulate three benefits of candidate
residency requirements: the ability of
candidates to understand the problems
and needs of their constituents, the need
for voters to have adequate time to assess
the candidates, and the prevention of
political carpetbagging. Thus, no one
who does not meet the residency
requirement can represent the
constituents of the district the
representative wants to run for election.
That is why some countries require that
the representative must live in the
state/province or district from where the
representative wants to be elected.
The dilemma for political theorists in this
context has been that if a person
represents a particular local electorate in
the parliament, should they pursue that
electorate’s interests or the national
interest? Given a choice between the
electorate and national interests, most
members would probably claim that their
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April 2020
local electorate is their prime concern as
ultimately their political survival is based
on their electorate’s opinion. ‘Good’
representatives have been broadly
conceived as either ‘delegates’ reflecting
constituent concerns or as paradoxical
given the multiple and competing
demands. Dovi argues, “A good
democratic representatives are not likely
to be approved by or even appreciated by
every one of their constituents, let alone
by all citizens. Thus my claim is not that
a good democratic representative will be
valued by every citizen (or even a
majority of citizens); rather, my claim is
that good democratic representative will
be the unbridled advocate of their
constituents.” Prieb has said, “I think
ultimately what’s important is that the
candidate knows the people and knows
the area that they are about to represent.”
Layman said, “I think it’s really
important that the voters in the district
and the representatives in the district all
live in the same place.” In the
Washington Post (2017), a writer stated,
“I think if you live outside the district,
you should not be allowed run for office.
Period. How can you adequately
represent your constituents if you live
outside the district in which they live?
You don’t represent them at all,
actually.”
Unfortunately, in Pakistan, anyone can
choose to run for office in any district.
Worst yet, politicians are allowed to run
for office in as many districts as they
want. If elected from more than one
district, then the politician picks the
district he/she wants to represent and
vacates the other district(s) from which
the representative was also elected. For
example, a person from Sindh who either
speaks Sindhi or Urdu can run for office
from his district as well as from any
district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)
where culture, language (Pashto is the
native language), and living conditions
are different than Sindh. Probably, the
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Nearpeer CSS Monthly Press Pack
contestant has no intention of
representing the district in KP if also
elected from a district in Sindh. In some
cases, a contestant can run in five or six
districts and then vacate, if elected, the
seat of the districts the candidate had no
intention to represent.
This practice of a candidate running for
office in more than one district creates
many problems. One, if the candidate
wins in more than one district, he/she
must vacate the districts he/she does not
want to represent. Therefore, another
election must be held in the districts that
the contestant won but does not want to
represent, thereby costing the
government additional money and time
for another election. Second, the non-
resident contestant deprives the
legitimate representatives who are from
the district, thus depriving the
constituents of being represented
properly. Further, if the candidate is only
elected from the district that is alien to
him/her, then the elected representative
cannot really represent the constituents or
care to represent the district honestly.
However, the representative may hold the
seat because it is the only district from
which the representative was elected.
This is dishonest behavior on the part of
the non-resident candidate whose only
interest is to make sure he/she gets
elected anywhere with no intention of
properly representing the constituents. It
is a complete disservice to the
constituents, democracy, country, and
society.
A good democracy requires an honest
representation of the constituents. Thus,
this shenanigan has to end for the good of
the country and the people. If nothing
changes, this dishonest behavior will
continue causing a loss to the constituents
who are not being properly represented
and costing the government for holding
elections again. Therefore, the problem
has three solutions. First, the easiest and
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April 2020
cheapest solution is to change the law
requiring that candidates must have a
house in the province/district and have
lived there for at least six months to a
year before running for election in that
province/district. Second, if the law is not
changed, then require any candidates in
the non-state or non-district area to bear
the cost of a new election if he/she
decides to vacate the seat(s) after being
elected, and make them pay a hefty fine
for causing a delay in the election. Third,
a candidate who wins but vacates an
elected seat should be banned for life
from running for election in more than
one district.
If Pakistan wants to be a democracy, then
it must allow the constituents to be
represented honestly and properly
instead of by corrupt politicians making
money by charades of representing
people about whom they have no interest
or care. Sadly, this is the case with most
Pakistani politicians whose main interest
is to get elected and then ignore the
people of the country and their
constituents until the next election. Worst
yet, many politicians who lose the
election accuse the elected politicians of
having won by fraud or with the help of
the army. If these politicians believed
fraud or the army’s help is a common
way of winning an election, then it should
be true in every election. Thus, if the
losing politicians had won, the same
would be true of their being elected either
by fraud or with the army’s help. If this is
a commonly accepted way of winning an
election, then everyone should accept the
result and let the elected politicians finish
their term. Instead, the losing politicians
cannot wait to get back and steal; they
resort to civil disobedience to win back
power, costing the country billions in
economic activity and security. Does any
Pakistani care whether the country is a
democracy? I think not; it is a charade
impersonating as democracy.
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CAN 50 YEARS OF
MINIMIZING NUCLEAR
PROLIFERATION CONTINUE?
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
I magine we are living in the year
2030. New seismic activity indicates
an underground nuclear explosion
somewhere near the Arctic Circle. One
more country announces it’s joining the
once-exclusive club of nuclear weapons
states that has now grown to 20 nations
— more than double the number in 2020.
The trouble started in 2023, when a group
of former allies of the United States
renounced their adherence to the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty and opted to
acquire the very nuclear weapons
capabilities that they foreswore decades
earlier.
Since then, nations across the world had
raced to acquire the bomb, and the global
security situation had become
increasingly precarious. Sooner or later,
as centers of nuclear decision making
multiplied, one of those weapons was
bound to go off, with consequences
incalculable for all.
A far-fetched future? Perhaps. The
nonproliferation treaty entered into force
50 years ago, on March 5, 1970. At the
time, only five nations — the United
States, the Soviet Union, China, Britain
and France — were recognized as nuclear
weapons states. Just four more countries
— India, Israel, Pakistan and North
Korea — have since acquired the bomb.
And, yet, this scenario is more plausible
now than many may think.
To understand why, we need to go back
to 1963, when President John F. Kennedy
warned of a “world in which 15 or 20 or
25 nations may have these weapons.”
Kennedy expressed the widely held
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April 2020
belief that further proliferation was
likely, if not inevitable. Every nation that
possessed the capability to build a bomb
had done so and American officials
worried that the trend was about to
accelerate.
That didn’t happen. Having stood at the
brink of nuclear war during the Cuban
missile crisis in 1962, the United States
and the Soviet Union redoubled efforts to
stabilize their nuclear relationship and
prevent other states from crossing the
nuclear threshold. The nonproliferation
treaty was one result of those efforts.
Under the treaty, states that didn’t have
nuclear weapons pledged not to develop
or acquire them, while those that did
committed to eventual nuclear
disarmament.
But it wasn’t just U.S.-Soviet arms
control negotiations that turned the
proliferation tide in the 1960s. Even more
important was Washington’s
determination to assure its allies in
Europe and Asia that they could rely on
America for their nuclear security. Only
after they were convinced that the
American nuclear guarantee was
credible, did allies like Germany and
Japan decide to forego a national nuclear
option and join the nonproliferation
treaty.
Whenever new developments seemed to
call the American guarantee into question
— as when a new generation of Soviet
medium-range missiles were deployed in
Europe in the 1970s and when North
Korea expanded its nuclear and missile
programs in the 1990s and 2000s —
Washington worked to reassure its allies
that its nuclear commitment remained
strong and credible.
In recent years, new questions about the
credibility of the American nuclear
guarantee have returned. One reason is
the changing strategic environment. In
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Europe, a more adventurous and better-
armed Russia no longer shies away from
using military force, as its invasion of
Ukraine and its support for the Assad
regime in Syria have underscored. In
Asia, China’s rapid rise has expanded its
military reach throughout the Asia-
Pacific, and North Korea has emerged as
a potent foe, armed with nuclear weapons
and long-range missiles that threaten the
entire region.
Even as threats have multiplied, allied
doubts about the American commitment
have grown perceptibly since Donald
Trump entered the White House
expressing deep distrust of alliances. His
early failure to reconfirm NATO’s
Article 5 mutual defense commitment,
his threat to leave NATO if allies did not
sharply increase military spending, his
insistence that Asian allies greatly
increase their financial contributions to
maintain the U.S. military presence, his
musings about some allies acquiring their
own nuclear capabilities — all these have
increased uncertainty in allied capitals
about whether they can still count on the
United States.
Second, America and the other nuclear
powers need to resume serious
discussions on arms control. As a first
step, Washington and Moscow need to
extend the New START treaty capping
their long-range nuclear forces before it
expires next year. Next, along with
Britain, France and China, they should
start a serious dialogue on how to limit
their nuclear capabilities and work
together to prevent further proliferation.
And all of them should halt nuclear
modernization efforts while those talks
continue.
For 50 years, the nonproliferation treaty
has largely succeeded in preventing more
countries from going nuclear. America’s
security alliances have played an
essential role in that success. Reaffirming
those alliances and committing to serious
arms control efforts can help ensure its
continuation in the next 50 years.

Which raises the question: if not the

United States, who will assure their
nuclear security? So far, few experts
argue that the answer lies in a national
nuclear program. But as worries about
America’s security commitments
continue to grow, more countries may
reach that conclusion.

To forestall this danger, Washington

needs to act swiftly.

First, the president needs to

unconditionally reaffirm America’s
fundamental commitment to the security
and defense of its allies. Yes, the allies
need to do more and spend more, but it is
in America’s vital interest to ensure that
they are safe and secure — and without
their own nuclear weapons.

