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Default narrative

PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday came to the rescue of his finance team led
by Ishaq Dar, amid continuing speculation that Pakistan was on the verge of a debt
default.

“Pakistan will not default,” he declared at a news conference as he explained that his administration
was forced to accept tough IMF loan conditions because the multilateral lender no longer trusted
Pakistan, thanks to the former PTI government’s failure to honour its commitments.

But Mr Sharif’s reassurances may not be enough. There are reasons why speculation has persisted,
even though Pakistan hasn’t missed or delayed a single debt payment since the financial crisis set in
earlier this year. At the moment, a major concern is foreign exchange reserves dropping to a four-
year low of $6.7bn as inflows dry up on account of Islamabad-IMF tensions.

The disagreements between Pakistan and the Fund include, but are not limited to, the government’s
flood-related expenditure estimates and serious fiscal slippages because of the failure to collect
enough tax revenues to meet budgeted targets.

On top of that, a certain narrative is being pushed by the PTI to pressure the coalition government to
announce early elections. Before the news conference, PTI chief Imran Khan had already painted a
dire picture of the economy while calling for snap elections to pull the nation out of the current crisis.
Failure to do so would push us to default, he had warned.

No matter how exaggerated that assertion may be, it is fed by deteriorating economic conditions,
especially falling reserves, and the delay in policy-level talks with the IMF for the disbursement of the
next loan tranche of $1.2bn.

The PML-N shouldn’t blame the opposition for exploiting the situation, however: even its previous
finance minister, Miftah Ismail, has been issuing similar warnings of late.

The PML-N-led coalition government may indeed have warded off the possibility of a near-term
default. However, it continues to face mounting challenges: spiralling inflation, massive devaluation
of the rupee, elevated fuel and power prices, and shrinking foreign currency reserves.

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Together, these are cause for serious concern. The present crisis results from inconsistent economic
policies, the pursuit of flawed priorities that have favoured politically powerful lobbies, and
questionable fiscal governance.

Each government has blamed its predecessor for the bad economy it inherited, but none has done
much to fix it. With new elections — if held as per schedule — less than a year away, the PML-N is
clearly in a bind as economic decisions, such as the hike in fuel prices, are eroding its political capital
in its fortress of central Punjab and elsewhere.

It is now looking for shortcuts to please the voters. But that is a dangerous road to travel as past
experience has shown us. It is time political considerations stopped dictating economic policy. Or
these fears could well become a reality.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2022

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Spurious drugs

THE rampant sale of fake or substandard medicines in Pakistan is literally a matter of

life and death. This fact was tragically established after the Punjab Institute of
Cardiology scandal a decade ago, in which a large number of patients died after they
were administered spurious drugs at the government-run facility. It was in the
aftermath of this tragedy that Drap — the national drug regulator — was established,
ostensibly to keep an eye on the fake medicine racket. Yet 10 years down the line little
seems to have changed, as a recent Drap survey of drugs being sold in Karachi has
shown. As reported in this paper, the regulator found that several fake and spurious
medicines were being sold under different brand names in the metropolis. Some of
these ‘medicines’ were found to be nothing more than chalk or starch. These
disclosures come only weeks after Sindh’s drug testing lab found that 18 samples of
lifesaving drugs confiscated from Karachi and Hyderabad had no active
pharmaceutical ingredient.

It is a travesty of immense proportions that unscrupulous elements are playing with the lives of
patients in such brazen fashion, with the state apparently unmoved. Perhaps the government is
waiting for another PIC-like tragedy to take action. For starters, those responsible for manufacturing
fake and substandard drugs need to be hauled up before the law. It is not too difficult for Drap, aided
by law-enforcement officials and provincial health departments, to crack down on the producers of
substandard drugs, if the intention is there. Secondly, all pharmacies must be warned that if dubious
drugs are found on their premises, action will be taken. The public also has a responsibility in this
regard; too often people ask salespersons at medical stores to recommend medicines, instead of
consulting doctors or qualified pharmacists. Consumers should only buy drugs from reputable
medical stores, with the latter supervised by capable pharmacists. While Drap bears primary
responsibility for keeping counterfeit medicines off the market, the authority needs the full support
of the health administration as well as the law-enforcement agencies to accomplish this task.
Moreover, the state must ensure that medicines available at public health facilities are of satisfactory
quality. While more well-off segments of society can afford private healthcare and imported
medicines, the poor have no option but to turn to the state for healthcare, which is why quality drugs
need to be available at public hospitals.

