October 2022: For CSS, Pms and Other Competitive Examination

October 2022
For CSS, PMS

and Other Competitive Examination
Compiled and Edited By

Faiza Zuhaib
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October 2022
Contents
Untruths and politics............................................................................................................................... 6
Farmers’ protest ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Dasht-i-Barchi bombing ......................................................................................................................... 8
Spy games ................................................................................................................................................. 9
‘Geopolitical football’ ............................................................................................................................ 10
Fuel price reduction .............................................................................................................................. 11
An inexplicable delay ............................................................................................................................ 12
Dire situation ........................................................................................................................................... 13
Russian annexation ............................................................................................................................... 14
Cipher inquiry ......................................................................................................................................... 15
Further delay? ......................................................................................................................................... 16
Losing to England.................................................................................................................................. 17
More than economics ........................................................................................................................... 18
Football tragedy ..................................................................................................................................... 19
Dens of corruption ................................................................................................................................. 20
‘Draconian’ law ....................................................................................................................................... 21
Welcome clarity ...................................................................................................................................... 22
Car purchases ......................................................................................................................................... 23
Another U-turn?...................................................................................................................................... 23
Women’s gala in GB .............................................................................................................................. 25
Renewed TTP threat .............................................................................................................................. 26
More leaks ................................................................................................................................................ 27
Subsidy for exporters ........................................................................................................................... 28
Hindutva unleashed............................................................................................................................... 29
Bucking the trend................................................................................................................................... 30
Post-flood disaster ................................................................................................................................ 31
Russian oil option .................................................................................................................................. 32
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October 2022
Untruths and politics

TIME has made it clear that ‘Cablegate’ was little more than a cunning ploy. With
calculated shrewdness, former prime minister Imran Khan seized on a diplomatic cable
and managed to turn it into a potent weapon. Using it, he discredited his otherwise lawful
ouster as a foreign-funded conspiracy.
This ‘strategic’ fabrication revived the PTI’s fortunes overnight and made Mr Khan
relevant at a time he had seemed doomed to an ignominious exit. When he was
questioned recently about the implications of the PM Office audio leak featuring him and
his principal secretary, his bold, self-assured response showed just how far he feels he
succeeded in his plan.
Consider the calculation as Mr Khan decided to capitalise on a communication received
from the Pakistani ambassador in Washington: “We only have to play with this, that this
date [of the no-trust vote] was [decided] before,” he told his principal secretary.
Compare that to what he said in his speech at the grand ‘Amar Bil Maroof’ rally in
Islamabad days before his eventual ouster: “We have been aware of this conspiracy for
months [...] Attempts are being made through foreign money to change the government
in Pakistan. Our people are being used […] I am placing the case of Pakistan’s
independence before you. The letter I have is proof, and I want to dare anyone who is
doubting this letter.”
In a country so used to eschewing the obvious for conspiracy theories, the people were
always going to fall for it.
His supporters’ indignation over the PTI’s forced ouster swelled in the following months
to rage against ‘foreign intervention’. The anger was channelled towards any individual
or institution who dared defy Mr Khan.
The former prime minister put the country’s relations with a global superpower and major
trading partner at stake with his manoeuvre. He also turned his followers against the state
with the ‘local facilitators’ mantra — a calculated move to pressure powerful quarters to
reconsider their policy to stay ‘neutral’. The scorched earth policy may have yielded
personal dividends for Mr Khan, but the nation paid a price for it.
The former prime minister may be many things, but a fool he is not. He carefully
constructed a public persona of an honest man out to single-handedly fix the country’s
wrongs, even as he used Machiavellian wiliness to catch his opponents unawares.
Perhaps it is now time to call his bluff. It would arguably be in the national interest for the
Supreme Court to take up the cipher, as has been demanded by the PTI itself, and settle
the matter. Any lingering doubts regarding the nature and contents of the communication
October 2022
between Pakistani officials and their American counterparts should be cleared so that we
can move forward from this episode.
There is little point in allowing this mystery to dominate our politics any longer.
Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2022
Farmers’ protest
SEVERAL hundred farmers have converged on Islamabad for the last three days to
protest against the soaring costs of agricultural inputs, diesel and electricity. They are
also seeking the abolition of taxes on agricultural machinery and compensation for their
losses from rains and floods. They have refused to end their protest unless their demands
are accepted and a meeting arranged with the prime minister. With the government
strapped for cash and restrained by the IMF’s conditions, it will be impossible for the
authorities to meet most of these demands, especially the ones involving additional
subsidies, at the moment. Nonetheless, the protests should remind the government of the
critical importance of agriculture to the revival of a teetering economy, reduction in surging
food prices and shortages, alleviation of growing poverty, etc. The country’s fiscal and
current account woes cannot be tackled on a sustainable basis without drastically and
rapidly improving its agricultural economy.
That the agricultural sector remains inefficient and disorganised in spite of its more than
20pc contribution to the national output speaks volumes for its neglect by successive
governments and demands a rethink of the policies impeding its competitiveness at the
expense of the nation’s food security. The sector faces multiple challenges, ranging from
low yield, erosion in soil fertility owing to the excessive use of pesticides and fertilisers,
waterlogging and salinity, obsolete and inefficient farming practices, changing weather
patterns owing to climate change, and what not. Sadly, government policies have only
aggravated these problems, encouraged fixed cropping patterns, and discouraged a shift
to value-added crops. No wonder a big portion of the population remains food-insecure
and the country dependent on large food imports. The policy focus on expanding the
cultivable area and increasing the use of chemicals for higher output has engendered
food safety concerns and is hindering efforts to boost farm exports. The current state of
affairs calls for urgent action from policymakers. The government must allocate sufficient
resources for agricultural research, set up initiatives to encourage the adoption of modern
farm technologies and practices, and stop influencing farmers’ crop selection decisions.
Besides, programmes should be developed to increase smallholders’ access to formal
credit and link them directly to the markets to bypass the middleman to reduce costs and
raise incomes. Agriculture can play a major role in economic revival. But for that to
October 2022
happen, we must revamp policies and make smallholders and landless farmers the
centrepiece of all new initiatives.
Dasht-i-Barchi bombing
ON Friday morning, Kabul’s Dasht-i-Barchi neighbourhood was rocked by a terrorist

attack targeting an educational institution — part of a bloody cycle of violence that has
become painfully familiar. Hundreds of students were reportedly present in the tuition
centre in the area, mostly populated by the Shia Hazara community, when a suicide
bomber struck. At least 19 students died in the atrocity, most of the victims being girls.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have been responsible for plenty of attacks on the Hazaras
in the past, but Friday’s bombing appears to be the handiwork of the IS-Khorasan outfit,
though no group has claimed responsibility for this brutal bombing. The Dasht-i-Barchi
area is no stranger to violence, much of it perpetrated by IS-K, and the concentration of
Hazara community members in one geographical location makes them easy targets for
terrorists. In 2021, before the Taliban took Kabul, a devastating attack targeting mostly
schoolgirls in the same area resulted in the massacre of over 80 people, while an MSF
maternity ward in the locality was the scene of a savage attack in 2020. IS-K is believed
to be behind all of these ghastly incidents.
As the Taliban are the de facto rulers of Afghanistan, it is their job to protect the people.
Their claims of being the country’s legitimate government will ring hollow if militants are
allowed to carve out safe spaces on Afghan soil, and use these to spread havoc within
Afghanistan and beyond its borders. Unfortunately, the chilling fact is that IS-K has
managed to target even clerics within the Taliban’s inner circle. It would be a grave
injustice to the Afghan people if decades of war — the Afghan jihad, then the
Mujahideen’s internecine battles, followed by the Taliban’s violent campaign against the
US-installed government — were to give way to a new period of violence orchestrated by
terrorist groups. The task before the Taliban should be clear: act against IS, and act now.
The international community must also lend a hand in neutralising the terrorist threat.
October 2022
Spy games
THE recordings leaked online over the past week may have given us a rare peek into the
behind-the-scenes machinations of our political leaders, but it must also be acknowledged
that there is something decidedly sinister about the way the affair is playing out.
Be it the conversations between former prime minister Imran Khan and his confidants on
the ‘Cablegate’ affair or the various conversations between the incumbent, Shehbaz
Sharif, and his inner circle — the leaks ‘expose’ both sets of civilian leaders as two-faced
and untrustworthy. They are clearly not the work of an external party that is — one
hesitates to use the word — neutral or unfamiliar with the subtleties of Pakistani politics.
Rather, the audios leaked so far appear to have been carefully curated: they apply
pressure but do not do major damage. Rather than being explosive or sensational, they
seem to be warning that the leaker or leakers are in possession of kompromat on both
sides and will go public with it if need be.
Editorial: After cipher audio leak, it's clear that PMO has been under illegal surveillance
for long
After the leak of his second conversation on the Cablegate matter, former prime minister
Imran Khan has directly asked the country’s security establishment who is responsible. It
is a pertinent question — and one that the incumbent government itself ought to be asking
publicly as well. It is strange that the current occupants of the Prime Minister’s Office have
so quickly moved on from the embarrassment caused by their own leaked conversations.
Rather than sharing the result of whatever the investigation into the incident has
uncovered so far, they have hushed up the matter after announcing token measures for
‘enhanced security’. The government should not need to be repeatedly reminded that the
public deserves to know who dared to so brazenly spy on two successive prime ministers
as if they were enemy targets and not elected representatives of the Pakistani people.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah had said shortly after the first few leaks began circulating
that they should not be a major concern if some mobile phones had been hacked. The
attitude suggests he is neither qualified nor fit to be leading the committee probing the
matter. Mobile phone hacking is not ‘simple’ and certainly not something that ought to be
brushed aside. It requires resources at a level only government agencies usually have.
The interior minister’s attitude suggests that he believes it to be common practice: this is
highly alarming and ought to be looked into immediately.
No Pakistani citizen, let alone a leader, should be the subject of an illegal hacking,
bugging or spying operation. Surveillance of any individual should only be done after
formal authorisation by a competent authority — that too only when there is
October 2022
incontrovertible evidence of their involvement in hostile activity. The vast powers held by
the country’s security apparatus should not be abused with impunity, as the interior
minister suggests they are.
Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2022
‘Geopolitical football’
THE US-China rivalry is by all measures one of the globe’s most dangerous competitions
for power and influence. And while it is unlikely both states actively seek war, the potential
for conflict certainly exists, especially if the brinkmanship and unrestrained combative
rhetoric continue. The American establishment sees the rising People’s Republic as its
number one global economic, military and geopolitical rival, as Beijing sets its sights on
becoming the world’s biggest economy. The knives are out where the two are concerned,
and those states that maintain critical ties with both Washington and Beijing, such as
Pakistan, will surely face tough choices, particularly if things get uglier. A preview of the
diplomatic challenges on the horizon was witnessed recently, when the US used
Pakistan’s devastating floods as an opportunity to take a potshot at China, with the
Chinese side repaying Washington in the same coin. US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken, after meeting Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in Washington last month,
suggested Pakistan should ask China to do more to facilitate debt relief and restructuring
in the wake of the floods. Replying to the top American diplomat’s loaded suggestion, the
Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesman asked the US to do something “real and beneficial”
for Pakistan. Mr Bhutto-Zardari managed to navigate this diplomatic minefield quite
tactfully when he said that Pakistan had not asked China to restructure, defer or swap
debt, and that if such a conversation took place, it would be between Islamabad and
Beijing. The foreign minister added he would prefer this country to be a bridge between
the US and China, rather than “being a geopolitical football”.