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ARE DATA MORE LIKE OIL OR
SUNLIGHT?
(SPECIAL REPORT BY THE
ECONOMIST)
P assionate grammarians have long
quarreled over whether data
should be singular or plural
(contrary to common usage, this
newspaper is sticking with the latter, for
now). A better question is why are data
so singularly plural? That is, why do they
have so many different faces?
For an answer, start with the many
metaphors used to describe flows of data.
Originally they were likened to oil,
suggesting that data are the fuel of the
future. More recently, the comparison
has been with sunlight because soon, like
solar rays, they will be everywhere and
underlie everything. There is also talk of
data as infrastructure: they should be seen
as a kind of digital twin of roads or
railways, requiring public investment and
new institutions to manage them.
The multiplication of metaphors reflects
the malleable economics of data. First,
they are “non-rivalrous”: since they are
infinitely copyable, they can be used by
many people without limiting the use by
others. But they are also “excludable”:
technologies like encryption can control
who has access to them. Depending on
where one sets the cryptographic slider,
data can indeed be private goods like oil
or public goods like sunlight—or
something in between, known as a “club
good”.
This in turn means that there is not just
one data economy, but three more or less
distinct ones, each with its own ideology.
And the big question is whether one will
come to dominate, or whether the mirror
world will be as much of a mixture as the
real one.
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April 2020
If oil is still the most-used metaphor, it is
because comparing data to the black stuff
is easy. Like oil, data must be refined to
be useful. In most cases they need to be
“cleansed” and “tagged”, meaning
stripped of inaccuracies and marked to
identify what can be seen, say, on a
video. This has spawned a global
industry employing hundreds of
thousands of people, mostly in low-wage
countries. Scale AI, a startup in San
Francisco, employs 30,000 taggers
around the world who review footage
from self-driving cars and ensure the
firm’s software has correctly classified
things like houses and pedestrians.
Before data can power AI services, they
also need to be fed through algorithms, to
teach them to recognise faces, steer self-
driving cars and predict when jet engines
need a check-up. And different data sets
often need to be combined for statistical
patterns to emerge. In the case of jet
engines, for instance, mixing usage and
weather data helps forecast wear and tear.
The oil metaphor also rings true because
some types of data and some of the
insights extracted from them are already
widely traded. Online advertising is
perhaps the biggest marketplace for
personal data: clicks are bought and sold
based on a detailed digital profile of each
viewer. It was worth $178bn globally in
2018, according to Strategy&, a
consultancy. Data brokers, which can
track thousands of data points for each
individual, do brisk business with
personal information, too. They sell it to
everyone from banks to telecoms
carriers, generating annual revenue of
more than $21bn, says Strategy&.
Offering insights from mining data can
be very profitable, too. On Kaggle, a
website owned by Google that hosts
machine-learning contests, thousands of
teams of data scientists compete against
each other to see who can come up with
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the best algorithms to predict a building’s
energy consumption or to detect
“deepfake” videos, with prizes
sometimes exceeding $1m. That is also
Facebook’s and Google’s way to make
money. They hardly ever sell data, but
they do sell insights about who is the best
target for advertising.
Yet data have failed to become “a new
asset class”, as the World Economic
Forum, a conference-organiser and think-
tank, predicted in 2011. Most data never
change hands, and attempts to make them
more tradable have not taken off. To
change this, especially in Europe,
manufacturers are pushing to secure
property rights for the data generated by
their products. Others want consumers to
own the data they create, so they can sell
them and get a bigger cut from their
information.
Again, economics gets in the way.
Although data are often thought of as a
commodity, corporate data sets, in
particular, tend not to be fungible. Each
is different in the way it was collected,
and in its purpose and reliability. This
makes it difficult for buyers and sellers to
agree on a price: the value of each sort is
hard to compare and changes over time.
A further barrier to trading is that the
value of a data set depends on who
controls it. What might simply be data
exhaust to one firm could be digital gold
to another. “There is no true value of
data,” says Diane Coyle of the University
of Cambridge.
As for personal data, defining property
rights is tricky, because much
information cannot be attributed to one
person. Who, for instance, owns the fact
that a dating site has matched a couple?
The couple themselves? Or the service?
Complicating matters, data have plenty
of externalities, both positive and
negative, meaning that markets often fail.
Why should a social network, say, buy
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April 2020
the data of an individual if it can make
quite accurate predictions about him by
crunching data from other users?
Although data are unlikely ever to be
traded as widely as oil, tech firms keep
trying to make this easier. Amazon Web
Services (AWS), the cloud-computing
arm of the e-commerce giant recently
launched a marketplace that aims to make
trading in data as easy as possible. It
works a bit like an online store for
smartphone apps: buyers subscribe to
feeds, agree to licensing conditions, and
AWS processes the payment.
As the oil metaphor is seen as
increasingly problematic, the comparison
to sunlight or similar resources, such as
air and water, has risen in favour. Many
people who prefer this metaphor ask if
data do not really lend themselves to be
turned into a tradable good, then why
even try? Would it not instead be better
to ensure that data are used as much as
possible? After all, this will maximise
social wealth. In other words, nobody
puts up curtains and tries to charge for
sunlight.
This line of argument has already given
birth to what is known as the “open-data”
movement. Its champions push
organisations and universities to give
away their data so they can be widely
used, for instance by startups. Today,
most governments, national or otherwise,
boast an open-data project, although the
quality of the data made available varies
greatly.
More recently, companies have started to
publish their data, too. Several firms that
work on self-driving cars have shared
some of the information collected by
their vehicles. “For researchers to ask the
right questions, they need the right data,”
according to Dragomir Anguelov,
principal scientist at Waymo, a firm
owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent,
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that is one of the companies that has done
this. Others are working on technology to
make such data-sharing easier: Microsoft
and other software makers will soon start
to implement what it calls the “open-data
initiative”.
Some see such efforts as the beginning of
an open-source movement for data, much
like the approach that now rules large
parts of the software industry. And
Microsoft, in particular, is keen to see
this happen. “We need to democratise AI
and the data on which it relies,” writes
Brad Smith, the firm’s president and
chief legal officer in his recently
published book, “Tools and Weapons”.
Unsurprisingly, this position also smacks
of self-interest: Microsoft does not make
much money from data directly, but does
from tools and services that handle data.
Like the oil comparison, however, the
data-as-sunlight analogy breaks down:
open data, too, can go only so far. For
personal data, the main limitation is
increasingly strict privacy laws, such as
the EU’s General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR), as well as the
California Consumer Privacy Act
(CCPA), which will start being enforced
in July. For corporate data the checks are
economic in nature: generating good data
is expensive and they can reveal too
much about a firm’s products.
“Companies will make very strategic
decisions about what data sets they will
make public and which ones they will
keep to themselves,” explains Michael
Chui of the McKinsey Global Institute, a
consultancy think-tank.
Separating what can be safely shared
from what should be closely guarded will
be tricky, but technology should, in time,
make such decisions easier. Something
called “differential privacy”, for
instance, replaces one data set with
another that includes different
information, but has the same statistical
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April 2020
patterns. “Homomorphic encryption”
allows algorithms to crunch data without
decrypting them. And blockchains,
which are the special databases of the sort
that underlie many digital currencies,
enable people and companies to manage
in minute detail who is allowed to access
what data and to track who has done so.
Slowly these technologies are being
deployed. DECODE, an initiative
financed until last year by the European
Union, has used a combination of them to
create tools that allow people to control
the data they generate and collect about
their environment, for instance, on noise
levels and air quality. They are being
tested in Amsterdam and Barcelona.
Oasis Labs, another startup in San
Francisco, has built something similar for
health data. Its first service, which will
launch soon, will let users donate genetic
information to research projects.
Such data-dividing technologies are also
grist to the mill of those who liken data to
infrastructure. You have to travel many
digital roads—and combine many data
sets and streams—to get to new insights,
says Jeni Tennison, who heads the Open
Data Institute, a research outfit based in
Britain. Some will be private toll roads,
others public multi-lane highways, but
many need to be operated as shared
digital resources managed in a “club” by
users.
Yet technology alone will not be enough
to create these “club goods”. They also
need institutions that provide what Ms
Tennison calls “data stewardship”. Data
trusts, data co-operatives, personal data
stores—all are different in detail, but the
idea is essentially the same: they provide
a governance structure to organise access
to data in a way that takes into account
the interests of those producing and using
a particular sort of data.
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It is early days, but such data clubs have
started to pop up in many places.
MIDATA is a Swiss co-operative that
collects and manages members’ health-
care data. In Taiwan Audrey Tang, the
digital minister, has created an ongoing
“Presidential Hackathon” to set up “data
collaboratives”, including several for
environmental data. In Finland, Sitra, a
policy outfit, has launched a similar
competition to help get “fair data
exchanges” off the ground.
Most projects are still small and live on
the public dime, which raises doubts
about whether they will ever be a big part
of the data economy. But whether they
are successful or not is a question of
political will, says Francesca Bria, the
founder of the DECODE project. Cities
in particular, she argues, need to create
alternatives to the big online platforms,
which treat data they collect as their own.
A former chief technology officer of
Barcelona, she turned the city into a
model of what is possible, which is now
copied elsewhere in Europe. Not only can
Barcelona’s citizens control the data the
city holds on them, but its suppliers must
add the information they gather while
delivering services to the municipal data
commons.
Given their respective limitations, none
of the three sorts of data economies will
dominate, but they are likely to have
strongholds. In America data are treated
like oil: whoever extracts them owns
them. China—although it, too, has data-
hungry online platforms of its own,
including Alibaba and Tencent—is an
extreme example of a place where data
are public goods. They are ultimately
controlled by the government, which is
pushing firms to pool certain types, such
as health data. In Europe, many
regulators have come to see data as
infrastructure. The new European
Commission in Brussels has big plans to
support the creation of data trusts.
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April 2020
This sounds as if the EU is about to
condemn itself to remaining a tech
laggard. But this need not be the case. A
“fair data-economy”—one that takes into
account the interests of citizens and
consumers, who will generate much of
the fuel of the future—may prove to be
quite competitive, says Luukas Ilves, the
co-author of a report for Sitra in Finland.
If people, as well as firms, can trust the
continent’s data infrastructure, they will
be willing to share more and better data,
which means better services for
everyone. If such a “virtuous cycle” were
to take off, it would be quite a reversal of
the old world’s fortunes.
VIOLENCE IN INDIA
THREATENS ITS GLOBAL
AMBITIONS
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
U
ntil recently, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s campaign to
portray India as a rising power
seemed to be ticking along despite
troubles at home.
Much of the world remained quiet, or
cautious, in recent months as India began
locking up hundreds of opposition
politicians and activists without charge
across the country. Business executives
say they are too afraid to speak out about
shortcomings in the government’s
economic strategy. The press complains
of government intimidation.
Still, there was President Trump last
week, embracing Mr. Modi in New
Delhi, where streets were dotted with
posters declaring the “world’s oldest
democracy meets the world’s largest
democracy.”
But as the leaders celebrated each other
in India’s capital, Hindu mobs began
going after Muslim protesters in
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neighborhoods just a few miles away
while the police looked on or joined in.
And it was those images — the return of
sectarian violence on the streets, not the
carefully crafted show of international
partnership — that set the tone for India
on the world stage over the past week.
On Wednesday, Freedom House, a
nonpartisan democracy advocacy
organization, flagged India as a major
concern.
“The Indian government has taken its
Hindu nationalist agenda to a new level
with a succession of policies,” the group
said, “threatening the democratic future
of a country long seen as a potential
bulwark of freedom in Asia and the
world.”
In a rare move, the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights filed a
petition in India’s Supreme Court on
Tuesday to challenge a citizenship law
that critics say discriminates against
Muslims. Some of India’s closest
partners have begun criticizing its
treatment of Muslims and migrants, with
condemnations coming in from Iran, the
United States, Bangladesh and
elsewhere.
“If India loses that secular, democratic
identity then it loses what makes it
different than other countries in Asia. We
are all watching the riots in Delhi and
worry they are going down a dangerous
road that makes it harder for us to be a
strong advocate for India,” said
Representative Ami Bera, a California
Democrat who is the longest-serving
Indian-American in Congress.
Mr. Bera, who has long lobbied for closer
U.S. relations with India, added, “If they
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April 2020
want to become a global power, well, that
comes with certain responsibilities.”
Though there has been no sign yet that
big doors are closing internationally, the
violence in New Delhi has clearly opened
a new chapter of international
questioning of Mr. Modi’s agenda, and,
perhaps, of the investment climate in a
country hoping to turn its weakening
economy around. The current unrest
threatens one of India’s biggest appeals
for investors or potential allies: that it is
the world’s largest secular democracy.
In private conversations, diplomats are
worried that the rhetoric coming from
Mr. Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata
Party is creating an environment that
could lead to more violence. They point
out that B.J.P. members have been
labeling protesters and opposition
supporters as terrorists who were
supported by Pakistan. One minister led
crowds in chants of “shoot the traitors!”
One area where international officials
believe that India may be particularly
hurting itself is in its campaign to be
granted a permanent seat at the United
Nations Security Council along with
other nuclear powers. Speaking on
condition of anonymity, several
diplomats, including some from
countries that have publicly pushed for an
Indian seat on the Security Council, say
that their governments are now reluctant
to push the issue after India’s domestic
unrest has laid bare the effects of Hindu
nationalism there.
During his first campaign for prime
minister in 2014, Mr. Modi downplayed
his Hindu agenda. His first term was
marked by an energetic foreign policy
and alliance building. Domestically, he
focused on development and economic
reforms. He promoted himself as a
globalizer and unifier, friends with
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everyone: the Israelis and Palestinians,
the Russians and the Americans.
After winning a second term last year,
Mr. Modi’s government prioritized
issues that appealed to its Hindu-
nationalist base, and the prime minister
himself talked less about economic
reform.
In August, the government scrapped the
statehood of India’s only Muslim-
majority state of Kashmir and locked up
hundreds of its politicians and activists
without charge. In December, the
government approved a citizenship law
that would expedite citizenship for every
major religion in the region except Islam.
Coupled with a citizenship test, observers
worry the policies will
Now, though none of the Western world
leaders who have sought closer
partnership with India have yet to issue
strong warnings about the sectarian
violence in India — at least publicly —
more criticism is coming in.
On Tuesday, the U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights filed its
petition in India’s Supreme Court to
challenge the citizenship act, claiming
the law undermines the country’s
“human rights obligations.” India’s
foreign ministry has asked the Supreme
Court to overturn it.
Last week, the United States
Commission on International Religious
Freedom condemned the violence in
Delhi, after suggesting in December that
the American government consider
sanctioning India for the passage of the
citizenship law.
Iran, which has close ties with India and
has typically refrained from commenting
on others’ affairs, issued a rare
condemnation this week about India’s
treatment of Muslims.
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April 2020
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation
slammed the riots as “anti-Muslim” last
week. Just last year the O.I.C. had invited
India as its guest of honor, which Delhi
hailed as a diplomatic victory. While
India’s Muslims are a minority at home,
its Muslim population is the second
largest in the world. But it never had a
voice at the O.I.C. until last year, coveted
progress that is now at risk.
Allies worry that India’s domestic
turmoil is creating unnecessary tensions
with its neighbors, which could help
China in the long run as it tries to expand
its influence in South Asia.
Relations with Bangladesh are at a low,
after India’s powerful home minister,
Amit Shah, called illegal migrants from
Bangladesh “termites” last year when
justifying the need for the citizenship
test. Afghanistan, which rarely
comments on other countries’ affairs and
has a warm relationship with India, has
expressed its displeasure about the
sectarian undertones Mr. Modi’s
government has recently taken, which
includes jabs at Afghan migrants.
The country’s domestic politics are now
at risk of blowing up India’s global
ambitions. Two officials in the ministry
of external affairs, who spoke on
condition of anonymity to avoid being
punished, complained that when visiting
foreign dignitaries arrive in Delhi, they
spend most of their meetings defending
their country’s domestic policies instead
of fostering bilateral ties.
ome American officials worry that the
condemnations from the U.N. or the
United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom may
damage its bilateral relationship with
India and encourage Congress to halt
further weapons sales.
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But India’s government is likely betting economic agenda but actively