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Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2022

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Fitting put-down

THE symbolism in Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar being
tasked with visiting the world’s most misogynistic regime, the Afghan Taliban, for talks
was potent. In a country where women have been forced to disappear from public life,
Pakistan — which itself does not have a stellar global reputation for gender equality —
was being represented by a woman at the highest levels of government. It was a PR
triumph — except for those who can only see the world through a sexist lens. On
Monday, the lone JI member of the National Assembly, Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali
proved his affinity with the latter. During a discussion on the Chaman border clash, Mr
Chitrali expressed his reservations over the government’s decision to send Ms Khar to
Kabul, saying it had perhaps had a negative effect on the Afghan regime. Several
lawmakers, mostly from the PPP and PML-N, berated the MNA for his remark, after
which he agreed to withdraw it and tendered an apology.

Unfortunately, far too many share this myopic worldview. That is why a firm put-down was needed,
and given. There must be no latitude for words that objectify and demean women. And legislators
across the board must consider this a red line, even in today’s toxic political culture, and set the right
precedent for society. Instead, several party leaders appear to see such reprehensible language as
part of their political arsenal. Maulana Fazlur Rehman is a frequent offender, with PTI’s enthusiastic
women supporters in particular throwing him into a moral panic several times, most recently about a
fortnight ago. But Imran Khan, who has robustly called out the maulana’s sexist musings against his
party’s female cadres more than once, himself made a highly offensive remark about Maryam Nawaz
in a speech some months ago. No one from his party, not even the women lawmakers, uttered a word
of reproach. If things are to change, an attack on one woman must be considered an attack on all
women.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2022

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Trouble on the western frontier

The writer is an author and journalist.

IF there were any illusions about Pakistan having secured peace on its western frontier
after the Afghan Taliban’s return to power last August, they should have been dispelled
by now.

The escalation in border clashes and the Afghan Taliban’s patronage of the Pakistani outlawed
militant network have heightened national security concerns in this country. The mounting tension
between the two countries is ominous.

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It is not only Pakistani security forces but also the civilian population that is being targeted in cross-
border attacks. The latest incident of gunfire and heavy artillery shelling by Afghan security forces at
the Chaman border has left several civilians dead or wounded. Some casualties have also been
reported on the Afghan side in retaliatory action by Pakistan’s security forces. The border was
opened after an apology from the Afghan side but the situation remains highly combustible.

Over the last few months, there has been a marked increase in the exchange of fire between the two
forces, resulting in the frequent closure of the Chaman border, affecting trade and travel. Last
month, the border was closed for several days after an Afghan security guard shot and killed a Pakis­-
tani security official and wounded two others.

A major cause of tension has been the Taliban objection to Pakistan’s fencing of the border. Last
week’s exchange of fire started when Afghans tried to cut a part of the border fencing.

It is not only Pakistani security forces but

also civilians that are being targeted in
cross-border attacks.

While Chaman, which is the busiest transit trade route to Afghanistan, has been the major flashpoint,
clashes have also been reported from other crossings in the former tribal districts. These point to the
increasingly confrontational ties between Pakistan and the Taliban regime next door.

In fact, in challenging Pakistan’s right to fence the Durand Line area, the Taliban have gone so far as
to remove barriers at several points of the frontier.

In order to deter illegal traffic and formalise the border, Pakistan has been putting up barricades
along the 2,400-kilometre-long frontier, which had hitherto allowed easy movement for tribes
straddling both sides. Like other Afghan governments in the past, the Taliban administration, too,
does not recognise the Durand Line as a permanent border.

It seeks to have open frontiers for the Pakhtun tribesmen inhabiting the region. It may be a valid
demand that the tribesmen living on both sides of the border should be allowed free movement, but
the refusal to recognise the border doesn’t have any justification.

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In many cases, Pakistani Taliban being sheltered by the Kabul administration have been involved in
dismantling the demarcation. Pakistan has handled this provocation prudently so far, to avoid
making it a contentious issue. But the spike in border clashes is alarming.

In fact, the border fire escalation is symptomatic of a more serious problem. The Afghan Taliban’s
increasingly aggressive stance cannot be seen in isolation. It is not just the border stand-off but also
the militant sanctuaries in Afghanistan that have caused strains in relations between Islamabad and
the Taliban regime.

The situation has become highly volatile after the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) called off
its ceasefire with Pakistan and stepped up cross-border attacks on Pakistani security forces in the
tribal districts.

Curiously, the latest escalation on the Chaman border has happened days after the attempt on the life
of Pakistan’s envoy in Kabul. The incident carried the mark of the TTP, which is closely aligned with
the militant Islamic State group’s Khorasan chapter (IS-K) that claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Afghan Taliban’s overt patronage of the outlawed Pakistani militant network cannot be delinked
with the mounting border tension.