Pakistan’s relations with China are strong and deep, while the country has also enjoyed
a long, albeit chequered, relationship with America. Therefore, it is in the national interest
to maintain cordial relations with both sides. This paper has always argued that any
bilateral projects, such as CPEC, should be beneficial to both — our Chinese friends as
well as this country. But, Pakistan should by no means get caught in a debt trap. As for
America, if it sincerely wants to help Pakistan, dynamic trade relations should be
promoted so that Pakistani products can reach the American consumer, while US
businesses are welcome to invest in this country. The message from Islamabad should
be that Pakistan seeks lasting friendships with all states, but will refuse to become a pawn
on the geopolitical chessboard.
October 2022
Fuel price reduction
ISHAQ Dar is back; so are his signature policies. The reduction of a little over 5pc in fuel
prices announced by him at his maiden presser is his first major act days after he took
charge of the country’s treasury. The cut in petrol prices will have little impact on galloping
inflation but it will decrease some pain at the pump and produce a ‘feel-good’ effect that
the PML-N desperately needs to dilute the political noise being created by the opposition
PTI. That is precisely why Mr Dar has been brought back and his predecessor Miftah
Ismail sent home despite the hard work he had put in to get the IMF programme back on
the rails. The drop in average global oil prices during the last fortnight did provide the new
finance minister some room to slash the politically more explosive petrol prices but he
was able to give much bigger ‘relief’ to consumers by reducing PDL on petrol by Rs5 a
litre. As luck would have it, he also found space to recover some of the PDL losses on
petrol by raising the levy on diesel. Apparently, the IMF did not object to this in view of
the surging food inflation in the aftermath of the devastating floods.
Mr Dar is expected to attend the annual meeting of the IMF to seek some relaxation in its
harsh loan programme conditions in the wake of the massive losses caused by the deluge
which have aggravated the economic crisis facing the country. Considering the recent
statements of senior IMF officials, he will be able to secure significant concessions and
additional multilateral dollars. It is at that point when, many fear, he might start applying
his interventionist policies to shore up the currency’s value and slash interest rates to
reduce inflation and create an illusion of growth ahead of the next elections. That may
help the ruling PML-N improve its political stock among the voters but it will ultimately
prove disastrous for Pakistan’s economy.
Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2022
October 2022
An inexplicable delay
AFTER a flurry of activity a couple of months ago, geared towards filling the vacancies in
the apex court — an exercise that went awry in an embarrassingly public manner — a
curious inertia appears to have descended on that front. A move towards reviving the
process has just been made, but the ball is now in Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial’s court.
A few days ago, the senior puisne judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Qazi Faez Isa,
wrote a letter to the chief justice requesting him to call a meeting of the Judicial
Commission of Pakistan to fill the vacancies. In his missive, the judge expressed
concerns that despite a pendency of over 50,000 cases, the apex court bench — which
at present included the chief justice and 16 judges — was working at considerably less
than full strength. The five vacancies, he said, amounted to 726 lost days and added that
the steadily mounting backlog was unlikely to ever be cleared if this issue was not
rectified, rendering the court dysfunctional. Justice Isa also pointed to the national
resources spent on running the institution which has about 700 staff on its payroll.
“Therefore, it is not understandable why the Supreme Court is working at a significant
30pc reduced capacity.”
There can scarcely be any justification for the continued and inexplicable delay in these
critical appointments. But the growing backlog of cases in the Supreme Court is only the
immediate consequence; at stake is something far bigger. The country’s criminal justice
system already does not inspire confidence, but when there is apparent disharmony
among the topmost judges, the ripples travel downward and weaken the entire edifice
even further. While the friction on the bench has long been brewing, it was the process of
selecting judges for elevation to the apex court — whether seniority or merit should be
the deciding factor, aside from differences over the chief justice’s shortlisted candidates
— that laid it bare. That this happened at a time when several politically sensitive cases
were being decided by the apex court raised more questions in the public’s mind. Bar
associations weighed in, as did other senior judges about what they perceived as
troubling patterns. Justice Maqbool Baqar in his farewell speech said the exclusion of
independent-minded judges from hearings of sensitive cases has an adverse effect on
the impartiality and integrity of the judiciary and “fosters feelings of estrangement”
amongst its members.
It bears recalling that a day before being sworn in as the country’s top judge, Justice
Bandial had said that diversity of opinion on the bench “adds richness to our
understanding”. On the same occasion, he had also identified the massive backlog of
cases and the ‘scandalisation’ of judges as the two main challenges before the judiciary.
Judging from what has been transpiring of late, the apex court is not doing enough to
address either of these issues.
October 2022
Dire situation
THE monumental scale of the catastrophe staring this country in the face has been
evident for some time. Pakistan cannot hope to rebuild and rehabilitate what the ‘monster
monsoon’ has destroyed unless the international community steps in with generous aid.
Precise figures will have to wait until a comprehensive survey is completed, but initial
estimates hover around $30bn. According to the revised ‘Pakistan Floods Response Plan
2022’, which is to be launched in Geneva on Tuesday, between $600m and $800m is
needed for immediate and urgent needs.
Another recent survey has found that over half of 33m people impacted by the floods in
one way or another are sleeping out in the open, in tents or in flimsy makeshift shelters;
a majority do not have access to toilets and have to relieve themselves near the stagnant
water, a disastrous situation ripe for the spread of diseases like cholera and dysentery.
If things do not improve drastically by the time winter sets in, the health emergency will
take on even more nightmarish proportions.
UN Secretary General António Guterres has made impassioned appeals for the world to
step and help Pakistan. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and several cabinet members
have also repeatedly called for the international community to comprehend the magnitude
of the challenge and extend a hand. Sadly, the world’s response has been somewhat
lukewarm.
Already, the lack of funds for tackling the immediate requirements of the suffering millions
is eroding Pakistan’s long-term defences against the ravages of climate change.
Talking to reporters last week, Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman said the
government has diverted “all development and climate-resilience funds towards relief…
.” She also spoke of the impending food insecurity, referring to the dire warnings by FAO
and WFP in the Hunger Hotspot Report 2022. As per its forecast, she said, more than
26pc of the population in Sindh, Balochistan and KP would experience severe food
insecurity — not surprising, given that over 4m acres of agricultural land in total, including
swathes of standing crop, were affected by the floods.
In this situation, it is abhorrent that some opposition figures, most recently former Sindh
chief minister Arbab Rahim, are using the catastrophic floods for political point-scoring in
callous disregard of the possibility that their words could discourage international aid for
relief and rehabilitation efforts. If there is any time for the civilian leadership to show unity,
it is now.
October 2022
Russian annexation
AS Russia and the West play a zero-sum game in Ukraine, Moscow’s official annexation
of four Ukrainian regions it has occupied during its ‘special military operation’ in the
country will only add fuel to the fire. President Vladimir Putin made the move after holding
questionable referendums in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, deciding to
merge the occupied regions with Russia. Moscow’s Nato adversaries have raked Russia
over the coals for the move, while the UN has also expressed concern. Moreover, Mr
Putin’s action sets a negative precedent where other occupied or contested regions of
the world are concerned. Commenting on the annexation, US President Joe Biden termed
the referendums “fraudulent”, while Mr Putin observed that the West wanted to turn
Russia into “a colony”. Following the annexation, the Ukrainian president said his country
would ‘fast-track’ accession to Nato. Ironically, it was the transatlantic military alliance’s
ingress into Russia’s neighbourhood that served as one of Mr Putin’s primary justifications
for the Ukraine war. Now, with the annexations, the Russian leader has given his foes an
excuse to speed up the process. Moreover, the mysterious leakages in the Baltic’s Nord
Stream gas pipelines have caused both Russia and its Western adversaries to trade
allegations of sabotage.
It is evident that neither Nato nor Russia will settle for anything less than total capitulation
of the other in this grinding conflict. Chances of a peaceful settlement are extremely slim;
instead, there is an increasing possibility of the Ukraine conflict transforming into a much
larger war. It must also be said that Russia’s move to annex Ukrainian territory gives other
states the green light to illegally devour land that does not belong to them. Palestine and
Kashmir top the list of these occupied territories, as Israel and India can point to the
Ukrainian example to justify their patently illegal occupations. This bodes ill for the
subjugated people of Palestine and India-held Kashmir, who have been largely forgotten
by the international community, and are left to face their oppressors on their own.
Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2022
October 2022
Cipher inquiry
IT seems that this government cannot help but overreach itself on matters where good
sense would dictate doing nothing and letting matters take their course. Despite ill-
conceived earlier attempts to frame terrorism and treason charges against former prime
minister Imran Khan, it is now making a fresh bid to take him down through the ‘Cablegate’
audio leaks.
A high-level inquiry to investigate the role of Mr Khan and his close advisers in the affair
will be led by the FIA, which can seek assistance from senior officers of other intelligence
agencies if need be.
Announced shortly after PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz accused the former prime
minister of purloining official documents and demanded a ‘raid’ on Banigala, the inquiry
is yet another reminder that our political class cannot help repeating past mistakes.
The government seems to have put little thought into what it is attempting to do. It does
not sufficiently acknowledge that its investigation is based on recordings made during the
unlawful surveillance of a former prime minister while he was still holding office. That in
itself was a serious breach of national security and the prime minister’s privileges. For the
government to seem least interested in pursuing this aspect, even though it too has
suffered from it, is a poor show.
Secondly, an illegally recorded conversation is not likely to be allowed as evidence in any
court of law. How will the government prosecute a case without these leaked audios,
which provide the entire grounds for its investigation?
Thirdly, the government seems confused while accusing the PTI leadership of ‘stealing’
the cipher, which would be a violation of the Official Secrets Act. How can the PTI have
stolen the cipher when the PDM government formally reviewed it at the National Security
Committee forum soon after it took over?
The government has also alleged that a ‘copy’ of the cipher has gone missing from the
Prime Minister House records. However, this would contradict the contents of the leaked
Cablegate recordings, in which it appears that the PTI leaders themselves never had a
copy of the cipher, which is why they plotted to manually note down its contents as part
of the meeting minutes while it was being read out by a Foreign Office official.
Clearly, the inquiry has not been very well thought through. It will likely end nowhere, or,
worse, be used as a tool of victimisation.
One hopes that the government has not felt compelled to announce it under pressure
from the PML-N’s Nawaz camp.
October 2022
It is best for this matter to be resolved by a neutral arbiter so that its findings cannot be
impeached on political grounds.
The PTI has already asked for the Supreme Court to look into the matter. Maybe the
government should also consider approaching the same forum if it is confident of its
stance.
Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2022
Further delay?
KARACHI Administrator Murtaza Wahab’s announcement that the second phase of

Sindh’s LG polls — primarily affecting Karachi and Hyderabad — could be delayed yet
again, is dismaying for all those who realise the value of an elected third tier of
government. If the decision to delay the polls is taken, it would be the third time the second
leg of the crucial electoral exercise would be delayed. While the first leg was conducted
in June, the second phase was supposed to be held in July but was put off till August due
to Muharram security concerns as well as the forecast for heavy rains. That was seen as
a justifiable move as the province was battered by record-breaking rainfall this monsoon.
The August date was also understandably revised to Oct 23 as Sindh was then in the
midst of a massive flood emergency. Now it seems the October date, too, may pass
without elections, as Mr Wahab said police personnel from other districts would be
unavailable for poll security in Karachi. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has himself
been quoted as saying in the media that LG polls are not possible “in the next few
months”. Meanwhile in Punjab, the governor has sent back the LG bill to the assembly
with objections. Until the bill is passed, Pakistan’s most populous province won’t be able
to conduct LG polls either.