that the international criticism will blow
over. With the rise of nationalism
globally, leaders like Mr. Trump have
been less concerned about human rights
than protecting their own national
interests, which include military and
trade relationships with India.
India’s external affairs minister,
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, noted earlier
this week that the rise of nationalism
across the world was providing an
opportunity for India to shape its
domestic politics. He argued that India
would rise in a “polarized world.”
undermining it.”
While Mr. Modi’s government tends to
dismiss all criticism as “anti-Hindu,”
they are often sidelining some of their
biggest fans, like Representative Bera,
the California congressman, or friendly
neighboring countries.
“India is very sensitive to any criticism.
If they want to be that world leader, they
can’t be so sensitive all the time,” Mr.
Bera said. “The U.S. is criticized all the
time, and we take it.”.

India’s faltering economy may also pose

a threat to its ambitions.

The economy is experiencing its slowest

growth in nearly a decade, with
unemployment at a 45-year high.
Government officials seem more focused
on crushing political opposition than
shoring up the economy, observers
worry, and domestic turmoil might push
more international investors away.
Foreign direct investment in India slid
1.4 percent last quarter, after foreign
investment reached a 10-year low in
2019.

Mr. Modi’s “party has always had two WHOSE CULTURE?

objectives: advancing Hindu nationalism (DAWN EDITORIAL)
and reforming the economy. There was
this feeling that these two things had
equal weight, but that is now dissipating
and creating a lot of whiplash in corridors
across Washington,” said Milan
Vaishnav, the director of the South Asia
ON Dec 4, 2019, a federal minister
sent a rather peculiar letter to the Sindh
Program at the Carnegie Endowment for chief secretary, alerting him to a wave of
International Peace. “sub-nationalism” in universities,
“glorifying sub race cultures and
“Modi wants India to play a more active
highlighting nationalist movements”.
role globally, but all of that without
robust economic growth at home is an
He requested the provincial authorities to
empty shell,” Mr. Vaishnav said. “The
dissuade students from participating in
nationalism is not only taking over the
“political/ethnic/sectarian activities” by

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making university administrations issue
warnings to them.
In response, in a recent press release, PPP
Senator Raza Rabbani denounced the
letter, which he believed was
“suppressing Pakistan’s nationalities,
regional cultures and students” and was
in violation of academic freedom,
provincial autonomy and the
Constitution.
He included a passing reference to the
language riots in Bengal, and the dangers
of erasing Pakistan’s diverse ethnic
identities and languages in favour of
“One Unit” type policies.
Pakistan is special because of the
diversity of its people, and any attempt to
impose an artificial homogeneity is not
only bound to fail but can prove to be
dangerous, alienating smaller
nationalities by adding to their
grievances and sense of persecution.
Furthermore, to view students through
the lens of suspicion — as if they are
criminals in the making rather than the
leaders of the future — exposes a deep-
seated paranoia state authorities harbour
towards their own people.
These are not signs of a healthy society,
and what is perhaps most tragic is that
nothing about this attitude is new, but a
continuation of past lessons not learnt.
Earlier, Punjab University students
affiliated with religious parties have
‘intervened’ in the cultural events of
Baloch and Pakhtun students, including
uprooting and setting their camps on fire.
Isn’t it sad that the days reserved for
celebrating Pakistan’s vibrant cultures
and languages can descend so quickly
into violence — and that too at a
university, which is supposed to be a hub
of learning and exchange of ideas? Public
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April 2020
universities, in particular, allow students
from different parts of the country to
interact with different cultures — often
for the first time.
In the absence of such activities, we are
simply promoting a political culture of
intolerance and blind submission.
PAKSITANI TALIBAN’S FUTURE
BY: MUHAMMAD AMIR RANA
(DAWN)
A
N uncertain yet heartening peace
process has started off in
Afghanistan after the US and
Afghan Taliban signed a deal last week
in Doha. On the other hand, as many had
foreseen, Afghan stakeholders have stuck
to their positions, showing little
flexibility to accommodate each other in
the intra-Afghan reconciliation process.
This is an ideal situation for the spoilers
of peace, including state and non-state
actors who will try to create space for
themselves.
The US focus has largely remained on
extracting guarantees from the Afghan
Taliban eg they will not allow foreign
militants to operate from their territory.
The Taliban face two major challenges:
first, to push the level of violence down
to a point where they can initiate a
dialogue with other Afghan stakeholders,
and second, to fulfil their commitment to
not harbour Al Qaeda and other foreign
militants.
The first challenge has its own
complexities and is largely linked to
security and political stability inside
Afghanistan. But the second challenge is
even more critical because it implies
direct consequences for global and
regional security. In particular, the
Afghan Taliban’s approach will decide
the future of multiple militant groups,
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mainly the Pakistani Taliban who have
remained either associated with the
former or under its ideological and
political influence.
Some media reports have indicated that
the Afghan Taliban have conveyed to Al
Qaeda and the Tehreek-i-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP) to stop their operations in
Pakistan and against foreign forces in
Afghanistan. The most interesting bit of
news is that the Afghan Taliban
successfully convinced the Islamic State
(IS) leadership to stay calm at least for
the next few months. If true, these media
reports could be interpreted in several
ways.
First, despite all their tactical and
sectarian differences, the Afghan Taliban
enjoy supremacy over all shades of
militants in Afghanistan and can use this
leverage in both the intra-Afghan
dialogue and the larger reconciliation
process with the international
community.
Second, for IS and Al Qaeda, the US exit
and dialogue process will bring some
relief as both were major targets of the
US-led operations and drone strikes.
Both groups could use this interval to
rethink their strategies and restructure
their ranks. The IS, in particular, might
try to complete the task of relocating its
infrastructure along the borders of
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. These border
areas have a large Salafi population that
suits IS because of the sectarian affinity.
Also, apart from the Afghan and
Pakistani members, a number of IS
fighters come from Central Asia and
China’s Xinjiang region. If the group
succeeds in its relocation plan, it could hit
several targets.
It is not certain what exactly the Afghan
Taliban have in mind for Al Qaeda after
their deal with the US. They have agreed
that they will not allow Al Qaeda to use
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April 2020
Afghan soil for recruiting, fundraising,
training and launching attacks against the
US and its allies. But what would that
actually mean? Does that mean that the
Arab-origin leaders will be allowed to
stay in Afghanistan if they abandon
violence? Can the Taliban provide the Al
Qaeda leaders a passage to other lands
especially after they agreed to put travel
restrictions on foreign militants?
As far as the TTP or other, small
Pakistani groups are concerned, they are
also jubilant over the deal. Their upbeat
mood is understandable because they
were under allegiance to Mullah
Haibatullah, the Afghan Taliban supreme
leader. They may have gotten the
impression that they would get some
relief when the Afghan Taliban obtain
legitimacy and power. So far, the TTP is
suffering considerable losses in
Afghanistan where many of its
commanders have been killed in
mysterious ways. There was speculation
in the media that it was part of the pre-
deal understanding between the US and
Pakistan that TTP and Baloch insurgents
would not be allowed to have sanctuaries
in Afghanistan.
However, distancing themselves from
TTP groups would be a challenge for the
Afghan Taliban. Though the latter
hesitate to talk about the TTP in media
interactions, they have always
maintained a relationship with them. It is
evident that they have been intervening in
the TTP’s internal affairs whenever the
latter faced an internal crisis or disputes
over leadership. The TTP militants could
also have a better working relationship
with the field commanders of the Afghan
Taliban, who are allowed to make
decisions according to local
requirements.
Some in Pakistan’s security elite thought
that US talks with the Afghan Taliban
would completely disassociate the latter
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from the Pakistani Taliban sheltering in

Afghanistan. That meant the TTP’s
return to Pakistan. Last year, a media
delegation was told in Miramshah (North
Waziristan) that the state was working on
some mechanism to sort out the TTP and
its affiliated militant movements. The
military spokesperson stated that the
militants who wanted to return and live
peacefully would be welcomed. It is not
certain whether the offer still stands as
the TTP is a weaker group compared to
last year. However, it will have utility for
the Afghan Taliban if internal conflict
intensifies in Afghanistan.