The continuing ideological connection of the Taliban regime with some transnational militant groups
not only threatens regional security but also endangers Afghanistan’s own stability. The increasing
terrorist violence in the country is the result of the Taliban’s reluctance to act against some foreign
militant groups.

Just days after the attack on the diplomatic mission, militants raided a hotel in Kabul used by
Chinese businesspeople and other foreign visitors. This attack, too, has been claimed by the IS-K,
which is claiming most attacks. The increase in terrorist attacks in recent months belies the Taliban
claim that it has improved security since returning to power last August.

While China has yet to formally recognise the Taliban government, it is one of the few countries to
have a full diplomatic presence there. There are problems though: the presence of the East Turkestan
Islamic Movement (ETIM), a Chinese Muslim separatist group closely aligned with the IS-K, in
Afghanistan is a contentious issue between Beijing and Kabul. The Taliban have refused to expel the
militant group.

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Notwithstanding the Taliban assurance that Afghanistan is safe for diplomats and businessmen,
there has been a marked rise in terrorist attacks targeting foreign diplomats and visitors. Two staff
members of the Russian embassy died in a suicide attack that took place outside the mission in
September. That attack too was claimed by the IS-K.

Such attacks have justifiably reinforced the fears of the international community of Afghanistan
becoming a safe haven for transnational militant groups and have further increased the isolation of
the conservative regime that has not yet been formally recognised by any country.

The regime’s refusal to cut off its ideological links with groups such as the TTP, ETIM and the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan has provided a favourable environment to global terrorist groups to operate
in.

The unholy alliance of Afghan-based militant groups presents a security threat to the entire region.
The recent surge in terrorist attacks inside Pakistan is rooted in the Afghan Taliban’s patronage of
global terrorist networks.

Pakistan needs to review its policy on dealing with the Afghan Taliban regime in order to make its
western border secure. It is important to engage with the Taliban administration but Islamabad must
also take a firm position on the terrorist attacks stemming from Afghanistan.

The writer is an author and journalist.

zhussain100@yahoo.com

Twitter: @hidhussain

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2022

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The sandwich dilemma

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

IN the past few weeks, as the upsets and upheavals of the FIFA World Cup have played
out in Qatar, attention has also been paid to the deplorable conditions facing migrant
workers in the kingdom. Foreign news outlets have spent much time drawing attention
to the tens of thousands of workers who have built the venues and who continue to toil
behind the scenes to ensure that fans gathered in the Middle East have a good
experience. The reality has been clear to everyone: the labouring classes in the
kingdom are imported from elsewhere — Pakistan, Nepal and India, among others.

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These workers together form an underclass whose humanity is treated as secondary to

everyone else.

Things are not much different next door in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. Whatever cruelties
take place in Qatar take place just as frequently in Dubai. And, just like all the other oil producing
economies in the region, the UAE has also been getting ready for a post-oil world in which its
citizens, accustomed as they are to the oil largesse that has improved standards of living for
generations, will not see the cash rolling in. In that future world, these rich kingdoms must now
communicate to their citizens that they will have to work to earn money — a seemingly novel concept
for those who enjoy Emirati citizenship. Currently, up to 80 per cent of the workforce is composed of
foreign citizens who do everything; from writing complicated code, to sweeping the floors.

To make this transition from collecting money to earning money somewhat easier, there must be jobs
for this new workforce. Even those who have engineered the scheme appear to realise that the
blessed Emirati citizens are not going to be able to compete for jobs on the open market. The low
employment rates among Emirati citizens means few even have the training to hold positions of any
sort. In order to fix this problem of low employment and little training, the Emirati government has
decided to do what it always does when confronted with a problem: throw money at it.

Private companies operating in the UAE have been told that all private companies that have more
than 50 employees must now make sure that 2pc of their workforce is made up of Emirati citizens.
The objective is to increase this figure to 10pc by 2025. The private companies that do not comply
with this 2pc quota have been told that from Jan 1, they will be fined 6,000 dirhams per month per
Emirati employee not hired. Compliant firms will be eligible for several benefits, including up to
80pc discount in the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s service fees. The goal is to
increase the number of Emirati employees who will then receive on-the-job training for the task as
well. Among the incentives for Emirati citizens, the government will pay up to 800 dirhams towards
the care of each child of Emiratis working in the private sector; the scheme is applicable until the
children reach the age of 21. Emiratis who lose their jobs in the private sector because of
circumstances beyond their control will receive an unemployment benefit for a period of six months.