The fact that Sindh and Punjab have dithered on the conduct of local polls reflects the
mindsets of the mainstream parties. The sad fact is that self-professed democrats in
Pakistan are afraid of empowering the third tier — the tier closest to the people — lest
they lose their privilege networks. This has had a devastating effect on service delivery
to citizens, especially after the Musharraf-era local governments were wrapped up. While
parts of Hyderabad have been affected by flooding, there is simply no justification to put
off the polls in Karachi, which has been unaffected by the deluge. Surely security can be
addressed by utilising the present strength of police and Rangers. As for Punjab, the PTI-
PML-Q combine that rules the province, and the governor, who represents the PML-N
government at the centre, should not make the LG polls a political football, to be kicked
around indefinitely to the detriment of the people’s welfare. Lack of an elected third tier is
October 2022
patently unconstitutional as it deprives people of the basic right to choose their local
representatives.
Losing to England
AFTER tantalisingly close finishes in the fourth and fifth matches against an England side
visiting the country for the first time in 17 years, there was expectation that there would
be no let-up in the drama in the last two games of the series. Pakistan had defended low-
par scores in consecutive matches to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead. But the buzz around
Babar Azam’s side dissipated quickly as England hit back in ruthless fashion, tearing
apart Pakistan’s much-vaunted bowling attack in the final two games to take the series.
Pakistan, however, hope that the return of the injured pace spearhead Shaheen Afridi
and teenage sensation Naseem Shah, who missed the last two matches after contracting
Covid-19, will add more potency to their bowling at the T20 World Cup. Key pacer Haris
Rauf was also rested for the sixth T20, where England chased down a target of 170 with
more than five overs to spare. Haris, however, was back for the decider on Sunday as
England batters posted 209 before cruising to a 67-run win. England rested three
important members of their World Cup squad while skipper Jos Buttler, recovering from
an injury, didn’t feature in any match. The way they strolled to victories in the last two
games exposed brutally how Pakistan are yet to address their middle order issues which
have plagued them since the Asia Cup.
Shan Masood, drafted into the side for the series and the World Cup later this month, got
two half centuries but neither was game-changing and came when Pakistan had already
given up the chase. Iftikhar Ahmed, Haider Ali and Khushdil Shah continued to struggle
for runs — none of them showing the impetus they needed once they lost openers Babar
and Mohammad Rizwan. Luckily for Pakistan, they have a tri-nation series in New
Zealand — against the hosts and Bangladesh — which gives them an opportunity to iron
out those issues. Failure to address them will see them head to Australia for the World
Cup on very shaky ground.
October 2022
More than economics

THE shouting match over the recent decrease in PDL on petrol between Finance Minister
Ishaq Dar and his predecessor Miftah Ismail is reflective of a deeper malaise than just a
difference of opinion. It is a manifestation of the conflict within the PML-N and a reflection
of the competing political narratives now emerging in economic policymaking.
It wasn’t without reason that Mr Ismail publicly criticised Mr Dar’s first major act in office,
without prior IMF approval, as “reckless”. After all, his own attempts to avert default were
second-guessed and he was publicly undermined by not only Mr Dar but also Nawaz
Sharif during his six-month stint.
Maryam Nawaz not only disapproved of many of his actions but also forced him to revoke
taxes on traders at the cost of significant loss of revenue to the treasury.
Nor would Mr Dar have responded to him during an interview, saying: “Don’t we have a
heart? Must we keep on burdening 220m people with taxes? Miftah need not worry. I
know how to deal with the IMF.”
Mr Dar’s appointment is but a sign of the paradigm shift in economic policymaking.
While Mr Ismail had done a commendable job by taking hard decisions to revive the
stalled IMF programme, the government doesn’t have long to improve its image for the
voters.
Mr Dar, who represents the Punjabi trading community and small businesses like his
leader, has apparently been brought back to revitalise his party’s political capital ahead
of the next elections. Known for his interventionist policies, he plans to pull it off by
strengthening the exchange rate as a weakening rupee always comes at a large political
cost to Pakistan’s ruling parties.
The recent appreciation in the value of the rupee without any change in economic
fundamentals, and despite the destruction caused by the floods, indicates that the foreign
exchange market has already started to price in his interventionist policies and begun
shedding the speculative fat it had gathered of late.
However, is it sustainable, considering that Mr Dar has limited avenues and even fewer
dollars to influence the exchange rate unlike the last time he held the portfolio? More
importantly, will the IMF let him upend the contractionary monetary and fiscal policies
under its loan programme which require leaving the exchange rate to market forces,
increasing the interest rate, slashing expenditure, erasing subsidies and raising taxes?
The statement by its resident representative in Islamabad that “policy commitments made
by the government to resume the support programme continue to apply” is already being
interpreted as the Fund’s disapproval of the PDL cut.
October 2022
The PML-N has made a risky wager: if Mr Dar fails to stabilise the economy and reduce
inflation it will hurt the party’s electoral chances, and if he succeeds in creating an illusion
of prosperity through market interventions and loose fiscal policies, it will be harmful for
long-term economic sustainability.
Football tragedy
SPORTS arouses the rawest of human emotions. Football is no exception — in fact, the
passions on display at football matches are unique. But any loss of human life at a match
is unacceptable, and the deaths of at least 125 fans, including 32 minors, in a stadium
crush in Indonesia on Saturday, after police fired tear gas, is heart-wrenching. It bears
reflecting that one of the deadliest events even wasn’t the result of riots between two sets
of fans. Arema, a club from East Javan city of Malang, had barred visiting fans of
Persebaya from the game, but after losing to their rivals for the first time in 23 years, some
of the fans stormed the pitch in protest. It sparked a chain of unfortunate events which
saw police fire tear gas, leading to those in the stands rushing to the exits, some of which
had been closed, and losing their lives in the ensuing chaos. Indonesia may have ordered
a thorough investigation but the damage has been done.
The global football body FIFA prohibits the use of tear gas for crowd control inside
stadiums. Yet, a day after the incident, tear gas was used to control fans in France during
a match between Toulouse and Montpellier. Tear gas was also used outside Stade de
France in Paris ahead of the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool
in May, where investigations showed that the fans weren’t to blame. It prompted questions
about French policing for the Olympics in 2024. Similar questions are also being raised
about Indonesia’s credentials as a host for top sporting events. Indonesia is set to host
the FIFA Under-20 World Cup next year and is also in the running to replace China as
hosts for the Asia Cup. For FIFA, a test of crowd control will come later this year at the
World Cup in Qatar when 1.2m fans will descend upon the Gulf state for the month-long
football festival. The Indonesian tragedy shows that aggressive policing only leads to
disaster.
October 2022
Dens of corruption
MOST prisons in Pakistan are a microcosm of the inequitable and exploitative world
outside their walls. A probe by the Punjab home department’s Provincial Intelligence
Centre has found rampant corruption and bribery in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, involving
several prison officials. According to the report, around 700 convicts are brought to the
jail factory for labour work on a daily basis, but some 200 prisoners who pay a bribe of
Rs5,000 each are exempted. The document says that “corruption and bribery are in
vogue under the patronage” of the official in charge of the prison factory. Two health
personnel posted at the jail hospital are also named for their alleged involvement in
corrupt practices. The report alleges that only those prisoners who grease their palms are
provided relief/facilities at the medical facility and that bribes of between Rs25,000 to
Rs30,000 can buy inmates bail on medical grounds. Further, there are some wardens
and prisoners running a racket supplying inmates with food items, cigarettes, cash and
narcotics in return for bribes. The inequality behind bars has another interesting
dimension: two “land mafia prisoners”, according to the report, “are being provided VIP
protocol” upon payment of incentives to jail staff.
This picture of sleaze and malfeasance in Adiala Jail illustrates the extent of the rot
pervading our criminal justice system. Indeed, the culture of extreme inequity being
fostered behind bars by criminal-minded prison officials has likely made it a powder keg
of anger, frustration and resentment. The above-mentioned report recognises the
dangers in allowing the situation to continue, stating that it is “likely to have a negative
impact on the law-and-order situation of the jail. The inmates, who are poor and cannot
pay bribe money to the corrupt jail officials may turn violent… .”. Moreover, those
incarcerated in such a sordid environment, probably common to many other prisons
around the country, are likely to emerge from their experience — whether after serving
their sentences or being acquitted at the trial stage — as bitter, broken individuals. Any
flicker of humanity, any hope in them for justice in this society would be extinguished. It
is also worth mentioning that several of the jail personnel named in the report were earlier
dismissed for corruption but found ways, including through political connections, to be
reappointed to the same posts. Officials found guilty of malfeasance must be proceeded
against and never given another opportunity to abuse their powers.
October 2022
‘Draconian’ law
THE debate over what it means to be ‘sadiq’ and ‘ameen’ has reignited after the
incumbent Supreme Court chief justice recently described Article 62(1)(f) of the
Constitution as “draconian”. CJ Umar Ata Bandial made the observation while examining
a petition moved by former PTI senator Faisal Vawda, who was disqualified for life earlier
this year by the Election Commission. The ECP had deemed him “dishonest” after finding
that Mr Vawda had concealed his dual nationality at the time he filed his nomination
papers for a National Assembly seat before the 2018 elections. Mr Vawda has appealed
to the Supreme Court to set aside the “lifetime” bit of the ECP’s disqualification ruling. He
has argued that the court should consider mens rea — ie, a lack of criminal intent — in
his failure to disclose his US nationality. He has further argued that since the Supreme
Court has already ruled that the ECP cannot be considered a court of law, the latter
cannot make a declaration to disqualify him under Article 62(1)(f).
While the Supreme Court deliberates whether Mr Vawda can be considered honest or
not, it is worth remembering that he is not the only lawmaker facing a lifetime ban from
politics under the law. In the recent past, several other politicians — most notably Nawaz
Sharif and Jahangir Tareen — have been handed similar sentences. It is also worth
remembering that while Article 62(1)(f) never did mention the length of disqualification for
dishonesty; it was a five-member bench of the apex court, of which the current chief
justice was a part, which unanimously ruled in 2018 that such ineligibility should be
considered for life. The Supreme Court Bar Association disagreed and appealed to the
apex court earlier this year against a lifetime ban. However, that petition is still pending
adjudication.
It is hoped that the chief justice is now looking at Article 62(1)(f) from a fresh perspective.
He will find many good reasons to do so. Defining “sagacious, righteous, non-profligate,
honest and ameen” in a manner that is universally acceptable — as any law should be —
has so far stumped some of the finest legal minds of our age. Nonetheless, that has not
prevented the law from being used as a political death sentence handed down to various
leaders. Some reconsideration, therefore, of the manner of its application is in order.
Ultimately, however, the responsibility rests with parliament to replace the nebulous
requirements laid out in Article 62(1)(f) with something more concrete and quantifiable.
The Supreme Court had stated in 2018 when it held that disqualification was for life, that
it was only interpreting the law as it was. Therefore, instead of repeatedly stumbling over
the optics of what touching Article 62(1)(f) would look like, our lawmakers need to hold
firm and make any reasonable changes required for the sake of the stability and continuity
of the political order.
October 2022
Welcome clarity
WHAT is a routine administrative decision in most other states is, in Pakistan, a much-
hyped melodrama that keeps the nation on tenterhooks until the baton actually passes —
or remains in the hands of the incumbent. This is so because the post of army chief
continues to be the most powerful office in our developing democracy.
In this regard, rumours have swirled and questions have been asked about whether
COAS Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa will retire in November, or be granted a second
extension. Politicians have themselves helped feed these rumours.
For example, former PM Imran Khan had said he wants a new army chief to be appointed
after a “free and fair election”, implying that Gen Bajwa should be given a limited
extension.
However, it is welcome that the chief himself has cleared the air where rumours over his
extension are concerned. Speaking at an event at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington
on Tuesday, the COAS said he would leave office after his term ended, adding that the
military has distanced itself from politics, and would keep itself away from politics.
As Gen Bajwa has clarified the extension issue, the government should expedite the
selection of his successor so that any remaining speculation about this key post can be
quashed.
The general’s comment that the military would stay away from politics is also significant
as the fact is that the armed forces have dominated politics in this country for most of its
history, sometimes ruling directly, at others pulling the strings from behind the curtain.