Another worrying factor involves the What Has Pakistan Gained

sectarian groups, who are also inclined
towards the Afghan Taliban and share an From the US-Taliban Peace
almost similar worldview, besides Deal?
sectarian tendencies. Few sectarian
groups are still active in parts of BY: UMAIR JAMAL (THE
Balochistan and Sindh and their future DIPLOMAT)
strategies also depend on the Afghan
Taliban’s treatment of them. Recently,
the Taliban developed a working
relationship with Tehran; obviously, Iran
would not want the insurgent group to
have a working relationship with anti-
Shia groups. If the Taliban discourage
T he agreement between the United
States and the Afghan Taliban has
begun a process that can
potentially bring peace to Afghanistan.
sectarian groups, the latter might turn to
However, the agreement between the
IS.
Taliban and the United States has already
come under pressure from actors that feel
In many contexts, the future of anti-
sidelined or stand to lose politically from
Pakistan militant groups depends on the
the intervention of external states in
Afghan Taliban’s future strategy to deal
Afghanistan. In this regard, Pakistan’s
with them in terms of engagement or
role, which has remained crucial as far as
disengagement. In any case, the militants
the first phase of the peace talks is
will remain a threat to the internal
concerned, is being hailed by Afghan
security of Pakistan. The state has to look
leaders as Islamabad positions itself for a
into the issue seriously.
more entrenched space in the negotiation
process.

Since the agreement-signing ceremony,

both Washington and the Taliban appear
to have showcased an intent to uphold the
deal, but at the same time are determined
to use military power to defend their
interests. Already, the Taliban have