How will entitled Emirati citizens square

‘working’ a job with the special status they

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are used to expecting for themselves?

One recent controversy illustrated the situation well. A few days ago, a private company that provides
workers for all sorts of jobs advertised a position for a ‘sandwich maker’. The tasks of this sandwich
maker were listed therein, as was the fact that the job fell under the 2pc quota that the government
was demanding be reserved for Emirati citizens. The government, it appears, had considered the
scenario of Emirati citizens wanting jobs but not having them, but it had not given consideration to
the possibility that private companies could reserve jobs but not find Emirati citizens to fill them.

The fact that the job of a sandwich maker was being reserved for an Emirati citizen provoked outrage
among many Emiratis, who complained that it was either insulting because the job of a sandwich
maker was beneath their elite status or because it appeared to make fun of the government rule
which pretended it was just so easy to increase employment among Emiratis. Either way, no one
appears to have been happy with the posting, which has since been taken down. An inquiry into the
matter of a company trying to hire an Emirati sandwich maker has also been ordered.

A self-sufficient UAE in a post-fossil fuel world will have to rely on its own to make sandwiches and
everything else. That fossil fuel-free future is something the world’s brightest minds are working on
and which may be here sooner rather than later. The UAE government may have come up with a
well-resourced scheme to make private companies hire Emiratis but it has yet to resolve how
Emiratis can be made to work. In the meantime, Pakistanis who have long been making sandwiches
and many other things for the citizens of the UAE will be happy to continue to do so.

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

rafia.zakaria@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2022

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Classroom culture

The writer is senior manager, professional development, at Oxford University Press Pakistan and a Fellow of the H

RECENTLY, I was asked to conduct a professional development session for teachers on

positive classroom culture. I began by asking them what a positive classroom meant in
their context. I got a variety of very different answers, which got me thinking about
how we perceive the needs of our learners.

Some teachers seemed to believe their students can only learn in an environment of ‘tough love’, and
that they’d recognise the value of that experience once they transition to adulthood. Others felt
helping students feel secure and happy in an atmosphere of learning without fear is an important

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facet of a positive classroom culture. Yet others spoke about encouraging students to speak up, to
accept making mistakes as part of learning and to maintain a bias-free environment.

While most of these are indeed critical to a positive classroom culture, teachers are largely at a loss
when asked how they can achieve these aims. They try very hard in intuitive ways, and many achieve
the desired aims — they manage to keep some students happy, motivated and inspired. However, for
such efforts to be scalable and sustainable, a process of teaching social-emotional well-being among
thinking skills is required. Not only is it important for students to learn to get along without bullying
each other, conflict-resolution skills are necessary as an active part of learning. Collaboration is
another aspect of a positive classroom that can be taught over time by encouraging children to help
each other as they progress through classwork.

In traditional classrooms, most students work individually, trying and managing on their own to
different degrees of success. Teachers can make the tasks easier for them — and hence for themselves
— by teaching them how to seek and give help. Training students to work collaboratively often proves
to be a firm foundation in teamwork that helps them through their professional lives. Often, we find
that those who struggle as team players aren’t the ones who lack ability, but in fact those who haven’t
learnt to ask for help. Unfortunately, our schooling system doesn’t encourage much teamwork. Most
classrooms have an ‘each one for themselves’ approach, that later translates into an individual race
for success at the workplace.

Respect without fear is a concept alien in our

schools.

Another aspect of a positive classroom is allowing students some control where they can make
decisions regarding classroom rules, etiquette and take on different kinds of responsibilities.
Students feel valued when they are part of a decision-making process, and where they can take on
responsibility that impacts others.

While teachers work hard towards engaging students, they are often reluctant to let go of control,
perhaps out of fear of being perceived as ‘soft’ or unable to assert authority. In fact, quite recently, a
well-liked teacher at a school was told by her management to toughen up as ‘this isn’t a popularity
contest’. Some soft and kind teachers are not only considered pushovers, but also somehow non-

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serious — as if being liked by the students shouldn’t be high on their priority list. This mindset is
rampant and counterintuitive at best. After all, how can we expect students to be fully engaged and
immersed in learning with a teacher they don’t find likeable?

Respect without fear is a concept still alien in many of our classrooms, especially to teachers
accustomed to using fear as a tool to gain respect. It would be fair to say this is a deep-rooted
structural characteristic of a society that values compliance and conformism at any cost.

The problem is, the road to positive classrooms is particularly rocky. We can, however, start
somewhere if we wish to raise children for the 21st century. Most mainstream schools don’t have a
structured plan for positive classroom culture. Learners are mostly at the mercy of individual
teachers who may have the self-awareness to bring positive classroom strategies into action in small
daily doses through ad hoc activities and verbal efforts.