In this regard, Imran Khan recently told a TV channel that the job of the intelligence
agencies was to secure the country, and not “political engineering”. It is welcome that this
truth has dawned upon the PTI chief, for he himself is believed to have been the
beneficiary of political manoeuvring by unelected actors.
In fact, there are rumours that Mr Khan tried to mend fences with the army chief at the
presidency recently, and his constant criticism of the ‘neutrals’ to shed their neutrality
implies that he wants them to actively participate in politics.
Yet there can be little disagreement in principle with his call for the security agencies to
stay out of politics.
Unfortunately, politicians of all persuasions have themselves often headed to Pindi and
Aapbara to canvass those who matter. Therefore, there needs to be consensus amongst
all political actors that matters of governance should be the exclusive domain of civilians.
October 2022
Car purchases
IF we are in the market to buy a new car, we end up paying a significantly large amount
as premium over the sticker price before driving off. The alternative is to book one’s
favourite car and get in the queue. The downside is that we would have to wait for at least
six months — a period which in some cases may easily extend up to nine months or more,
depending on the brand and demand and supply chain issues — as well as assume the
exchange rate and tax policy risks, despite making full payment at the time of booking the
order. No wonder most car buyers prefer to pay the extra amount above the listed price
to jump the long queue to avoid the wait and associated cost risks. A PIDE research study
suggests that new car buyers pay a whopping Rs35bn every year as premium — also
known as ‘own/on money’ — to get immediate delivery.
These car market dynamics have mostly remained unaffected by the increase or
decrease in car production in the last two decades, in spite of the entry of several Korean
and Chinese car assemblers, and the introduction of new models in the market during the
last five years. Successive governments have promised to tackle the issues of excessive
delay in delivery by carmakers and the exorbitant premium charged by dealers, but none
has actually done anything. The consumers are unlikely to get any relief unless the
government makes laws to stop assemblers from taking orders exceeding their three-
month, if not less, production capacity and ensuring delivery within 90 days. Moreover,
the assemblers should not be allowed to pass on the entire exchange rate and tax policy
risk to the buyers; each car invoiced by the OEMs must be registered in the name of the
buyer or dealerships with the provincial excise and taxation departments before it leaves
the factory. Implementation of these actions will forge healthier market competition and
incentivise carmakers to boost their capacity.
Another U-turn?
WITHOUT any warning, the PTI has swerved into another spectacular U-turn. After
complaining for months that National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was acting
unfairly in refusing to ratify the 123 resignations submitted by PTI MNAs in April, then
challenging the government over why only 11 were accepted and others were not, the
party is now demanding that the accepted resignations should be de-notified forthwith.
Mr Ashraf had in April decided he would not accept any resignation without summoning
each lawmaker individually and asking them to verify their decision. However, the MNAs
October 2022
who were summoned never showed up, and the speaker subsequently finalised a handful
of resignations for notification.
In what appears to be a move to use the NA speaker’s reasoning to its benefit, the PTI
has now challenged the decision on the same grounds: how can they be considered
accepted if the law requires securing each lawmaker’s assent, which was never given.
The change of tack comes just days before by-elections were supposed to be held on the
vacated seats.
The Islamabad High Court — which has been hearing the petition — has granted the
party five days to demonstrate it is serious about returning to parliament. The frustration
is obvious. The IHC chief justice asked the party why those lawmakers whose
resignations were not accepted did not return to parliament. “To remain outside the
National Assembly while being its member is a disrespect to its mandate,” Justice Athar
Minallah remarked during Thursday’s proceedings.
One cannot disagree. The PTI lawmakers have been quite cavalier about their
responsibility to represent their constituents in the National Assembly since they lost the
government. There never was anything stopping them from launching a public drive to
agitate against the PDM government and its policies while remaining in parliament. They
gave the government a walkover on several important pieces of legislation and then tried
to have the courts intervene in legislative business.
Whatever the future brings for the party, the fact remains that any power or legitimacy it
needs to govern will always flow through parliament. It should not seek its powers and
privileges if it cannot sit there and play by the house rules.
The PTI’s decision to take back its resignations could herald a twist in the tussle playing
out in Islamabad. It is also worth noting that the government, according to a recent report,
has not released funds to the ECP for the upcoming October 16 by-elections. What gives?
The noise created by the audio leaks last week seems to have dissipated almost
completely, while Imran Khan continues to remain tight-lipped on a date for his next march
on Islamabad. November draws nearer with the army chief insistent about departing on
time and urging that the national focus remain on the economy. It is difficult to avoid
conjecture with so much at stake.
October 2022
Women’s gala in GB
REGRESSIVE forces, once again, nearly had their way — this time in Gilgit-Baltistan. A
three-day sporting gala for women in GB was almost cancelled after local religious
leaders, brimming with self-righteous indignation, accused the government and the
administration of ‘spreading vulgarity’ by organising the event — even though no men,
not even male officials, were allowed to enter the venue. The commendable effort to
promote healthy activities among the women of the area by the government with the
support of opposition parties nearly came to naught when conservative elements
belonging to different sects united on the issue and began staging protests. Local
administration officials held negotiations with the religious leaders to try and convince
them to let the gala go ahead as planned. In the end, the name of the event was changed
to the more innocuous ‘GB Women’s Fair 2022’ and opened on Wednesday according to
schedule. While the officials evidently held their ground and did not cancel the
programme, reportedly it was the enthusiasm of the women themselves who descended
in droves at the venue that proved decisive. That the event has gotten off to such a
resounding start is evidence of the dearth of wholesome competitive activities for women
in GB.
One wonders why women playing sports even in segregated venues is such a trigger for
regressive elements in society. Is it yet another manifestation of their conviction that the
public space is an exclusively male domain from which women must be kept out on the
pretext of preserving culture and morality? That hackneyed phrase is habitually resorted
to whenever the religious lobby seeks to assert its relevance and exert control over
society. The same specious pretext is used to disenfranchise women in some parts of the
country, to foil legislation against domestic abuse, even to justify child marriage. It is not
too difficult to discern that claims about cultural values being in peril are almost always
animated by political motives or by a misogynistic desire to keep women disempowered.
October 2022
Renewed TTP threat
THE interior ministry’s call for ‘extreme vigilance’ and instructions to security forces to
conduct ‘search and strike’ missions against the TTP sounds like a death knell for the ill-
fated peace process between the state and the terrorist group. Observers, including this
paper, had been sceptical all along of the former PTI-led government’s, as well as the
incumbent administration’s, optimism about chances of peace with the militants. Now, as
reported on Thursday, the interior ministry has raised the alarm saying that the country
faces a heightened risk of terrorist attacks while negotiations with the TTP have “come to
a standstill”. The ministry, in a letter sent to senior state functionaries, warned that the
TTP or its offshoots may relaunch a campaign of terror to avenge its fallen leaders. The
letter also noted reports of militant activity in KP’s tribal districts, as well as other parts of
the province, terming it “a worrisome phenomenon”.
Talks with the TTP seemed doomed from the get-go. Past administrations had hammered
out numerous deals with the outfit, only to see these agreements violated every time.
Moreover, delegations of lawmakers and tribal elders as well as clerics were dispatched
to Afghanistan — where the militants have taken shelter — to talk peace with the TTP.
While there was plenty of positive rhetoric, little of substance emerged from these
attempts. In the meantime, terrorist activity in parts of KP began to pick up. In fact several
large peace rallies were taken out by locals in Swat and Khyber as well as other areas
demanding that the state take action against creeping militancy. These concerns were
dismissed as exaggerated, with the state, particularly the security establishment, saying
all was well. As the growing number of violent incidents, including assassinations and
extortion attempts linked to militants, and now the interior ministry’s warning demonstrate,
all is clearly not well. From here on the state must take the bull by the horns before the
monster of militancy once more rampages through the land unimpeded. By no means
should the terrorists be allowed to re-establish themselves in the areas where they once
had created autonomous fiefdoms. While the rulers in Islamabad may be distracted by
power games, and a transition is taking place in Rawalpindi, both the civilian and military
leadership must prioritise counterterrorism plans. Moreover, the Afghan Taliban must be
clearly communicated the message that there can be no room for anti-Pakistan terrorists
on their soil.
October 2022
More leaks
AFTER a week-long lull, the leaks have started again. Two new recordings surfaced on
social media on Friday, allegedly featuring former prime minister Imran Khan’s private
conversations regarding his government’s “numbers” in parliament as well as his party’s
strategy on the ‘Cablegate’ affair.
In the first recording, released in the afternoon, a person said to be the PTI chairman
expresses his concern to an unidentified person or persons over not having enough votes
to win the “numbers game” and saying he is making moves he “cannot disclose in public”.
The same recording also includes a statement that has been perceived as Mr Khan
claiming to have bought five votes while urging that his party should do “whatever it takes”
to swing more.
The second recording, which surfaced late in the evening, allegedly features PTI bigwigs
Shireen Mazari and Asad Umar discussing with Mr Khan how the party would play with
the Cablegate cipher. They plan to brand those who might vote against the PTI chief as
‘Mir Jafars’ and ‘Mir Sadiqs’. The leaders discuss support for their narrative, while the
voice allegedly belonging to Mr Khan says the public should be “spoon-fed” the party’s
line “as their minds are fertile”.
Reacting to the first leak, Imran Khan, while addressing an afternoon jalsa in Mianwali,
accused PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz of creating ‘deepfake’ audios, calling it
“her party’s speciality”. He also claimed that some ‘deepfake’ videos might surface soon,
and warned that his party could create such audio and videos too if it wanted. Whatever
the case may be, it is worth noting that though they may have given people something to
talk about, nothing in any of the audios leaked so far will cause anyone — either from the
PML-N or PTI — any permanent damage. They may have caused some embarrassment
to a few people, but that is about it. Which brings us to the question: if whoever is ‘leaking’
these audios has enough material that they can cherry-pick bits just to embarrass Mr
Khan, why are they not going for the jugular? Is this blackmail or death by a thousand
cuts?
Soon after yesterday’s drama began, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah made the
announcement that an investigation into the PM Office’s security had found that no foreign
or local intelligence agency was involved in the leaks. Instead, he claimed, the recordings
might have been the work of individuals or hackers snooping in on phone conversations.
The interior minister should realise that sounds more like a shoddy cover-up than a
plausible explanation for how two sitting Pakistani prime ministers ended up being illegally
surveilled and having their private dealings leaked to the public. Are our security agencies
October 2022
so hapless and inept that they couldn’t prevent some ‘hackers’ from breaching the PM
Office’s security? Quite embarrassing if true.
Subsidy for exporters
THE government decision to continue massive electricity subsidies for wealthy textile
exporters is but a temporary fix for the industry’s long-standing issue of lack of
international competitiveness. Much of the Rs100bn handout Finance Minister Ishaq Dar
announced for the textile tycoons on Thursday will end up in the pockets of the politically
influential yarn and cloth producers, and the remainder will be spent on subsidising
foreign buyers at the expense of hapless Pakistani taxpayers. Indeed, all textile-producing
countries support their export industries across the supply chain to boost value addition
to earn higher amounts of foreign exchange. In Pakistan’s case, however, such support
is mostly used to finance low-value-added basic textiles, and enrich inefficient yarn and
cloth producers. No wonder, there is little evidence supporting the industry’s narrative that
energy subsidies have a direct link to export growth. The growth in the country’s textile
and clothing exports during the last couple of years owes more to Covid-related
lockdowns in India and Bangladesh, as well as the unprecedented surge in international
commodity prices. Nor have these handouts ever convinced the textile manufacturers to
move to higher-value-added products from yarn, basic textiles and low-end products they
have been selling to the world for decades. That’s why whenever the government stops
financing the textile manufacturers, their exports start to crumble.