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attacked the Afghan forces. In apparent
retaliation, the United States has carried
out airstrikes against the Taliban and
urged the group to halt “needless
attacks.”
The situation emerged when the Afghan
President Ashraf Ghani refused to
endorse the Doha agreement’s clause that
calls for the release of a substantial
number of Afghan Taliban fighters
before the intra-Afghan dialogue begins.
President Ghani has asked the Taliban to
leave Pakistan before he can consider
their prisoner release demand: “If
Taliban have set release of their prisoners
as a condition for intra-Afghan talks, we
also have conditions; they should tell me
when are they going to leave Pakistan,”
said Afghan President Ashraf Ghani
while addressing rally in Nangarhar.
The presence of Pakistan’s foreign
minister in Doha during the signing
ceremony and engagement with the
Taliban and the United States’ leadership
at all critical gatherings underline the
country’s relationship with the group.
When asked by a journalist about
Islamabad’s role in reaching the deal,
Qureshi said this “wouldn’t have
happened without Pakistan.”
However, for the majority of the
mainstream political leaders and parties
in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s role is being
forced upon them against their will as is
the case with the Afghan Taliban
agreement. Ghani and other political
leaders are not happy with the agreement
as it gives everything to the Taliban and
takes away almost all leverage which the
Kabul regime may have against the group
or legitimacy in the eyes of the
international negotiators.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in
a recent interview criticized Ghani’s
position over the Afghan Taliban
prisoners release by saying that “There
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April 2020
will be lots of noise. Everyone is
competing for attention and time in the
media.” Reportedly, on Wednesday,
President Ghani refused to meet Zalmay
Khalilzad, America’s chief negotiator
with the Taliban. The next day, Khalilzad
met with the Taliban leadership to
discuss “next steps” of the agreement’s
implementation. It’s important to note
that these meetings and statements come
in the wake of U.S. President Donald
Trump’s phone call to the head of the
Taliban’s political office, Abdul Ghani
Baradar. “We had a good
conversation…the relationship is very
good that I have with the mullah,” Trump
said about his conversation with Baradar.
All these developments should be seen as
a win in Islamabad, for it offers Pakistan
everything that the country could have
hoped from its Afghan policy. Frankly,
Pakistan’s link with the Taliban and the
Haqqani network has become its greatest
asset as the ongoing negotiation phase
that Islamabad completely approves,
offers the country an ideal opportunity to
isolate its state and non-state detractors in
Afghanistan. Admiral Mike Mullen, the
former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs
of Staff once described the Haqqanis that
work closely with Afghan Taliban as
“veritable arm” of Pakistan’s intelligence
agencies. A couple of weeks ago,
Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior Haqqani
network leader and an ally of Afghan
Taliban penned an article in the New
York Times calling for dialogue to resolve
Afghanistan’s security woes. For
Islamabad, it’s a remarkable turn of
events: groups and leaders that America
once targeted and asked Pakistan to take
action against are being seen as reformers
and offered opportunities to sit across
diplomats and receiving calls from world
leaders.
Over the last few months, several high
ranking members of the Tehreek-e-
Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have been killed
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in Afghanistan as the country’s counter-
terrorism gains expand beyond its
borders. “TTP doesn’t operate from our
territories but from the Kabul held areas.
This question should be put to them,”
said Suhail Shaheen, the Afghan Taliban
spokesperson, while answering a
question on TTP’s sanctuaries in
Afghanistan.
Arguably, Pakistan and the Taliban have
everything to gain by protecting the first
phase of the peace deal and that is also
something which Islamabad may have
conveyed to the Taliban. The
understanding between the Taliban and
Pakistan has to be that the deal’s collapse
should not come from the Taliban; rather,
the responsibility of such an outcome has
to rest with Afghanistan’s political
leadership.
In the coming days and weeks, an
outcome of this nature appears likely as
political leaders and groups from all
quarters of Afghanistan scramble to
secure space with Taliban negotiators.
Policymakers in Islamabad realize the
opposition they face in Afghanistan’s
political landscape. Understandably,
Islamabad’s response to this sheer
rejection of Pakistan’s role is to further
push for reconciliation with the Taliban
argument as that retains Islamabad’s
clout in Afghanistan. “Attitudes will
have to be corrected along with deals …
those who wanted to create obstacles
were present before as well…we can
create a favorable environment, cannot
take a decision for you,” said Qureshi in
an apparent response to Ghani’s
comments relating to Taliban links with
Pakistan.
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April 2020
GSP PLUS EXTENSION
(DAWN EDITORIAL)
T HE European Union has extended
its unilateral trade concessions on
its imports from Pakistan under
the Generalised System of Preferences-
Plus system for another two years. The
EU uses the GSP-Plus scheme as an
incentive to encourage good governance
and sustainable growth in developing
countries the bloc trades with. The
scheme has in the past successfully
contributed to the efforts of some of the
EU’s trading partners such as Paraguay
that moved up the development ladder
and graduated from being a low- to
middle-income country. Thus, the
extension in the GSP-Plus status —
which is also recognition of the progress
made by Pakistan in the last two years on
further strengthening laws and
institutions to implement the 27 core
international conventions on human and
labour rights, environment, narcotics
control and corruption — is important for
the country.
Simultaneously, the biennial assessment
report, on the basis of which the facility
has been extended until 2022, points out
the shrinking space for civil society and
the growing curbs on freedom of
expression in the country. “In Pakistan, a
number of international NGOs are being
expelled, with implications for the
freedoms of those organisations still in
the country. Freedom of expression
including through the media is under
threat,” it reads. In the area of labour
rights, Pakistan has been clubbed
together with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and
Myanmar where concerns over freedom
of association remain. In the next two
years, the country needs to ease EU
concerns over these issues or risk losing
duty-free access which is crucial for
Pakistani products to maintain an edge in
the 27-member country bloc vis-à-vis
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similar products originating from its
trade rivals including India, Turkey,
Vietnam and China. The importance of
GSP-Plus for Pakistan’s exports can be
gauged from the fact that the nation’s
shipments to the EU have increased by a
hefty 65pc from 4.5bn euros in 2013 —
before GSP-Plus tariff concessions — to
7.5bn euros in 2019. In 2018, Pakistan
availed tariff concessions on exports
worth 5.9bn euros out of the total export
earnings of 6.7bn euros to EU states. At
a time when the country’s exports had
been declining or stagnating, it was
increasing its market share in Europe
thanks to the GSP-Plus scheme. Pakistan
is currently at a fiscal crossroads,
struggling to break out of its worst
economic slowdown ever. The only way
out of its financial troubles is through a
rapid boost in exports. The EU trade
concession can go a long way in helping
it achieve sustainable economic growth.
ON UNPAID LABOUR
BY: TOOBA SYED
A
ccording to the World Bank,
women make up only one quarter
of the total workforce in
Pakistan. Among the primary reasons for
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April 2020
this are deeply entrenched societal norms
(such as chardiwari) and gender
segregation. In a classical patriarchal
setting, women are confined to the
private sphere and their role is limited to
providing the unpaid care work that
enables men to work outside the home.
Even if women work outside the home,
most (for instance, those working in the
fields) are not accounted for in the
documented economy. In urban centres,
the concept of purdah is a major factor
preventing women’s participation in the
formal economy, which is especially true
for migrant women on whom the burden
of her entire community’s sense of
‘honour’ rests.
The system of patriarchy sustains itself
by hiding the economic and social
inequalities it creates. In a deeply
patriarchal society like Pakistan, women
are seen as the cultural reproducers of the
nation, and any role for them outside the
home is considered irrelevant and
insignificant. It is due to this that many
women stop working as soon as they
marry. In Pakistan, around 60 per cent of
women MBBS graduates do not go on to
work as doctors because of the
expectation that they must now dedicate
their time to caring for their family.
Women who, whether by necessity or
choice, do step into the public realm and
seek employment are not considered
worthy of the same social standing as
those who observe purdah. Nonetheless,
for neither woman is her unpaid labour
acknowledged.
According to some estimates, the total
cost of women’s unpaid care work is
almost a fourth of the country’s GDP. It
is this unpaid care work which forms the
basis of the paid work done mostly by
men. According to the ILO, on average,
men in Asia and the Pacific region spend
only 28 minutes per day on unpaid
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labour, which is just 8pc of their total
working time.
Meanwhile, women and girls are made to
assume the bulk of the responsibility for
unpaid care work — ie, child rearing and
education; caring for elderly, sick or
disabled family members; cooking and
cleaning; fetching water and fuel supplies
— working on average anywhere
between 12 to 16 hours a day. This
gender inequality in care work is directly
responsible for women’s low economic
participation.
Women, who assume most if not all care
responsibilities, are more likely to be
engaged in informal economy — ie, as
piece-rate, home-based or domestic
workers. Without the labour protections
afforded by formal employment,
women’s informal labour results in lower
and more precarious incomes, as well as
vulnerability to other forms of
exploitation.
Women from marginalised backgrounds,
particularly migrants, suffer the most
within this informal economy. According
to UNDP, Pakistan has one of the highest
rates of urbanisation in South Asia,
which means that people from across the
country move towards the cities in search
of better livelihoods. Inequalities in land
distribution and dispossession is one of
the key reasons for this migration — with
women owning less than 3pc land in
Pakistan — which then reproduces the
same spatial inequalities in urban centres.
These dispossessed women move to the
cities to work as domestic labour, with no
social guarantees or benefits. Middle-
class women who can afford to pay for
care work shift this burden onto them —
exposing them to abuse, occupational
hazards and horrible working conditions
— all the while perpetuating the
gendered division of labour.
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April 2020
For women who do enter the formal
workforce, this rarely results in a more
equitable division of labour at home.
Moreover, working women are mostly
limited to ‘respectable’ and ‘acceptable’
occupations that mimic care work;
undervalued, underpaid and further
reinforcing women’s primary gender role
as a caregiver, even in the public sphere.
The lack of recognition of women’s
unpaid labour also enables the state to
abdicate its responsibility to provide
essential public services. For example, if
only a fraction of people with severe
disabilities receive effective care from
the public sector, this means that women
are filling the gap left by the state not
providing basic universal healthcare. The
state thus performs a double disservice.
On the one hand, it fails to provide public
services; and on the other, it fails to
remunerate women for the endless hours
of labour they contribute towards the
country’s economic and social well-
being.
There is no disputing that the care
economy is maintained and run solely by
women. And it is time that this unpaid
labour is recognised through effective
legislation. However, this alone cannot
solve the issue of women’s low labour
participation. For that, men must start
assuming their fair share of nurture and
care responsibilities at home and in
society
DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS OF
PAKISTAN OVER INDIA
BY: KINZA SHAHEEN (DAILY
TIMES)
B
Kashmir
y abrogating articles 37-A and
370 on August 5, 2019 India has
tried to occupy the disputed
territory of India-held Jammu and
without taking into
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consideration the public opinion of the
Kashmiris. This forceful act of the Modi
government ignited tensions across the
valley. The people of India-held Jammu
and Kashmir have raised their voice
against the forceful legal occupation of
the disputed territory by India through the
nullification of the article 37-A and 370.
In order to suppress the voice of people
against the forceful occupation India put
eight million people of the held valley
under the curfew. Since then, occupied
Jammu and Kashmir has been under
severe security and communication lock
down. Children are out of schools and
politicians are held in prisons, while
business life is at its lowest ebb. By doing
so, India is putting an end to uprising of
the Kashmiris which started in 1947 as
India deployed troops in the valley to get
control of it. India considers the disputed
territory as its internal part while Pakistan
denies the Indian claims over Jammu and
Kashmir. Both states have fought
convention wars to resolve the issue of
Kashmir but still it remained unsettled.
The Indo-Pak rivalry over the Jammu and
Kashmir is a threat to the world peace as
both states possess nuclear weapons.
Taking notice of the severity of the issue,
time and again, world leaders have raised
this issue at the international forums such
as the United Nations and offered to
revolve this long-lasting issue between
the two states. The world’s community
raises its voice over the human rights
violation in India-held Kashmir.
However, India brushes off the
international concerns of violation of
human rights in the disputed territory by
declaring it as the internal issue.
US Commission for International
Religious Freedom has urged the Modi
government to ensure the security of the
minorities and take action against the
Hindu extremist targeting the Muslims
US President Donald Trump is also
among those world leaders to have
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April 2020
offered mediation to resolve the issue of
Kashmir. Trump arrived in India on
February 24 on a two-day official visit.
During the visit, he once again offered to
play the role of a mediator to resolve the
dispute of Kashmir in a joint press
conference with Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi in Dehli. The mediating
offer by Mr Trump negates the claim of
India over the disputed territory. It is a
diplomatic success of Pakistan. The
world is recognizing Kashmir as the
disputed territory not the internal issue of
India. Although, India made the disputed
territory as part of the Indian territory,
however, the international community is
not accepting it. Moreover, it indicates
that Kashmir is an international issue, not
the internal issue of India. The mediation