The reverse is also true, where teachers’ negative attitudes may erode the students’ desire for
learning. Mostly, such teachers are quick to discipline negative behaviour in their students, but not
as efficient at lauding efforts towards betterment. Catching small acts of kindness that students show
towards their peers is sometimes more important than calling out misdemeanours to discipline
students.

The writer is senior manager, professional development, at Oxford University Press Pakistan and a
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK.

neda.mulji@gmail.com

Twitter: @nedamulji

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2022

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Putsch and shove

Mahir Ali

NEARLY 100 years ago, a bunch of radicalised, extreme-right Bavarians launched an

audacious attempt to capture power locally, with a dream of subsequently extending it
across Germany. The November 1923 plot, which has gone down in history as the
Munich beer hall putsch, was partly inspired by Benito Mussolini’s successful march
on Rome a year earlier.

Newly fascist Italy offered a role model, but the Bavarian authorities foiled the coup attempt. Among
the nine men arrested was their ring leader, a World War I corporal by the name of Adolf Hitler. He
was sentenced to five years in prison, the most lenient sentence possible given the charges against

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him, and served merely eight months — during which he began dictating Mein Kampf to his
secretary, Rudolf Hess. His other key associates at the time included Hermann Göring and Heinrich
Himmler.

Fewer than 10 years later, they were all in power — in Germany, not just Bavaria. Hitler remained
chancellor for arguably the most tumultuous dozen years in modern European history.

That history should serve as a reminder why it might be a mistake to dismiss lightly the far-right plot
foiled in Thuringia last week.

Ninety years after Nazism, what’s Europe’s

future?

If there’s any truth beneath that ostensibly absurd proposition, it certainly does not apply to
Germany alone — the US would be a more striking example. Besides, the Mussolini regime is
frequently cited as the earliest archetype of corporate statism in Europe.

Perhaps a far more viable contender for opprobrium today, from both the far right and what remains
of the left, albeit not necessarily on the same grounds, is economic neoliberalism, which superseded
varying degrees of social democracy across much of the west in the Reagan-Thatcher and Clinton-
Blair eras. That poses a problem on the extreme right for those who still view Margaret Thatcher and
Ronald Reagan as ideological icons.

But then, the myopia extends to a refusal to recognise that the scattershot (and scatterbrained)
Trumpian philosophy is part of the problem, rather than any kind of solution. But with other
alternatives to the woes of rampant corporate capitalism derided as utopian fantasies, too many of
those at the receiving end tend to place their faith in authoritarian alternatives that promise much
but are likely to deliver little.

It comes as no surprise that Germany is the largest consumer of QAnon conspiracy theories outside
the Anglophone world, and that Donald Trump — whose German ancestors were known as the
Drumpfs — is viewed as something of an ideal. Alongside, not surprisingly, is Vladimir Putin —
although there is no evidence that the Russian state responded to appeals for assistance from the

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associates of Heinrich XIII. The self-styled 71-year-old scion — dubbed ‘putsch prince’ by the
German media — comes across as the figurehead of a crazy conspiracy, 25 of whose alleged
adherents were arrested last week after a nationwide German hunt involving 3,000 officers searched
150 properties, including some in Italy and Austria.

What’s particularly worrying is that his adherents included a current member of the elite German
special forces, a former policeman and judge, and a former MP for the far-right Alternative für
Deutschland party, whose insider knowledge of parliament was intended to facilitate a smooth
takeover. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Angela Merkel’s unimpressive but not particularly offensive
replacement, was among those potentially headed for the chop.

He wasn’t the only one. There were other deaths that were “bound to happen”, according to
intercepted phone calls.

What’s alarming is that all too many of the German officials talking to the international press prefer
to do so on conditions of anonymity. It has been reported that further arrests are imminent, but at
the same time there are indications that there was no serious threat to the German state. At least not
immediately. Who knows what lies in store 10 years hence?

Nazism in the 1930s was a response to the Versailles settlement and the vagaries of the Weimar
Republic. But by the time Hitler came to power, fascism was well entrenched in Europe. A century
later, there’s the ‘post-fascist’ Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, fairly far-right
governments in the Czech Republic and Poland, and Putin in Russia. Not to mention extremist
tendencies from France to Sweden.

What Europe might look like a decade hence if putsch comes to shove in Germany or elsewhere is
impossible to say. But right across the continent, there are signs of how the consequences of
neoliberalism might play out. If history doesn’t repeat itself, it might rhyme. And it won’t be a pretty
picture.

mahir.dawn@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2022

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