There is no doubt that flawed government policies and energy sector inefficiencies are a
major contributor to the higher cost of doing business in the country and low global
competitiveness of textile and other exporters. But this problem cannot be fixed by
handing out money to them. It has and it will only exacerbate the issue of the international
competitiveness of our exports. The lasting solution to export competitiveness lies in
distributing the amount across the value chain starting from cotton sowing to fixing the
entire textile economy. In other words, the authorities should invest a significant part of
this subsidy amount to improve the quality of locally produced cotton, boost domestic
output to meet the fibre demand of spinning mills, help ginners upgrade their technology,
and incentivise small and medium exporters of value-added products. Low-value-added
sectors enjoying the electricity subsidy should agree to gradually move to higher-end
products. Unconditionally financing big factory owners, who also have easy access to
long- and short-term cheap bank loans, may win the government big business’s support
but it will not help our exports.
October 2022
Hindutva unleashed
ACROSS India, Hindutva — now supported by the state — is bearing its fangs in ever
uglier ways. A few decades ago, anti-Muslim rhetoric by the Sangh Parivar mostly
manifested itself through the criticism of the Central Asian sultans and emperors who
invaded India, and by destroying the physical remnants of their rule, such as the Babri
Masjid. But today, Indian Muslims themselves are the target, violently hounded by thugs
linked to the Sangh, as well as by functionaries of the state. A number of recent incidents
reported from India reflect a disturbing trend that shows no sign of abating. Perhaps the
most abhorrent of these is the video doing the rounds of apparently Muslim men being
flogged in a Gujarat village by police officers in civil dress. The men were rounded up,
tied to a pole and beaten with sticks as a crowd, including women and children, cheered
on, after they allegedly threw stones at Hindu devotees during the Navratri festival. A local
police officer, speaking to Al Jazeera, indirectly confirmed that this mediaeval spectacle
took place, saying that communal tension had been brewing when Muslims objected to
Hindu festivities near a mosque. Meanwhile, in Madhya Pradesh, the authorities
demolished the homes of several Muslim men also accused of throwing stones at a garba
pandal. This form of collective punishment has been in vogue, especially in states ruled
by the BJP, to terrorise Muslims into submission.
Regarding these barbaric punishments, even if the men had been involved in disturbing
the peace, we assume the Indian legal system still guarantees Muslims access to due
process in order to defend themselves in courts of law. Or has the BJP been inspired by
the summary ‘justice’ of the Taliban and other fundamentalist outfits? Moreover, the use
of bulldozers mirrors the terror Israeli forces unleash on hapless Palestinians in the
occupied territories. Clearly, the BJP is employing methods that make a mockery of
human rights, sending the disturbing signal that Indian Muslims are not full citizens.
October 2022
Bucking the trend
IS the Dar factor at play? Or are we missing something that only he can see?
The Pakistani currency has appreciated 8.25pc to 219.92 to a dollar since Sept 22. The
rupee is actually the world’s best-performing currency lately. But its rise isn’t consistent
with many global and domestic economic indicators. For instance, the dollar has
appreciated against every hard currency, spawning fears of another global currency crash
not seen since the 1997 Asian crisis. How is the rupee defying the trend?
Then, the State Bank’s liquid foreign exchange reserves are decreasing despite stringent
import restrictions. Reserves fell — although slightly — to $13.59bn from $13.76bn on a
week-over-week basis. Even Moody’s decision to cut Pakistan’s sovereign credit rating
on its increasing external sector vulnerabilities after the floods has failed to stop the
rupee’s rise. Moody’s believes that the economic losses of $30bn inflicted by the floods
have raised fears of a much wider current account gap than projected in the budget and
increased Pakistan’s foreign financing needs.
Meanwhile, global oil is bouncing back on the output cut by Opec Plus after a brief fall in
price. The only positive economic development has come in the form of commitments
from multilaterals of additional funds of $3.8bn and pledges of $816m by friendly countries
to help Pakistan in its post-flood reconstruction effort. No wonder most experts believe
that the present trend seen in the foreign exchange market is ‘unsustainable’ and will be
‘short-lived’, and that the rupee will soon resume its downhill journey as the economic
fundamentals remain weak.
Ishaq Dar, who is seen by the market as an interventionist advocate of a strong home
currency, has, nevertheless, again predicted on a TV show that the exchange rate would
settle to below 200 to a dollar in a matter of days, and not weeks, which will reduce the
nation’s public debt (in terms of the rupee) and tame the imported inflation. His optimism
stems from his belief that the home currency had weakened over the last few months due
to speculative attacks, and that it is now headed towards its ‘true worth’.
Like his predecessor, Miftah Ismail, he also blames the big banks for manipulating the
exchange rate to make quick money. The banks are said to have made Rs27.67bn in the
first three months of the present fiscal to September from their foreign exchange business
against a full-year profit of Rs37.88bn during the entire last fiscal. A probe is underway.
Indeed, the biggest challenge facing the government is the stability of the rupee. The
problem that became more serious after the restoration of the stalled IMF programme
failed to end the market volatility needs to be dealt with to end the growing economic
uncertainty. But whatever happens, Mr Dar should avoid interfering with the market forces
or we may soon find ourselves in the midst of a deeper crisis.
October 2022
Post-flood disaster
THE deluge was catastrophic, but what may follow could be even worse — playing out
agonisingly over the next few months, probably longer — unless the international
community acts fast.
A couple of recent reports/documents spell out the gargantuan challenge facing the
nation.
A revised flood response plan launched by the UN in Geneva on Tuesday appealed for
$816m in immediate aid for “lifesaving humanitarian assistance to 9.5m people” in the
worst-affected areas. The document records 33m as the total number of people impacted
by the floods, of which 7.9m have been displaced. Almost 600,000 are living in relief
camps.
The Population Council has also recently launched a report which includes considerable
granular data about vulnerabilities among the flood victims. As per its findings, among the
affected populace, 5.1m are children under the age of five in need of immunisation and
nutrition care; 940,000 are senior citizens with special needs; and 610,000 are pregnant
women who require antenatal, delivery and postnatal services. Sindh’s indicators are the
most dire: nearly 3m under-fives; 539,000 people over 65 years; and 380,000 pregnant
women.
In pictures: Devastating floods affect millions in Pakistan
Hearteningly, the UN General Assembly on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution
urging donor nations and institutions to fully support rehabilitation and reconstruction
efforts in Pakistan. There may be many a slip betwixt the cup and lip, but at least the
world has recognised it must help this country deal with a tragedy not of its own making.
After all, in a cruel twist of fate, although Pakistan emits less than 1pc of greenhouses
gases, it is among the most vulnerable to climate change.
Nevertheless, it would be utmost folly for Pakistan not to realise that its own short-sighted
and inequitable policies have exacerbated the effects of the ‘monster monsoon’ and left
its people more vulnerable to its after-effects.
To list but some of these: oversight authorities have turned a blind eye to utterly irrational
and illegal constructions encroaching on natural drainage channels; lowering population
October 2022
growth rates appears to be far from the government’s priorities, and climate change will
put further pressure on a shrinking resource base; and grossly inadequate investment in
health has resulted in a populace more susceptible to disease. Most importantly, climate
vulnerability is best tackled at the local level through empowered local administrations —
that critical, missing third tier of government.
We must change course and place climate change at the heart of policymaking.
Otherwise, an apocalyptic future awaits us.
Russian oil option
IN modern geopolitics, energy — specifically its supply, pricing and availability — can be
and is weaponised by states and blocs to secure leverage. The Western decision to
sanction Russian oil and gas after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is a case in point.
That is why states that are not major energy producers, like Pakistan, need to craft
foolproof energy security policies that can shield them from major price shocks and supply
disruptions if the world’s current geopolitical tussles mutate into uglier confrontations.
In this regard, the American offer to relax strictures on low- and middle-income countries
that seek to import Russian energy is welcome. Talking to this paper recently, a State
Department official said the waiver was being considered to keep Russian oil on the
market in order to keep prices stable.
The fact is that Russian oil is available at steep discounts compared to the benchmark
Brent crude. That is why India and China — one a strategic partner of the West, the other
a major adversary — have been snapping up Russian oil in large volumes since the
Ukraine war started earlier this year, ignoring Western calls to shun Russian petroleum
products.
Pakistan has not been able to cash in on this bonanza, though it could benefit from
importing cheaper Russian crude, if technical and financial obstacles were cleared.
Moreover, when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Vladimir Putin met at the
SCO summit in Samarkand last month, the Russian leader offered to reactivate the
Pakistan Stream gas pipeline.
Considering the energy crunch Pakistan faces, as well as the country’s precarious
financial situation, where it can ill afford to pay high energy prices, the Russian option
should be seriously explored, especially since our American friends have now declared
October 2022
that they have no problem with developing states buying Moscow’s hydrocarbons. In fact,
taking advantage of the situation, Pakistan must also communicate to its Western
partners that it should be free to purchase Iranian gas and oil to meet its energy demands.
Shifting sands
TWO recent statements from the army chief have given us some insight into what might
be going on in the mind of the man who gave Pakistan the ‘Bajwa Doctrine’. While
speaking at a private luncheon in Washington last week, and then at a passing-out parade
at PMA Kakul on Saturday, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa seemingly outlined what the
military’s priorities may be after he steps down next month. Speaking at the Washington
lunch, the general had told those present that reviving the country’s ailing economy
should be the first priority of all segments of society. He stressed the point by stating that
Pakistan cannot achieve its objectives without a strong economy to back it.
The economy is certainly not the army’s domain, and the statement put a damper on his
other statement at the same event — the assurance that the army will stay out of politics.
But this much was expected from the general, who has taken a keen personal interest in
economic affairs. It need only be pointed out that he personally intervened in July to
ensure the revival of the IMF programme by reaching out directly to Washington. The
second important statement came during Gen Bajwa’s speech to the cadets passing out
from PMA Kakul. He said, “The armed forces […] will never allow any country, group or
force to politically or economically destabilise Pakistan.” This has widely been perceived
as a warning that the army may have had enough of the PTI — especially since the party
has been rocking the boat during a time of national crisis. However, it doesn’t take much
imagination to see that it could cut both ways.
Consider what was said when the Bajwa Doctrine was first unveiled in March 2018. A
selected group of journalists invited to hear it from the army chief was apparently told that
Ishaq Dar’s financial vision had been totally rejected and had damaged the state. On the
other hand, there was only praise for Miftah Ismail and his management of the economy.
Mr Ismail has since served another term as finance minister but was recently forced out
by Mr Dar, who is back doing the same job that had given Gen Bajwa grief. The question
to be asked now is: has the security establishment completely gotten over its distrust of
the finance minister, or could it one day overrule its concerns for stability? Given how
deeply invested the military has become in economic management under the incumbent
chief, and considering Mr Dar’s continuing predilection for flawed policies, can another
run-in between the two be expected? The stakes are high, and Pakistan cannot afford
October 2022
any more experiments, whether they originate from the finance ministry or Aabpara. Will
the establishment be able to hold its peace with the government if the economic revival
plan does not go as expected?
Terror in GB
THE chilling recent episode in Chilas, where militants were able to practically hold
hostage a sitting Gilgit-Baltistan minister along with several others by blocking Babusar
Road, exposes a shocking lack of security in the area. A little-known outfit calling itself
Mujahideen Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan on Friday brazenly stopped GB Minister
Abaidullah Baig, who was travelling from Gilgit to Islamabad, whisked him away and held
up traffic on the high-altitude road for several hours. The minister was later freed, but only
after political leaders and clerics from Diamer, as well as local officials, negotiated with
the militants. Apparently, the militants want their comrades — some involved in the deadly
2013 terrorist attack on the Nanga Parbat base camp, in which foreign climbers were
targeted — freed, along with an end to women’s sports activities in GB. They said the
road was blocked because the state failed to honour a 2019 agreement with them, while
giving the government a 10-day ultimatum to meet their demands.