offer of the world leaders to resolve this
issue supports the stance of Pakistan over
the disputed valley. Pakistan is taking the
issue of Kashmir and Indian Muslims at
all the international forums.
India has not only been occupying the
disputed valley but also has been
involved in the religious bigotry against
the Indian Muslims. Following the recent
visit of US President Donald Trump,
approximately 40 peoples died in
violence ignited by the extremist Hindus.
Many shops and petrol pumps were set
on fire. The streets of Dehli have become
the battleground. This is evident that
Indian Muslims are not safe in India.
From time to time India blamed Pakistan
for the violation of the rights of the
minorities. India supported the Baloch
insurgents and blamed Pakistan for
suppressing the people of Baluchistan.
The capture of Indian spy Kulbushan
Yadav by the security forces indicates
that India is backing the people of
Pakistan to take weapons against its own
government. However, India not only
violates human rights in disputed valley
but also suppresses its own Muslim
citizens although it claims to be the
world’s largest democracy. Minister of
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Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari, while
addressing the 43rd Session of the United
Nations Human Rights Council in
Geneva, stated that India has put eight
million Kashmiris under lock down for
six months. The international community
is speaking against the anti-Muslims
policies of the Indian government. The
US lawmakers have criticized the Modi
government for the recent violence
following the visit of President Trump.
US lawmaker Pramila Jayapal quantified
that religious intolerance in India is
horrifying.
The US Commission for International
Religious Freedom has urged the Modi
government to ensure the security of the
minorities and take action against the
Hindu extremist targeting the Muslims.
Indian Muslims are protesting against the
enactment of the Citizenship
Amendment Act passed by the
parliament in December last year. The act
gives the right of citizenship to the illegal
minorities like Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Jean,
Buddhist and Christians who fled from
persecution from the states of Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Afghanistan prior to
December 2014. The act provides the
right of citizenship to the illegal migrants
within the time period of six years.
However, Muslim migrants from these
states are barred from becoming the
citizens of India. By doing so, India is
dividing its own population on religious
lines that ignited riots. The recent violent
riots are evident that India is not only
carrying state terrorism in Jammu and
Kashmir but also making the Indian
Muslims to suffer through policies such
as the CAA. Prime Minister Imran Khan
in a tweet warned the public to refrain
from taking any action against minorities
and their place of worship in reaction of
recent Deli riots against Muslims. The
Prime Minister reminded the nation that
minorities are also citizens of Pakistan
and any bigotry against the minorities
will be dealt with iron hand. In one of the
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April 2020
tweets Prime Minister Imran Khan
stated: “I want to warn our people that
anyone in Pakistan targeting our non-
Muslim citizens or their places of
worship will be dealt with strictly. Our
minorities are equal citizens of this
country.” Not only had this Pakistan
opened the Kartarpur corridor for the
Sikh community. The opening of
Kartarpur corridor indicates that Pakistan
respects the minority’s right of worship.
The nullification of Article 37-A and 370
and recent Dehli riots against the
Muslims exposed the India is carrying
out state terrorism against its own
citizens and for this it is facing
humiliation. However, the positive image
of Pakistan has developed in the
international community by opening
Kartarpur corridor and making the US-
Taliban deal a reality is a big diplomatic
achievement for Pakistan. The US
appreciated the efforts of Pakistan to take
down the threat of terrorism and playing
a vital role for US-Taliban peace
agreement. While diplomatically India is
under the pressure of international
community for nullifying article 37-A
and 370 and suppressing the Muslim
minority.
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AFGHANS WONDER: IS THE
PEACE DEAL JUST FOR
AMERICANS?
(FOREIGN POLICY)
T
he Taliban are happily talking
with Trump and standing down
against U.S. troops, but they say
they are "still at war" with Afghan
national security forces.
There’s a grim new joke going around
parts of Afghanistan: If you want to be
safe from attacks by the Taliban, move
next to a U.S. air base. “I have never seen
a dead American soldier,” said Fatteh
Sattar, a civil engineer from the northern
province of Baghlan. “It’s Afghans
killing Afghans, and I guess this will not
stop so quickly.”
The Taliban, for their part, are now
saying more clearly than ever that the
peace deal signed Feb. 29 in Doha, Qatar,
after 18 months of negotiations applies
only to a truce with U.S. forces, not to the
Afghan National Defense and Security
Forces. “We signed an agreement with
the Americans. But our jihad is not over,”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid
told Foreign Policy this week. “The
stooges who supported the invaders
during the last two decades are our
enemies. This might change after
additional talks but at the moment, we are
still at war.”
Even before the deal in Doha was signed,
skepticism among ordinary Afghans rose
as they watched the elected government
of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani—who
is currently engaged in fight for
legitimacy with his election rival, Chief
Executive Abdullah Abdullah—get left
out of the negotiations between U.S.
Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and
Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani
Baradar. Skepticism changed to outright
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April 2020
fear and terror as the Taliban launched
dozens of military operations against
Afghan forces in the last few days, killing
both armed soldiers and civilians,
according to the Afghan Ministry of
Interior.
But perhaps nothing has deepened the
cynicism of Afghans who support their
government—or made them feel so
delegitimized—as much as the news of a
35-minute phone conversation between
Baradar and Donald Trump on Tuesday,
the first ever such contact between a U.S.
president and a Taliban leader. Afterward
Trump told reporters: “We had a good
conversation. We’ve agreed there’s no
violence, we don’t want violence; we’ll
see what happens.” According to Suhail
Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman in Doha,
during the call the U.S. president called
the Taliban “a tough people” and
described their cause as one of
“defending their country.” The Taliban
eagerly promoted news about the
conversation.
Some observers suggested that Trump—
who has a demonstrated habit of forming
warm relations with autocrats who
respond positively to him—might even
be getting along better with the Taliban
than with the current democratically
elected government in Kabul. “If Trump
really had a 35 minute conversation on a
wide variety of issues with Mullah
Baradar, after concluding a deal with
him, is it too provocative to assert that the
US government at this moment in time
has better relations with the Taliban than
it does with President Ghani?” tweeted
Michael Kugelman, the deputy director
of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center
in Washington.
This is a touchy issue, since the peace
agreement calls for the formation of a
new “post-settlement Afghan Islamic
government” and Trump has no
relationship with Ghani, whose ascent to
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power came during the Obama
administration. “I think that the
formation of a new government will be
one of the main issues of upcoming intra-
Afghan talks,” said the Afghan American
writer and analyst Wahed Faqiri.
For ordinary Afghans, all this recalls an
old and bitter history dating to when the
Americans abandoned their country the
last time after funding the mujahideen
against the Soviet Union in the 1980s,
and the Taliban eventually emerged to
seize power. “A friend of mine joined the
Taliban. I did not care about it, but he
considers me and his other friends as
enemies. But now he is fine with the
Americans? What kind of deal is that? It
does not help us,” said Ali Hazara, a
driver and mechanic from Baghlan, one
of the most unstable provinces of the
country.
The Taliban began launching new attacks
after Ghani criticized the U.S.-Taliban
deal and announced that he would not
release 5,000 prisoners, one of the major
pillars of the agreement. After the deal
was signed, Sher Mohammad Abbas
Stanikzai, who leads Taliban’s political
office in Doha, claimed that there is no
real government in Kabul and that the
Taliban do not accept it anyway.
According to Faqiri, the new Taliban
relationship with Washington could even
lead to a strengthened Taliban
movement. “When they meet, their
mutual trust may grow,” he said.
All this would be a strange historical
irony for the Americans, since it was a
previous Taliban government that
harbored the al Qaeda terrorists who
attacked the United States on Sept. 11,
2001. Central to the new deal is a Taliban
guarantee that they will not do so again
and will cut all ties with al Qaeda as well
as prevent the nation from becoming a
safe haven for terrorist groups that might
plot against the United States. In return,
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April 2020
the United States will begin a significant
drawdown of U.S. troops within the first
135 days and a total withdrawal within 14
months.
The Taliban also have to participate in
upcoming intra-Afghan talks between
various political factions, but the new
round of peace talks may have a hard
time getting underway in these
conditions. “The deal between the
Americans and the Taliban made us very
optimistic. But it does not make sense if
such attacks continue,” said Shah
Mohammad Takal, a resident of the
Nadir Shah Kot district of Khost, where
on Monday a bomb detonated near a
soccer field in the district and killed three
civilians.
No group claimed responsibility for the
attack, and the Taliban declared they
were not linked to it. “The mujahideen
are not responsible for the attack in
Khost. We also don’t know who was
behind it, but there are many other
problems, like enmities among different
tribes, and they have nothing to do with
us,” Taliban spokesman Mujahid said.
But that explanation also raised the
possibility that other groups such as
Islamic State are seeking to further
undermine the peace deal by renewing
violence.
The United states says that for
withdrawal to go forward, the Taliban
must observe the conditions of the
agreement. On Wednesday, after more
than a week-long reduction in violence,
the U.S. military also conducted an
airstrike against Taliban fighters in
southern Helmand province to “defend”
their partners within the Afghan military.
There were no reports of casualties.
That same day U.S. Defense Secretary
Mark Esper complained that the Taliban
were making compliance with the deal
difficult. “The results so far have been
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mixed,” Esper told the Senate Armed
Services Committee. “The Taliban are
honoring their piece in terms of not
attacking U.S. and [Western] coalition
forces but not in terms of sustaining the
reduction in violence.”
And so confusion reigns. Ordinary
Afghans, meanwhile, are starting to ask
themselves what a new Afghan
government joined by the Taliban would
look like. Many plainly fear another reign
of terror like that in the 1990s. “The
Taliban distanced themselves from their
old regime and its practices. If they are
serious about that and respect our
freedoms, it’s fine. But if they don’t, I
truly fear their return,” said Nazifa Niazi,
a retired army officer from Kabul. Like
many other Afghan women, she
emphasized that going to work, school, or
university must not be prohibited by the
Taliban, who have made no such
promise.
Other women share Niazi’s opinion—
and her deepest fears. “I hope for peace.
But I don’t think that the Taliban will
respect us as women,” said Fahima, who
works as a civil servant in Kabul and
didn’t want her last name used. “They
oppressed us in the past, and they might
continue to do so. They attack girls’
school and burn them. They also use our
young men as cannon fodder. I do not
welcome their return if they don’t change
their attitude and behavior.”
PRODUCTION OR REAL
ESTATE?
BY: IFTIKHAR AHMED (THE
NEWS)
O
ne is caught by surprise when
looking at the government’s rush
for all kinds of SEZs (including
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April 2020
the federal and provincial level SEZs as
well as simple and priority SEZs-under
CPEC, along with certain voices for
specialized SEZs for SMEs).
The government is ready to accept all
available modes of financing including
public, public-private and solely private
sector financed SEZs, though without
any economic assessment of what we
need and, more importantly, what we can
offer.
Business plans, commercial viability,
human capital needs, our capacity to
timely deliver infrastructure and skills set
– these all ask for evidence and rigorous
analyses. Similarly, we need to learn
lessons from what we have done so far
and assess whether the targets are
achieved as envisioned. In a free float, we
can either end up confirming the
“Pollution haven hypothesis” or add
evidence to studies discussing “failed
SEZs around the world (including China,
Russia and India)”.
With this background, the question that is
most pressing is: Do we need real estate
activities to attract investors? Or is
investment needed so as to foster
production, assemble, package via
targeted technology transfer?
It is normal practice in Pakistan that
Industrial Estates (IEs) announce sale of
plots meant for production purposes and
the plots are soon sold out. However, the
failure on the part of the IEs is that they
never let the piece of land deliver in time.
With compromised promises, plot-
owners are not asked to initiate
production at under-serviced plots, while
time passes bringing further value to
plots and leaving owners happy for the
dividend ultimately earned. Thus, there is
a vicious circle at work where plots in the
IEs are all sold out but no production
activity takes place.
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The deserted Industrial and Export
Processing Zones offer best evidence in
this context. Later on, when sufficient
facilities are made, those willing to start
businesses cannot find affordable plots to
initiate business there. Even if they get
plots, the prices (having accumulated
premium) are so high it leaves startups
uncompetitive if they purchase such land.
Hence, the business prospects dry down
without even starting for both the initial
and the later potential investors.
In this context, the government needs to
come up with ingenious ways to stop real
estate activities at IEs, SEZs and PSEZs.
One possible way would be the provision
of conditional allotment of fully serviced
industrial plots for production purposes
with a definite timeline to initiate
production, following which the
allotment shall stand cancelled. Such a
mechanism is already put in place by
KPEZDMC.
and other attached commercial activities
can be auctioned or given on lease.
Thus, an initial endowment fund should
be allocated and business spaces should
be provided but only for clearly identified
and worked out sectors (where Pakistan
has comparative advantage or obvious
potential), thus improving the probability
of success. A special portion of the
endowment fund can be kept for new IEs
to facilitate experimentation in emerging
fields. A well-researched, targeted and
coordinated professional effort of
industrialization is needed to bring
Pakistan on to the desired path of feasible
industrialization.