This part of northern Pakistan has in the past witnessed grotesque terrorist violence.
Aside from the Nanga Parbat incident, in 2012 a series of monstrous attacks took place,
in which people were pulled out of buses and killed. These included incidents in Kohistan
and Mansehra. Most of the victims were Shia. All of these aforementioned terrorist attacks
were carried out by the TTP or its offshoots, and it is safe to assume the elements involved
in last week’s Chilas ambush are linked to the same groups. The state, particularly the
security establishment, needs to explain how this massive security lapse occurred. It is
astounding that militants were able to block a major artery with such ease. This time the
militants let the hostages go; next time they may not be so ‘benevolent’. Moreover, the
policy of negotiation and caving in to the demands of violent actors is a flawed one, and
has always failed. The state should by no means release men involved in heinous acts of
terrorism, while the militants’ other demands, such as ensuring women disappear from
the public sphere in GB, must also be dismissed. Elsewhere, in parts of KP there are now
credible reports that TTP fighters have once again picked up the gun. Clearly, militant
groups are again starting to throw their weight around. Instead of meekly reacting, the
state must proactively nip the terrorist threat in the bud before the nation is overwhelmed
by a fresh wave of militant violence.
October 2022
What next for Nawaz?
FORMER PM Nawaz Sharif wants to return home to lead his party in the next elections.
The only obstacles stopping him from coming back are his 2018 conviction and lifetime
disqualification by the Supreme Court in an ‘assets beyond means’ case.
His prerecorded, ‘heart-to-heart’ interview aired on Sunday focused mostly on the pain
he and his family had to go through during his days in jail along with his daughter while
his wife lay on her deathbed in London.
Yet the underlying message is clear: the controversial judgement against him is flawed,
politically motivated and ‘revenge-based’, and meant to banish him from politics forever.
Beyond that, he wants the judges to right the wrong done to him and invalidate his
conviction, and consequently, lifelong disqualification. None of what he has stated in the
interview is new.
It is just a reiteration of what the former prime minister and his party have been saying
ever since he was indicted in the Panama Papers case while still in office.
The interview’s contents also confirm that the narrative he and his party are trying to build
in the changed political environment carries only mild references to the role of the
establishment in his ouster and conviction.
With his party leading the coalition at the centre and Imran Khan out of favour with the
establishment, it was but expected. Still, the question remains: will the new narrative work
in Mr Sharif’s favour despite a change in the PML-N’s fortunes, and will the judges reverse
his conviction? Maryam Nawaz’s acquittal in the Avenfield case and the Supreme Court
chief justice’s remarks against lifelong disqualification are hopeful signs for Mr Sharif.
Yet no matter how strong his narrative, it won’t be easy for him to get relief as there is a
perception that some decisions in cases involving politicians seem to have been person-
specific. If the PML-N supremo wants to come back, he shouldn’t wait for his conviction
to be reversed. His presence in the country will help him more than any narrative he builds
abroad.
October 2022
Much-needed probe
CONFUSION and obfuscation have become a predominant feature of our national

politics. Now President Arif Alvi, after clearly saying in a television interview aired on
Monday that he was “not convinced” a ‘foreign conspiracy’ had indeed been hatched to
bring down the PTI government, is walking back his words.
Last evening, there were several tweets from the president’s official Twitter handle to
‘clarify’ that there was no change in his views on the matter, that he very much had
suspicions about a conspiracy.
In the TV interview, he said he had already requested the Supreme Court to launch an
inquiry and while he did not expect any “smoking gun”, he believed it should take
“circumstantial evidence” into account. He also asserted on air that he was impartial in
his role as president and that his affiliation with the PTI — of which he is one of the
founders — was in the past.
Mr Alvi has often been perceived as being in sync with the PTI’s political strategy, both
before and after it lost power.
Nevertheless, one cannot disagree with the president’s contention that “a thorough
investigation” is needed.
It would help clear the murkiness that still surrounds the issue despite two NSC meetings
discounting the existence of such a scheme — albeit the first one, held during Imran
Khan’s premiership, did denounce the (until then) unnamed country for “blatant
interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan”.
The PTI has continued to relentlessly push the theory, even after the leak of two audio
clips in which some of its top leaders, including Mr Khan, appear to be discussing how to
“play” with the contents of the cipher.
Alleging that the diplomatic cable contained a threat against his government, the former
prime minister had written to the president and the Supreme Court chief justice to
investigate the matter. Indeed, just prior to the leaks, he had made the PTI legislators’
return to parliament conditional upon such an inquiry.
If conducted by a committee acceptable to all, such a probe still has the potential of
lowering political temperatures and settling, once and for all, an issue that has been the
cause of turmoil for several months. The government, however, in its zeal to bring down
Mr Khan, has chosen to up the ante further by initiating a high-level inquiry into the
‘Cablegate’ audio leaks.
October 2022
The ‘Cablegate’ affair has not been a storm in a teacup: its ripples have travelled far
beyond the domestic front. Our relations with a global power were strained in the process,
and the contents of a classified diplomatic communiqué at least partially disclosed.
While realpolitik will likely take care of the first, the second may well have a chilling effect
for some time on the wider international community’s willingness to communicate candidly
with our diplomatic missions abroad.
The ‘foreign conspiracy’ card should no longer be in play.
Banking on hope
THE State Bank of Pakistan’s decision to keep its benchmark rate unchanged at 15pc
seems to be based on projections that appear more optimistic than prudent. It is hoped
that time will prove these fears wrong. In its latest monetary policy statement, the central
bank has said that “the continued deceleration in economic activity as well as the decline
in headline inflation and the current account deficit” have motivated it to leave the policy
rate unchanged. The caveat is that this assessment is based on “currently available
information” about the impact of floods. Ceteris paribus, the central bank says the current
rate “strikes an appropriate balance between managing inflation and maintaining growth”.
The SBP Monetary Policy Committee was clearly conflicted while making its decision.
The statement expresses fear of higher and more persistent inflation due to food supply
shocks caused by the floods but attempts to balance it, citing a slowdown in growth, which
will reduce demand-side pressures and dampen underlying inflation. Though it celebrates
a moderation in overall economic activity thanks to fiscal tightening, it also concedes that
core inflation continues to rise and the recent fall in headline inflation has more to do with
an “administrative” cut in electricity prices rather than a modulation in demand. This theme
— positives being offset by negatives — dominates the statement, suggesting that the
central bank may have just thought it better put off the decision till its next review.
While the unchanged policy rate appears to have been the market’s consensus
expectation, some had urged the central bank to continue tightening. There is good
reason for demanding so. The fundamentals of the economy haven’t improved by much.
The biggest risk factor at the moment, it appears, is the uncertainty over how much
damage the floods have done and how much further damage still has to hit in the weeks
and months to come — something the SBP concedes it does not have a handle on. With
inflation still burning hot, it would have been better if the State Bank consolidated further,
yet it appears to have placed too much faith in the “orderly movements in the rupee” to
October 2022
contain core inflation. It is hoped that the State Bank is not making the same mistake it
made before the start of the fiscal tightening cycle when it resisted taking a proactive
stance and was forced to take remedial measures later.
No resolution in sight
ADDRESSING an election rally in the Indian state of Gujarat on Monday, Narendra Modi
had the gall to say that he had “resolved the problem of Kashmir”, apparently referring to
the illegal move made by his government to annul the disputed region’s autonomous
status in 2019. The fact is that the Indian prime minister’s assertion is far from reality.
Kashmir remains a disputed region as per international consensus, and no amount of
constitutional subterfuge and spin is going to change that stark fact. Moreover, India’s
Home Minister Amit Shah was in the held valley last week where he told a rally in
Baramulla that “why should we talk to Pakistan? We will not talk”, effectively shutting the
door on all dialogue on this key issue for the foreseeable future.
Yet the international community continues to view Kashmir as a disputed region. As the
German foreign minister told a press conference she was addressing with her counterpart
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari recently, her country supported the “engagement of the United
Nations to find a peaceful solution” to the Kashmir dispute. Moreover, the US ambassador
to Pakistan also paid a recent visit to Azad Kashmir. While those familiar with international
diplomacy say both the German minister and the US ambassador’s actions should not be
viewed as a great diplomatic breakthrough, and were probably designed to express the
West’s displeasure with New Delhi over its position on the Ukraine war, the foreign
officials’ remarks and activities have certainly ruffled Indian feathers. After all, India is
hypersensitive to all foreign commentary on Kashmir, and all actions that do not align with
its tunnel vision regarding the disputed territory are summarily rejected. Whether the
Indian establishment admits it or not, its mix of ‘carrots’ and ‘sticks’ in held Kashmir will
not resolve this critical issue. What can make a difference, however, is if India adopts a
more flexible attitude, and realises that the Kashmir question cannot be adequately
addressed unless dialogue is carried forward involving Pakistan as well as the legitimate
Kashmiri leadership.
October 2022
Political vendetta
THERE is little hope for the future if we must insist on remaining hung up on the past. The
pound of flesh taken this year from the people of Pakistan due to persistent economic
and political instability ought to have provided the impetus for a concerted push for
national unity. It has become clear that without a common purpose, it is well-nigh
impossible to deal with both a global crisis and a crippling national disaster. Instead,
leaders on both sides of the political divide continue to stoke tensions and refuse to set
aside their personal vendettas so that they may focus on the future.
It can be said without reservation that nearly every party and political leader has
committed several major blunders over their electoral history. Throwing a new lot of
politicians in jail every few years based on such mistakes may give their rivals satisfaction,
but it does not serve the country. Nobody knows this better than PML-N supremo Nawaz
Sharif and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz. The latter, in particular, suffered the courts for
years before the cases against her recently crumbled to dust. This brings us to the latest
case against former prime minister Imran Khan and other PTI leaders based on the
allegation that they submitted forged documents and received prohibited funding. It
smacks of revenge for the victimisation of PML-N and PPP leaders in the recent past. Its
fate is expected to be the same as the fate of all political cases in the past. Is it not time
we realised it is madness to keep repeating mistakes and expect different results?
It has not been forgotten how bitter and toxic the national discourse became under the
PTI, nor should the party be forgiven just yet for corrupting politics by encouraging
personal attacks and resorting to abrasive slander, treating any difference of opinion with
derision and contempt, and provoking the youth to act on their basest instincts rather than
grooming them to be future leaders. But if the bitterness and toxicity are here to stay, if it
has been internalised and repurposed by the people supposed to represent the antithesis
of PTI’s politics, what hope can the citizens of this country have? What sense is there in
keeping them perpetually divided in a fruitless political war with each other? The PDM
parties pride themselves on being the system’s stalwarts; for contributing to Pakistani
democracy and midwifing it through multiple crises. Does their acquired wisdom teach
them that this is the best path back to popularity? If the PDM wants to win in the polls, it
needs to provide people with better reasons to side with it because settling personal
scores does not engender much loyalty. It needs to keep its focus on reviving the
economy, not finding new ways to persecute its rival force.
October 2022
Anti-militancy protests
PROTESTS against creeping militancy have been taking place in KP for several months
now. But the latest demonstration in Swat, which was held after gunmen killed a van
driver, Hussain Ahmed, and injured two schoolchildren in an attack on Monday, was
amongst the biggest of its kind, with solidarity protests held in Haripur and Battagram as
well.
The disturbing incident brought back memories of the attack on Malala Yousafzai a
decade ago in the same region, in similar circumstances. Though militants had been
behind the attack on the Nobel Prize winner, the authorities are tight-lipped about the
latest incident, while no group has claimed responsibility as of yet.
However, the people who bravely came out on the roads of Swat have no illusions about
who is responsible for this and other acts of violence in their area as they chanted ‘no
more terrorism’. A cross-section of civil society and political activists joined the
demonstration.
Meanwhile the KP government spokesperson has said ‘splinter groups’ opposed to the
faltering peace talks between the state and the banned TTP were behind the upsurge in
violence. It is very difficult to agree with this assertion as the TTP and its splinter groups
are amorphous in nature, coming together when the need arises, and separating when
the situation demands it.
Therefore, attempts to differentiate between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban will do little to
bring peace to KP.
The people of Swat and other areas of KP must be commended for courageously
demanding their right to live in peace. They have witnessed firsthand the bloody rule of
the militants, and the associated pain of conflict and dislocation. As mentioned above,
they have been protesting for long against growing militant activity in their area, but their
remonstrations have fallen on deaf ears where the state is concerned.
The chilling attack on the school van should prompt the state — its civilian arm as well as
the security establishment — to take action against the terrorists present in KP. If this is
not done now, a familiar scenario is likely to play out, with the militants establishing their
presence and making a mockery of law and order, followed by the state moving in and
using kinetic means to dislodge the terrorists, as the people of the area suffer, again, for
no fault of their own.
To prevent a repeat of the past, the administration must strike now and flush out all
militants active in the area.
October 2022
ECP’s welcome decision
ELECTIONS are an essential feature of democracy. There have been several recent
examples where countries with strong democratic traditions have refused to postpone
elections even during the Covid-19 pandemic. But Pakistan is a different story. There are
always certain forces, parties and individuals in this country that somehow try to disrupt
the electoral process on one pretext or another. Therefore, the decision taken by the ECP
to reject the federal and Sindh governments’ requests to delay parliamentary by-polls
scheduled for Oct 16 and the local government vote in Karachi and Hyderabad on Oct 23
is the right one. The centre and the province had cited the security situation in the country,
an unannounced PTI march on Islamabad, the non-availability of police and the flood
devastation in Sindh to make their case for further delay. Although the ECP has
postponed voting on the national seat from Kurram due to security concerns, it has
cleared the uncertainty surrounding the polls in other areas.
By-elections to the national and provincial assembly seats were originally staggered
between Sept 11 and Oct 2 but called off due to the non-availability of security personnel
and the flood devastation in the country. The LG vote was also deferred twice, depriving
the citizens of Sindh’s 16 districts of an opportunity to elect their district governments.
Even at that time, the ECP’s reasoning — the unavailability of military and paramilitary
personnel for security at the polling booths — for postponing parliamentary by-elections
just days before the contest lacked reasonable justification. This was especially true in
the case of the by-polls as the vote on 13 national and provincial constituencies was
spread across the country and split into three rounds. But with the worst hopefully behind
us, there is no sense in the government’s arguments to delay the democratic
accountability of Pakistan’s political parties. Following the ECP decision, the centre and
Sindh better start making arrangements to ensure the security of voters and polling staff
rather than seek more excuses to further delay the polls.
October 2022
Much complacency
PAKISTAN is facing major difficulties in mobilising the funds it desperately needs for flood
relief, yet the government remains strangely unfazed by its stalling effort to secure climate
reparations from major global polluters.
With government representatives taking a back seat, even countries that had pledged to
help are now acting slowly to make good on their promises. Meanwhile, our leaders, who
had recently been patting themselves on the back for fighting Pakistan’s case abroad,
now seem more occupied with other matters. This is dangerous complacency, as the
window to secure global support for flood rehabilitation efforts is closing fast, and the
government cannot squander the opportunity as it simply does not have the resources to
deal with the catastrophe on its own.
The situation is doubly alarming considering both the State Bank and the Ministry of
Finance are already basing their economic decisions on the expectation that the country
will receive grants and funds, which so far do not look very likely to materialise.
On Wednesday, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator Julien Harneis expressed
serious concerns regarding available funding in his weekly briefing in Islamabad. The
same day, most of our lawmakers failed to show up for a long-delayed debate on the
flood situation in the National Assembly.
“We have not yet seen enough funding for health, nutrition and safe water,” Mr Harneis
worried. “This is absolutely a challenge, and there remains a major gap. The Unicef, which
is very much involved in the health and nutrition of young children, is not receiving funding
at this time of crisis.” The UN humanitarian coordinator said only around $90m had been
committed so far to Pakistan’s flood relief efforts by UN member states, despite an appeal
for $816m launched last week.
While a formal assessment of flood-related damages has yet to be completed, it has been
estimated that Pakistan has suffered more than $30bn in losses. Considering that the
exchequer does not have much in it, recovery can be expected to take a long, long time
if aid remains this slow to materialise.
Yet that has not stirred the lawmakers occupying the lower House of parliament. The
National Assembly has, in this week alone, twice failed to hold a debate on the flood
situation. Despite 100 or so cabinet members and parliamentary secretaries, lack of
quorum has forced postponement both times.
PPP MNA Ghulam Ali Talpur was not wrong when he said that a picture of the nearly
empty assembly should be sent to the UN as a sample of our leaders’ commitment to
their people.
October 2022
Does our government expect foreign aid and assistance to just walk in? Do our leaders
not realise that they will condemn hundreds of thousands of people to abject poverty if
they fail to secure enough resources to compensate for their losses?
Faustian bargain
AS Imran Khan has often pointed out in the context of the unequal relationship between
Pakistan and the West, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. And, he might have added,
the more powerful the benefactor, the more compromised the beneficiary. But the PTI
chairman willingly went along with that Faustian bargain, even gloating over it, in his
ascent to the PM Office — until it came apart at the seams. In a conversation with
mediapersons in Lahore, the former prime minister appeared keen to pass the buck for
his government’s failures to the other player in the hybrid regime of which he was the
principal beneficiary. Acknowledging that although running the affairs of the country was
supposed to be his responsibility, Mr Khan said that the “orders were coming from
somewhere else”. He laid the blame for poor governance during his tenure on the ‘de
facto’ rulers, and contended that had he enjoyed full authority, his tenure could have
rivalled Sher Shah Suri’s reign.
This is not the first time the ousted prime minister has taken the line that someone else
was in the driving seat when he was heading the government. In fact, a couple of months
ago, he applied this argument even to explain the damp squib that turned out to be his
administration’s anti-corruption drive, claiming that NAB was not in his control. “Someone
[else] would press the accelerator and undo it as per his wish,” he claimed, adding that if
the situation was different, he would have retrieved Rs15bn to Rs20bn worth of ill-gotten
gains. While Mr Khan, post hybrid regime, may have had an epiphany, one glance at this
country’s history illustrates that the consequences of political leaders looking towards
unelected forces for support and survival are invariably the same. There is only one
winner, and it is not the people’s representatives. For its part, the establishment until now
has never come under such direct, personal attack — first by the PML-N leadership for
allegedly playing a role in bringing Mr Khan to power, and then by the latter himself — in
the aftermath of his ouster — for professing ‘neutrality’. The PML-N has since managed
a U-turn of its own: having evidently decided that the price of standing firm on principle
was not one he was willing to pay, Nawaz Sharif has once again chosen the expedient
path. And so, the vicious cycle continues.
October 2022
Power outage
THE major power breakdown that left the country’s southern region, including several
cities in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab without electricity for several hours yesterday,
was waiting to happen. The electricity blackout that took out approximately 8,000MW from
the system was not the first incident of its kind nor will it be the last considering the
tremendous stress on the national power grid. Experts believe that this stress will only
increase in future. In recent years, we have seen massive outages; for instance, in
January last year, problems at the Guddu power station plunged almost the entire country
into darkness, affecting around 90pc of the country’s population. Likewise, another major
breakdown had affected nearly two-thirds of the population in 2015. In each case, the
restoration of electricity to the affected areas took several hours to almost an entire day.
Each time the country loses power at such a scale and for so long, the power sector
bureaucracy gets away with it by blaming it on technical faults or, as in the latest incident,
an ‘accidental’ fault in the southern transmission system. An eyewash of an inquiry is
instituted and some low-level officials suspended for a few weeks or months.
This is so in spite of the fact that these technical or accidental faults are basically the
result of years of under investment in the power transmission and distribution network,
poor governance of the power sector and the appointment of incompetent bureaucrats or
retired or in-service generals in positions that need to be filled by professionals trained
for the job. The reduction in such occurrences involves a trade-off between the cost of
building reliability into the system and its benefits to the economy. But we are perhaps
not yet ready to make this trade-off. Or past events would have been enough to rouse the
authorities concerned from their slumber. Having suffered years of outages almost on a
daily basis, most Pakistanis have learnt to take these breakdowns in their stride. But it
doesn’t have to be their fate to forever live with them.
Keep talking
THE current Pakistan-India relationship can be described as one of neither peace nor
war. Moreover, high levels of mistrust, that increased significantly after India’s ill-advised
move to annul held Kashmir’s autonomy in 2019, mean that prospects of lasting peace
seem dim, especially as New Delhi is in no great hurry to make amends with Pakistan.
October 2022
Perhaps reflecting this ambivalent mood, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, during his
speech at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building in Astana, Kazakhstan,
blasted India for its brutal behaviour in held Kashmir, as well as the BJP regime’s
deplorable treatment of India’s minorities, yet kept the door open for rapprochement. The
PM criticised India’s “policy of preferring bullet over ballot” in IHK, but added that Pakistan
remained “willing to engage with India” to pursue peace provided New Delhi showed
“sincerity of purpose”. A junior Indian minister attending the moot replied by repeating
India’s standard line about Pakistan ending ‘cross-border terrorism’ and creating ‘suitable
conditions’ for dialogue.
India’s intransigence and lack of efforts to restart dialogue are major obstacles standing
in the way of peace in South Asia. For example, the Indian home minister recently said
“we will not talk” to Pakistan. But our own mistakes have not helped in reviving the bilateral
dialogue either. In fact, in the past, during the rule of both the PML-N and the PTI,
attempts to restart trade relations with our eastern neighbour were thwarted, apparently
by the establishment. Yet indications are that the thinking within the latter is changing.
Speaking at an event in Islamabad last year, the army chief reiterated the need to “bury
the past” with India and improve integration in South Asia. Time will tell if Gen Qamar
Bajwa’s successor in GHQ will adhere to this line vis-à-vis India, or adopt another course.
However, the fact is that trade relations can lessen tensions in the region, and create a
mutual constituency for peace.
Without sacrificing the Kashmir issue, Pakistan can still pursue the ‘soft’, more doable
goals with India, such as cultivating trade tries and resolving the Sir Creek and Siachen
disputes, if India is indeed interested in de-escalation. Yet it is also true that this is a time
of transition in Pakistan. Next month, the new army chief will take up the baton, while next
year a new government will likely be formed in Islamabad. Also, India is due to hold
general elections some time in 2024. So expecting peace dividends in the short term is
unrealistic. What can be done now is to focus on back-channel contacts and ensure the
situation does not deteriorate. Once power transitions are complete in both countries,
longer-term goals can be discussed. And while a chest-thumping India publicly denies the
need to improve relations with Pakistan, the establishment there must in its heart of hearts
realise the value of a calm western border, and a more peaceful region.
Swati’s arrest
October 2022
THE message has been made clear: the establishment does not pull its punches for
anyone, even an elected representative. Senator Azam Khan Swati has discovered the
consequences of pointing fingers at the top brass.
The FIA picked up the 66-year-old senator after a late-night, allegedly warrantless raid on
his residence. Senator Swati says he was then handed over to “agencies” to be stripped
and tortured. The manner of his arrest and how the lawmaker was subsequently treated
have sparked anger, with many asking what gives the state licence to assert itself in so
thuggish a manner.