Second, the government can come up

with policies where plots in the IEs are
provided on instalments, where each
payment is tied to a pre-announced stage
of development, thus eliminating real
estate activities on the part of providers.
Once the first option is inbuilt at a well-
connected IE with great business
viability, there would be minimum lag
from planning to production, ultimately
translating in greater investor’s NAB POWERS
confidence. (THE NEWS)
Lastly, if the government is serious
enough and solely convinced of the long
run real benefits of investment to the
economy (sustained FDI; employment
generation; innovation, integration &
T he judgment of the Islamabad
High Court (IHC) on the powers
of the National Accountability
Bureau (NAB) chief to issue arrest
warrants was eagerly awaited by he legal
technology transfer; becoming part of the
community and human rights activists.
global supply chain and regular stream of
Now that its in, many have termed it a
income in the form of taxes), it should
landmark verdict as it has clearly outlined
provide commercially-viable land
the parameters of the NAB chief''s
without cost to the businesses with a
authority to arrest any accused. The
viable business plan. To cover part of
honourable chief justice of the IHC had
expenses, the IEs’ commercial centers

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Nearpeer CSS Monthly Press Pack
been questioning the ‘absolute powers’
of the NAB chairman in multiple cases.
He raised similar queries in the cases of
former interior minister Ahsan Iqbal and
former prime minister Shahid Khaqan
Abbasi. But the recent detailed ruling
was issued while accepting the bail pleas
of two officials of the Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
The chief justice has also highlighted
loopholes in the investigations conducted
by ‘poorly trained’ NAB officers who
lack proper skills to probe white-collar
crimes.
While asserting the primacy of
fundamental human rights, the single-
member bench comprising Chief Justice
Athar Minallah dilated upon this
important issue. Justice Minallah has
termed the ‘unchecked powers’ of the
NAB chairman as contrary to the rights
guaranteed under the constitution of
Pakistan. He also set certain guidelines to
ensure the powers are used judiciously. It
is noteworthy that earlier, a division
bench comprising the CJ and Justice
Miangul Aurangzeb had granted pre-
arrest bail to the former PTA officials
through a short order. The court has ruled
that the power to incarcerate was not
absolute and unfettered and must not be
used arbitrarily and indiscriminately.
This verdict comes at a time when we
have seen many complaints regarding
NAB's powers, with there being growing
allegations that NAB has become prone
to use its powers recklessly. Which is
why there have been calls for a detailed
review of NAB powers and abuse of
authority. This verdict by the IHC will
strike a chord with all those who have
been asking for a revision of NAB's
detention powers. It must be stressed that
the IHC's observations about a lack of
professional expertise in NAB must be
taken seriously as without proper training
NAB investigations have proved to be
below par. The most important thing the
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April 2020
court has said is that while the corrupt
should fear NAB the innocent should be
confident they would not be wronged or
be dealt with unfairly. It is hoped that this
strong court verdict will alter the
perception that NAB has acted
vindictively in some cases so that the
process of accountability can gain the
trust of people across the country.
NEW PROVINCE PLAN
(DAWN EDITORIAL)
T he announcement of
government plan to create a new
province in south Punjab has been
overshadowed by widespread worries
a
over the administration’s unclear strategy
to tackle the coronavirus threat as the
number of affected people continues to
rise. The scheme, which was finalised at
a meeting chaired by the prime minister
on Wednesday, seeks to fulfil a key PTI
election promise to voters from south
Punjab where a new province is a popular
demand. The scheme was devised after
more than a year of discussions by a
committee set up to advise the
government on moving forward on the
plan. But the blueprint remains sketchy at
best. The details revealed so far show the
government wants to begin by building a
‘separate’ administrative infrastructure
for the proposed province by appointing
an additional inspector general of police
and an additional chief secretary in the
first phase. These appointments are to be
followed by changes in the Constitution
to form a new administrative and
legislative entity.
This isn’t the first attempt at carving out
a new province consisting of Punjab’s
southern districts. The demand has
existed in south Punjab — one of the
country’s most impoverished and
underdeveloped regions — for a long
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time. Both the PPP and PML-N tried in

recent years to capitalise on the economic
deprivation of this region, passing
resolutions and bringing hurriedly
drafted bills in parliament to showcase
their commitment to the cause. But
neither party ever organised an intra-
party debate to thrash out the issue nor
engaged other parties to build a broader
political consensus and a workable
legislative, administrative and financial
framework for the proposed province.

The PTI is no better than its rivals; it has

shied away from initiating a wider debate
on the matter within the party and
avoided reaching out to the opposition
parties, particularly the PML-N that THE ANTI-TERROR FIGHT
wants two new provinces in south BY: TARIQ KHOSA
Punjab: one comprising the areas under
the erstwhile Bahawalpur state and the
other consisting of D.G. Khan and
Multan divisions. The entire south
Punjab province scheme appears to be
part of the political rhetoric of the ruling
E XACTLY a year ago on March
15, an Australian gunman killed
51 worshippers in Christchurch.
The victims included nationals from
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan,
party which appears clueless on how to
Indonesia and Egypt as well as New
proceed, given that it doesn’t enjoy the
Zealand citizens. A rookie political
required two-thirds majority in
leader of a small nation demonstrated
parliament to get the Constitution
qualities of ‘strength and sanity’ while
amended. The division of a province like
pursuing an agenda of ‘compassion and
Punjab into two or three units is not easy.
community’. Prime Minister Jacinda
It is not only about tackling the
Ardern stood out as a ‘pragmatic idealist’
legislative, administrative and financial
in a field dominated by old men. Her deft
aspects of the exercise, it is also a hugely
handling of the shootings was noted
sensitive issue that may have serious
globally.
implications for the structure of the
federation and the future relationship of
Here is what she thought of the victims:
the federating units with one another and
“Regardless of whether someone had
the centre. Thus, the move requires the
been in New Zealand for a generation or
PTI to initiate a meaningful dialogue with
whether or not they moved here a year
the opposition, organise a parliamentary
ago, this was their home, and they should
debate on the issue and involve the real
have been safe and they should have been
stakeholders, ie the people of the region,
able to worship here … they are us.” Her
before implementing the scheme.
embrace of New Zealand’s Muslim
community stood out in a global
environment of divisiveness. Her
donning a headscarf while visiting a
mosque or condoling with bereaved
families “made a plausible case that

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kindness was a strength, compassion was
actionable, and inclusion was possible’’.
Within days of the tragedy, she proposed
and got passed New Zealand’s first far-
reaching gun control legislation.
Ardern set the precedent of never taking
the shooter’s name, and her moral
leadership forced the media to follow
suit. She enlisted the support of world
leaders including Emmanuel Macron and
Angela Merkel. Only two months after
the carnage, they came up with the
Christchurch Call, a meeting of heads of
state and tech companies “to commit to
preventing the spread of online terrorist
and violent extremist content”.
Some larger social media networks had
already established the Global Internet
Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) to
tackle the online influence of the militant
Islamic State group and to boost
coordination between governments and
networks “to study, respond to and
prevent extremist and terrorist activity on
the sharing platforms”.
Ardern is involved in the expansion of
the scope of this initiative as she feels
responsible. “That’s not to say this
started from zero, it did not. The work
that Jordan had done was really critical.
And equally the likes of the UK and
France. But I do think that the GIFCT
will be a fundamentally different body
because of the Christchurch Call,” she
told Time magazine recently, whose
correspondent praised her for moving
“enough chess pieces among the public,
governments and industry to offer the
beginnings of a coherent international
response to a problem against which
traditional power structures have proved
ineffective”.
One must reflect on the 2014 Army
Public School, Peshawar, tragedy that
left 144 people, including 132 children,
dead at the hands of six terrorist gunmen.
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April 2020
Grief-stricken parents and families
wanted accountability and an
investigation into the security lapses in a
garrison-guarded area. They wanted
exemplary punishment for those who
accepted responsibility for the gruesome
act. But the security establishment failed
to satisfy them. The terrorists’
spokesman who was in custody ‘escaped’
from a safe house in Peshawar recently.
The military’s silence speaks volumes.
As a member of a working group of
professionals who drafted the
Counterterrorism National Action Plan
(CT NAP) on Dec 21, 2014, I believe
policymakers should rethink the strategy
whose short-term gains through kinetic
means may not serve the long-term goal
of countering violent extremism. A
recent study reported a 13 per cent
decline in terrorist incidents in 2019
compared to 2018; however, 2019 saw
229 incidents, including four suicide
assaults, which claimed 357 lives.
What went wrong? Firstly, there was no
political ownership of CT NAP. Our
main recommendation for the prime
minister to lead this war was omitted.
Resultantly, the commander of an armed
and strong institution took the lead and
we saw the militarisation of our internal
security strategy. Apex committees were
constituted in the provinces with corps
commanders calling the shots. Political -
governments and civilian agencies
simply followed military doctrine.
Secondly, the political government lifted
the six-year moratorium on capital
punishment in order to execute convicted
terrorists. But a decision was taken to
execute some 5,000 convicts on death
row in all categories. Some 600 were
hanged. Glaring cases of injustice were
highlighted. But it was too late. Some
people went to the gallows as a result of
miscarriage of justice. Did all this act as
a deterrent? I doubt it. It is the certainty
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and not the severity of punishment that
deters criminality.
Thirdly, special military courts were
established for speedy trial of terrorists.
During their four-year duration, 344
accused were awarded capital
punishment in 650 cases decided by 14
such courts; 56 were executed. In
November 2018, the Peshawar High
Court acquitted several convicts
sentenced by military courts on grounds
of “malice in law and fact”. The
convictions awarded on callously
recorded routine “confessional
statements” were held to be in violation
of the right to a fair trial. The matter is
now before the Supreme Court.
In view of a recent Supreme Court
verdict in which terrorism has been
redefined and its application restricted to
the nature of offences under certain
conditions, anti-terrorism courts can be
more effective with the provision of a
day-to-day trial restricted to a week and
the right to be defended by a lawyer
guaranteed. Even those suspected of -
terrorism deserve due process.
Fourthly, CT NAP has the following
provisions for a communication strategy:
countering hate speech and extremist
material; ban on glorifying terrorism and
terrorist groups through print/electronic
media; and tangible measures against the
abuse of internet and social media for
terrorism. Task forces under the IT and
information ministers were to propose
comprehensive strategies but after dilly-
dallying for years, the government
recently came up with the Citizens
Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules
2020. Oddly, the cabinet approved these
rules framed without consultation with
concerned stakeholders.
In its manifesto, the PTI had an ambitious
plan for tackling terrorism by enforcing
NAP, continuing security operations
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April 2020
against militants, winning over ‘passive’
militants, and spreading counter-
narratives including through madressah
reform. Unfortunately, we do not have a
national security policy, and the internal
security policy approved by the previous
government remains unimplemented.
Our rookie prime minister needs to adopt
Ardern’s leadership traits and revisit the
CT NAP to come up with long-term
solutions to counter violent extremism.
YUVAL NOAH HARARI: THE
WORLD AFTER CORONAVIRUS
(FINANCIAL TIMES)
Humankind is now
facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest
crisis of our generation. The decisions
people and governments take in the next
few weeks will probably shape the world
for years to come. They will shape not
just our healthcare systems but also our
economy, politics and culture. We must
act quickly and decisively. We should
also take into account the long-term
consequences of our actions. When
choosing between alternatives, we should
ask ourselves not only how to overcome
the immediate threat, but also what kind
of world we will inhabit once the storm
passes. Yes, the storm will pass,
humankind will survive, most of us will
still be alive — but we will inhabit a
different world. Many short-term
emergency measures will become a
fixture of life. That is the nature of
emergencies. They fast-forward
historical processes. Decisions that in
normal times could take years of
deliberation are passed in a matter of
hours. Immature and even dangerous
technologies are pressed into service,
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because the risks of doing nothing are
bigger. Entire countries serve as guinea-
pigs in large-scale social experiments.
What happens when everybody works
from home and communicates only at a
distance? What happens when entire
schools and universities go online? In
normal times, governments, businesses
and educational boards would never
agree to conduct such experiments. But
these aren’t normal times. In this time of
crisis, we face two particularly important
choices. The first is between totalitarian
surveillance and citizen empowerment.
The second is between nationalist
isolation and global solidarity. Under-
the-skin surveillance In order to stop the
epidemic, entire populations need to
comply with certain guidelines. There are
two main ways of achieving this. One
method is for the government to monitor
people, and punish those who break the
rules. Today, for the first time in human
history, technology makes it possible to
monitor everyone all the time. Fifty years
ago, the KGB couldn’t follow 240m
Soviet citizens 24 hours a day, nor could
the KGB hope to effectively process all
the information gathered. The KGB
relied on human agents and analysts, and
it just couldn’t place a human agent to
follow every citizen. But now
governments can rely on ubiquitous
sensors and powerful algorithms instead
of flesh-and-blood spooks.
In their battle against the coronavirus
epidemic several governments have
already deployed the new surveillance
tools. The most notable case is China. By
closely monitoring people’s
smartphones, making use of hundreds of
millions of face-recognising cameras,
and obliging people to check and report
their body temperature and medical
condition, the Chinese authorities can not
only quickly identify suspected
coronavirus carriers, but also track their
movements and identify anyone they
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April 2020
came into contact with. A range of
mobile apps warn citizens about their
proximity to infected patients. About the
photography
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of
Israel recently authorised the Israel
Security Agency to deploy surveillance
technology normally reserved for
battling terrorists to track coronavirus
patients. When the relevant
parliamentary subcommittee refused to
authorise the measure, Netanyahu
rammed it through with an “emergency
decree”. You might argue that there is
nothing new about all this. In recent years
both governments and corporations have
been using ever more sophisticated
technologies to track, monitor and
manipulate people. Yet if we are not
careful, the epidemic might nevertheless
mark an important watershed in the
history of surveillance. Not only because
it might normalise the deployment of
mass surveillance tools in countries that
have so far rejected them, but even more
so because it signifies a dramatic
transition from “over the skin” to “under
the skin” surveillance. Hitherto, when
your finger touched the screen of your
smartphone and clicked on a link, the
government wanted to know what
exactly your finger was clicking on. But
with coronavirus, the focus of interest
shifts. Now the government wants to
know the temperature of your finger and
the blood-pressure under its skin. The
emergency pudding One of the problems
we face in working out where we stand
on surveillance is that none of us know
exactly how we are being surveilled, and
what the coming years might bring.
Surveillance technology is developing at
breakneck speed, and what seemed
science-fiction 10 years ago is today old
news. As a thought experiment, consider
a hypothetical government that demands
that every citizen wears a biometric
bracelet that monitors body temperature
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and heart-rate 24 hours a day. The
resulting data is hoarded and analysed by
government algorithms. The algorithms
will know that you are sick even before
you know it, and they will also know
where you have been, and who you have
met. The chains of infection could be
drastically shortened, and even cut
altogether. Such a system could arguably
stop the epidemic in its tracks within
days. Sounds wonderful, right? The
downside is, of course, that this would
give legitimacy to a terrifying new
surveillance system. If you know, for
example, that I clicked on a Fox News
link rather than a CNN link, that can
teach you something about my political
views and perhaps even my personality.
But if you can monitor what happens to
my body temperature, blood pressure and
heart-rate as I watch the video clip, you
can learn what makes me laugh, what
makes me cry, and what makes me really,
really angry. It is crucial to remember
that anger, joy, boredom and love are
biological phenomena just like fever and
a cough. The same technology that
identifies coughs could also identify
laughs. If corporations and governments
start harvesting our biometric data en
masse, they can get to know us far better
than we know ourselves, and they can
then not just predict our feelings but also
manipulate our feelings and sell us
anything they want — be it a product or
a politician. Biometric monitoring would
make Cambridge Analytica’s data
hacking tactics look like something from
the Stone Age. Imagine North Korea in
2030, when every citizen has to wear a
biometric bracelet 24 hours a day. If you
listen to a speech by the Great Leader and
the bracelet picks up the tell-tale signs of
anger, you are done for.
You could, of course, make the case for
biometric surveillance as a temporary
measure taken during a state of
emergency. It would go away once the
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emergency is over. But temporary
measures have a nasty habit of outlasting
emergencies, especially as there is
always a new emergency lurking on the
horizon. My home country of Israel, for
example, declared a state of emergency
during its 1948 War of Independence,
which justified a range of temporary
measures from press censorship and land
confiscation to special regulations for
making pudding (I kid you not). The War
of Independence has long been won, but
Israel never declared the emergency over,
and has failed to abolish many of the
“temporary” measures of 1948 (the
emergency pudding decree was
mercifully abolished in 2011). Even
when infections from coronavirus are
down to zero, some data-hungry
governments could argue they needed to
keep the biometric surveillance systems
in place because they fear a second wave
of coronavirus, or because there is a new
Ebola strain evolving in central Africa, or
because . . . you get the idea. A big battle
has been raging in recent years over our
privacy. The coronavirus crisis could be
the battle’s tipping point. For when
people are given a choice between
privacy and health, they will usually
choose health. The soap police Asking
people to choose between privacy and
health is, in fact, the very root of the
problem. Because this is a false choice.
We can and should enjoy both privacy
and health. We can choose to protect our
health and stop the coronavirus epidemic
not by instituting totalitarian surveillance
regimes, but rather by empowering
citizens. In recent weeks, some of the
most successful efforts to contain the
coronavirus epidemic were orchestrated
by South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.
While these countries have made some
use of tracking applications, they have
relied far more on extensive testing, on
honest reporting, and on the willing co-
operation of a well-informed public.
Centralised monitoring and harsh
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punishments aren’t the only way to make
people comply with beneficial
guidelines. When people are told the
scientific facts, and when people trust
public authorities to tell them these facts,
citizens can do the right thing even
without a Big Brother watching over their
shoulders. A self-motivated and well-
informed population is usually far more
powerful and effective than a policed,
ignorant population. Consider, for
example, washing your hands with soap.
This has been one of the greatest
advances ever in human hygiene. This
simple action saves millions of lives
every year. While we take it for granted,
it was only in the 19th century that
scientists discovered the importance of
washing hands with soap. Previously,
even doctors and nurses proceeded from
one surgical operation to the next without
washing their hands. Today billions of
people daily wash their hands, not
because they are afraid of the soap police,
but rather because they understand the
facts. I wash my hands with soap because
I have heard of viruses and bacteria, I
understand that these tiny organisms
cause diseases, and I know that soap can
remove them. But to achieve such a level
of compliance and co-operation, you
need trust. People need to trust science,
to trust public authorities, and to trust the
media. Over the past few years,
irresponsible politicians have
deliberately undermined trust in science,
in public authorities and in the media.
Now these same irresponsible politicians
might be tempted to take the high road to
authoritarianism, arguing that you just
cannot trust the public to do the right
thing. Normally, trust that has been
eroded for years cannot be rebuilt
overnight. But these are not normal
times. In a moment of crisis, minds too
can change quickly. You can have bitter
arguments with your siblings for years,
but when some emergency occurs, you
suddenly discover a hidden reservoir of
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April 2020
trust and amity, and you rush to help one
another. Instead of building a
surveillance regime, it is not too late to
rebuild people’s trust in science, in public
authorities and in the media. We should
definitely make use of new technologies
too, but these technologies should
empower citizens. I am all in favour of
monitoring my body temperature and
blood pressure, but that data should not
be used to create an all-powerful
government. Rather, that data should
enable me to make more informed
personal choices, and also to hold
government accountable for its decisions.
If I could track my own medical
condition 24 hours a day, I would learn
not only whether I have become a health
hazard to other people, but also which
habits contribute to my health. And if I
could access and analyse reliable
statistics on the spread of coronavirus, I
would be able to judge whether the
government is telling me the truth and
whether it is adopting the right policies to
combat the epidemic. Whenever people
talk about surveillance, remember that
the same surveillance technology can
usually be used not only by governments
to monitor individuals — but also by
individuals to monitor governments. The
coronavirus epidemic is thus a major test
of citizenship. In the days ahead, each
one of us should choose to trust scientific
data and healthcare experts over
unfounded conspiracy theories and self-
serving politicians. If we fail to make the
right choice, we might find ourselves
signing away our most precious
freedoms, thinking that this is the only
way to safeguard our health. We need a
global plan The second important choice
we confront is between nationalist
isolation and global solidarity. Both the
epidemic itself and the resulting
economic crisis are global problems.
They can be solved effectively only by
global co-operation. First and foremost,
in order to defeat the virus we need to
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share information globally. That’s the big
advantage of humans over viruses. A
coronavirus in China and a coronavirus in
the US cannot swap tips about how to
infect humans. But China can teach the
US many valuable lessons about
coronavirus and how to deal with it. What
an Italian doctor discovers in Milan in the
early morning might well save lives in
Tehran by evening. When the UK
government hesitates between several
policies, it can get advice from the
Koreans who have already faced a similar
dilemma a month ago. But for this to
happen, we need a spirit of global co-
operation and trust. In the days ahead,
each one of us should choose to trust
scientific data and healthcare experts
over unfounded conspiracy theories and
self-serving politicians Countries should
be willing to share information openly
and humbly seek advice, and should be
able to trust the data and the insights they
receive. We also need a global effort to
produce and distribute medical
equipment, most notably testing kits and
respiratory machines. Instead of every
country trying to do it locally and
hoarding whatever equipment it can get,
a co-ordinated global effort could greatly
accelerate production and make sure life-
saving equipment is distributed more
fairly. Just as countries nationalise key
industries during a war, the human war
against coronavirus may require us to
“humanise” the crucial production lines.
A rich country with few coronavirus
cases should be willing to send precious
equipment to a poorer country with many
cases, trusting that if and when it
subsequently needs help, other countries
will come to its assistance. We might
consider a similar global effort to pool
medical personnel. Countries currently
less affected could send medical staff to
the worst-hit regions of the world, both in
order to help them in their hour of need,
and in order to gain valuable experience.
If later on the focus of the epidemic
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shifts, help could start flowing in the
opposite direction. Global co-operation is
vitally needed on the economic front too.
Given the global nature of the economy
and of supply chains, if each government
does its own thing in complete disregard
of the others, the result will be chaos and
a deepening crisis. We need a global plan
of action, and we need it fast. Another
requirement is reaching a global
agreement on travel. Suspending all
international travel for months will cause
tremendous hardships, and hamper the
war against coronavirus. Countries need
to co-operate in order to allow at least a
trickle of essential travellers to continue
crossing borders: scientists, doctors,
journalists, politicians, businesspeople.
This can be done by reaching a global
agreement on the pre-screening of
travellers by their home country. If you
know that only carefully screened
travellers were allowed on a plane, you
would be more willing to accept them
into your country.
Unfortunately, at present countries
hardly do any of these things. A
collective paralysis has gripped the
international community. There seem to
be no adults in the room. One would have
expected to see already weeks ago an
emergency meeting of global leaders to
come up with a common plan of action.
The G7 leaders managed to organise a
videoconference only this week, and it
did not result in any such plan. In
previous global crises — such as the
2008 financial crisis and the 2014 Ebola
epidemic — the US assumed the role of
global leader. But the current US
administration has abdicated the job of
leader. It has made it very clear that it
cares about the greatness of America far
more than about the future of humanity.
This administration has abandoned even
its closest allies. When it banned all
travel from the EU, it didn’t bother to
give the EU so much as an advance notice
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— let alone consult with the EU about
that drastic measure. It has scandalised
Germany by allegedly offering $1bn to a
German pharmaceutical company to buy
monopoly rights to a new Covid-19
vaccine. Even if the current
administration eventually changes tack
and comes up with a global plan of
action, few would follow a leader who
never takes responsibility, who never
admits mistakes, and who routinely takes
all the credit for himself while leaving all
the blame to others. If the void left by the
US isn’t filled by other countries, not
only will it be much harder to stop the
current epidemic, but its legacy will
continue to poison international relations
for years to come. Yet every crisis is also
an opportunity. We must hope that the
current epidemic will help humankind
realise the acute danger posed by global
disunity. Humanity needs to make a
choice. Will we travel down the route of
disunity, or will we adopt the path of
global solidarity? If we choose disunity,
this will not only prolong the crisis, but
will probably result in even worse
catastrophes in the future. If we choose
global solidarity, it will be a victory not
only against the coronavirus, but against
all future epidemics and crises that might
assail humankind in the 21st century.
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PREVENTING ABUSE
BY: Akhlaq Ullah Tarar
(DAWN)
C
HILD abuse and neglect include
both commission of physical,
sexual and psychological abuse
and omission in failing to provide
emotional, educational needs and
protection from harm. Too often,
incidents of child abuse surface, leading
to public outcry and arrests of
perpetrators, and then everybody retreats
to their corner.
The recently passed Zainab Alert,
Response and Recovery Act (ZARRA) is
perhaps the first instance by the state of
truly recognising the severity and
urgency of this issue. All the same, three
nagging questions remain: (i) what are
the main causes of such incidents
recurring; (ii) can ZARRA adequately
prevent such incidents; (iii) what
simultaneous steps can state and society
take to create a safe, stable and nurturing
environment for children?
First, it must be understood that child
abuse cases are significantly unreported,
especially those of minor girls, owing to
the social stigma attached to being a
victim. Despite being a flashpoint for
child abuse in the news, in Kasur district,
for example, only 79 cases of child abuse
(including rape and sodomy of minors)
involving 94 accused persons were
lodged in 2019. Fifty-nine cases of
attempted rape and sodomy cases
involving 62 accused persons were also
lodged.
Second, perpetrators of these heinous
crimes are often themselves victims of
abuse during childhood. During police
investigation, the accused in the Zainab
and Chunian rape-murder cases both
revealed that they were raped as children.
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When a child is abused at such an early
age, it can leave indelible marks on their
psyche.
Third, in almost all these cases, predators
find easy targets among poor victims; the
more in need, the easier it is to entice
them with paltry sums of money or other
gifts. Even Zainab was lured away in
such a manner.
And fourth, barring the occasional media
frenzy, our society is generally apathetic
and desensitised towards the issue of
child abuse. Perpetrators are viewed
simply as psychopathic or monstrous
outliers instead of people hidden in plain
sight.
The recently passed ZARRA is an
encouraging step. The act is a much-
needed attempt to chalk out an
institutional response. It is holistic and
integrated in the sense that it involves
more than one department in the recovery
of missing and abducted children. On the
response level, it constitutes a dedicated
agency with an early warning system —
helpline 1099 — to report cases.
Convicted offenders will now be
sentenced to at least 10 years behind bars,
up to a maximum of life imprisonment.
But still its approach is reactionary and
severe. There are few areas that need
further improvement.
First, ZARRA altogether fails to address
child abuse prevention. Incarceration
alone cannot act as an effective deterrent
in the absence of an overarching and
efficient preventive mechanism, which
has been ignored. Second, rehabilitation
of victims after their release from hostile
custody is an area that also needs
attention.
Then, the law envisages an alert system
along the lines of the US Amber Alert,
which was named after a nine-year-old
girl who was abducted and subsequently
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April 2020
killed in Texas in 1996. The alert system
has yielded a significant number of
recoveries of lost children in the US.
However, replicating the same model in
Pakistan doesn’t necessarily guarantee
the same results. In fact, the dynamics of
our society are different.
The alert system works well in urban
societies with an extensively integrated
service structure. If ZARRA is
instantaneously circulated to the general
public as outlined in Article 5(a) of the
act, it will create more panic and
insecurity, and in the bargain be of little
help, if at all. Information concerning the
descriptions of missing children should
be shared among concerned quarters only
— related government departments,
intelligence agencies and the population
of a specific area.
In order to forestall incidents of child
abuse, state and society should
collectively step up efforts. At a societal
level, it starts primarily with positive
parenting in a family where children are
provided care and nurtured at home.
They are taught the difference between
appropriate and inappropriate exposure
and contact. They are closely monitored
in the company of non-immediate
relatives, family friends and in
seminaries.
At a state level, a more aggressive and
thoughtful response is needed; local
police must devise a surveillance
mechanism to check the activities of
desperate, unemployed, notorious
elements in society, especially those
involved in child abuse incidents in the
past, as well as places like internet cafés,
snooker clubs, mechanic workshops and
ill-reputed seminaries.
To protect its citizens from any assault is
the fundamental duty of the state. A state
cannot afford ignorance, nor can it allow
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its citizens’ lives to be ruined by

predators.

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