On Thursday, when Senator Swati was produced before a sessions court, he was asked
why he had been arrested. He explained that he was not arrested for breaking the law,
violating the Constitution or trampling on someone’s fundamental rights. He was arrested
for “taking one name — Bajwa — and that is the violation”.
On the other hand, the FIA charged him for his “calculated attempt” at sowing “hatred in
the mind of people and army personnel against the army chief and Pakistan army”. The
FIA said the senator’s act of “blaming and naming is a mischievous act of subversion to
create a rift between personnel of the armed forces and an attempt to harm the state of
Pakistan”. If that be the case, are not those who picked him up and allegedly tortured him
guilty of the same? The manner of his arrest is a clear attempt to intimidate a critic and
does little to improve the prevalent public distrust of the security establishment and its
high-handed approach to dissenters.
Senator Swati may have overstepped in his anger at seeing the PM and his son
miraculously walk away from a case that had repeatedly been described as ‘open and
shut’. However, the reaction to his remarks is a major red flag. It demonstrates that the
powers that be can’t be trusted to respect the legislature, regardless of how ‘professional’
they try to project themselves.
If the security apparatus can display such contempt for due process and the law, how can
it be trusted to keep its word on not interfering in civilian matters? It clearly sees itself as
superior to the democratic apparatus and laws that govern the land. “A parliamentarian
has been unclothed. I am telling the nation,” Senator Swati told reporters. With such
forces promising to be the nation’s protectors, how can one feel safe in their own country?
Blaming Karachi
October 2022
AS criticism of Karachi’s urban decay has reached a crescendo, the officials running
Sindh have found a convenient alibi: blame the people. That’s what Sindh Labour Minister
Saeed Ghani did recently, before he backtracked after a storm of controversy arose
against his ill-informed observations. Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Ghani said the people of
Karachi were responsible for its deplorable state, and that they tended to “exaggerate”
matters. After members of civil society and political parties severely criticised the minister
for these insensitive comments, he apologised saying he was quoted “out of context”,
while adding that when people visiting from abroad met him, they said Karachi’s
conditions “are not as bad as depicted on TV”. Perhaps these expats Mr Ghani is referring
to would like to relocate to Karachi, and then re-evaluate their overly optimistic views.
Last month, Karachi’s police chief Jawed Alam Odho, while speaking to local
businessmen, made similarly tone-deaf comments when he said that the megacity’s
people are their “own enemies”, who were driving away investment by highlighting
incidents of violent crime.
These comments from Sindh’s high officials are tantamount to victim blaming. Whether it
is the deplorable state of the city’s infrastructure, or the epidemic of crime that has
engulfed Karachi, are the people really responsible for their own miseries? While it is true
that many citizens lack civic sense, the systematic devastation of Karachi over the
decades — through omission and commission — is without doubt the work of the
politicians and bureaucrats who have ruled this hapless city. The PPP, which has been
running Sindh for 14 years, and the MQM have been equal partners in making Karachi
barely liveable, mainly by watering down the LG system as well as stuffing incompetent
partymen — who are least interested in public service, and more concerned with lining
their pockets — in tax-funded civic bodies. Therefore, instead of rubbing salt into
Karachi’s festering wounds, the PPP should work with the opposition to ensure that the
city gets an empowered local government without delay.
Acknowledging the inevitable
AFTER months of ambivalence, covering the spectrum between outright denials and
piecemeal admissions about rising militancy, the state has had to confront the inevitable
and finally come up with a coherent response.
A National Security Committee meeting on Friday, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz
Sharif and attended by ministers, services chiefs and heads of intelligence agencies,
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resolved to push back firmly against terrorism in KP and revitalise the counterterrorism
apparatus. To this end, it was decided to resurrect the central apex committee with the
prime minister as its head, and revive the moribund National Counter Terrorism Authority.
Moreover, in a departure from the past, the participants at the meeting agreed to place
Nacta at the heart of the new counterterrorism strategy, instead of having the armed
forces in the driving seat.
Events since last year have been inexorably moving in this direction, with Pakistan
registering a 40pc rise in terrorism in 2021 compared to 2020 — stoked in no small
measure by the victory of the Afghan Taliban next door. The citizens of KP, many of whom
suffered through the worst of the ‘war on terror’, saw the writing on the wall long ago. But
the government seemed to be in denial mode, pinning its hopes on talks with the TTP
that were doomed to fail.
Even if our history of multiple ill-fated ‘agreements’ with militants was no guide, after the
Afghan Taliban refused to take action against extremist outfits on their soil, it was clear
that ‘strategic depth’ now belonged to those who menace Pakistan. Sparked by several
incidents of militant violence, massive demonstrations have been taking place across KP.
Swat Valley in particular has seen huge rallies resounding with slogans against terrorism
where protestors vowed they would not let their province be taken hostage by militants
as had happened between 2007 and 2009.
While the focus is on the resurgent terrorism in KP and its tribal districts, the fact is
militants of every stripe have become more active all across the country. On Friday, a
former high court chief justice was assassinated in Kharan town, Balochistan, by the
banned BLA. That same evening, three people were killed and six injured in a roadside
bombing in Mastung, also in Balochistan.
This evolving pattern, sadly not an unfamiliar one, calls for a coordinated approach
between security agencies and across provinces. This is what Nacta’s Joint Intelligence
Directorate was supposed to do, but various arms of the security and intelligence
apparatus have balked from cooperating with it. Any resolve to reinvigorate Nacta must
address this critical gap, based on age-old suspicions. The bureaucratic wrangling that
has left the organisation without direction or clarity of purpose for much of its existence
also needs to be resolved. The fight against militancy requires all hands, civilian and
military, on deck.
October 2022
Dar’s divergence
WHEN Finance Minister Ishaq Dar called on the World Bank Group president in
Washington on Friday, David Malpass greeted him with a much-needed piece of advice.
He asked Mr Dar to implement fiscal and energy reforms to stabilise the economy for
sustained growth. Separately, senior IMF official Jihad Azour also advised Pakistan to
move away from untargeted and wasteful subsidies, and instead, divert these resources
to those who need them the most. There is nothing new in what the two international
bureaucrats want Islamabad to do. The IMF and the World Bank have repeatedly told
Islamabad to implement fiscal and governance reforms, and their recommendations have
always been part of their support packages for the country that has faced repeated
balance-of-payments crises, often exacerbated by natural disasters, in the last two
decades. Sadly, no government has ever heeded such advice and has kept doling out
huge subsidies for political reasons and allowed enormous tax exemptions to the powerful
lobbies of businessmen and growers. Little wonder the nation has consistently run up an
unsustainably large domestic and foreign debt to finance its bloated annual budgets.
With lender fatigue overtaking the world, both multilateral and bilateral financiers have
grown wary of Pakistan’s unwillingness to undertake serious reforms to fix its economy
and stop looking towards them for a bailout every few years. This fatigue was amply
evident during the present government’s months-long negotiations with the IMF as well
as ‘friendly’ countries for financial assistance. When the agreement was finally signed,
many of us had hoped that the authorities would have learnt their lesson and that efforts
would now be made to put our house in order. But then, the ruling PML-N brought in Mr
Dar to head the finance ministry. The first order he signed pertained to a large populist
cut in the petroleum levy in violation of the IMF agreement, citing the stress of floods on
the economy and the inflation-stricken people. How the Fund is going to react to this, we
will know when it starts the next programme performance review in November. However,
the statements of the two Bretton Woods officials clearly indicate their subtle disapproval
of Mr Dar’s divergence from the agreed terms of the programme. If Pakistan is to
progress, we will have to implement a prudent fiscal policy and implement politically tough
structural and governance reforms. That is the only option on the table, at least for now.
October 2022
Breast cancer awareness
ALTHOUGH breast cancer is curable if caught in the early stages, timely screening
eludes a large number of the 100,000 women who are diagnosed with breast cancer
every year in the country. Besides lack of easy access to clinics and hospitals, the poor
quality of services available at smaller healthcare set-ups and limited financial resources
are also responsible for the deaths that occur in the wake of late diagnoses. There is
another factor: even if many can afford treatment and have easy access to a hospital or
diagnostic facility, a conservative milieu prevents women from sharing their condition with
their family members. These obstacles are further compounded as a large percentage of
women seeking treatment have little financial authority in their own household. Hence, it
is no surprise then that more than 40,000 women die of breast cancer every year in the
country because the disease is not caught early enough. One in every eight women in
Pakistan is diagnosed with breast cancer, which means that millions of women remain at
risk of developing the disease at some stage of their life. Last year, the Supreme Court,
in view of the high prevalence of and death from breast cancer issued instructions for
mammography facilities to be set up at all federal and provincial hospitals run by the
government. The court’s order also appeared cognisant of the sensitivity that surrounds
the topic and called on the authorities to involve women specialists.
However, such measures can only be effective when there is greater awareness about
self-examination and essential screening for women after a certain age and removing the
gaps in conversation and social uneasiness that prevent a candid discussion of the
disease. The month of October is globally designated as Breast Cancer Awareness
Month; it is imperative that the authorities take measures to encourage screening for early
detection of the disease and set up effective referral systems at primary healthcare
facilities so that the lives of thousands of women can be saved.
Imran’s victory
THE voters have sent their message through the ballot box, and it appears that the
majority is still with Imran Khan.
Though the former prime minister did not enjoy the clean sweep he may have hoped for,
comfortable victories on six of seven National Assembly seats in three different provinces
have considerably strengthened his hand. He will feel that the bellicose campaign he
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launched soon after being ousted from power is yielding its desired results. However, it
remains to be seen how or if he can use this victory as leverage to enforce the demand
for an early election.
There are some important takeaways from the Oct 16 by-polls. First, the PTI’s marathon
jalsas over the past few months have not just been good for optics, they have also
translated into votes at the ballot box. Citizens turned out in large numbers to cast their
votes in nearly all contests barring Karachi, despite by-elections usually being low-key
affairs. This means that the former prime minister’s narrative is very much alive and
driving large numbers of citizens’ voting choices.
This brings us to another important point: the PTI has already made it clear that Mr Khan
does not intend to return to the National Assembly. This entire exercise was just a political
tactic to foil the PDM. It has wasted public funds and will deny the people of these six
constituencies representation in parliament. However, it appears that the voters agreed
to this sabotage as an expression of their discontent with the status quo. This is a worrying
sign of diminishing faith in the democratic system.
Thirdly, a question mark remains on the electability of PTI leaders other than Mr Khan.
The firebrand politician’s public image as an unimpeachable, uncompromising leader has
managed to hold up despite his follies and questionable decisions. The people around
him, however, are not entitled to the same support that he receives. This much is evident
in Mehr Bano Qureshi’s resounding defeat in Multan. Though even some PTI supporters
have ‘celebrated’ her defeat as a ‘no’ to nepotism in politics, it puts Mr Khan in a pickle.
Come the general election, the PTI chairman will be under pressure when deciding
tickets. He will need to balance realpolitik with his voters’ idealistic demands. If Ms
Qureshi’s defeat is any hint of how voters may treat candidates without Mr Khan’s star
power, the PTI will likely need to disappoint many ‘electables’ if it wishes to win on the
back of its supporters alone.
Lastly, even though Mr Khan has touted his victory as a ‘referendum’ on the question of
early elections, it is unclear what he hopes to achieve with the stunt. The government
seems to be in no mood to accede to his demands, and Mr Khan has gained little leverage
to realistically force its hand.
Looming wheat crisis
October 2022
BAD policy choices from the past have trampled out a pathway through the country’s
golden wheat fields that takes us to the shortages of the staple every year. The next wheat
harvest is not going to be any different. The outlook appears quite bleak owing to various
reasons. The spike in input costs over the last year due to rapid currency devaluation and
increase in energy prices is pushing farmers away from the crop upon which hinges the
nation’s food security. Wheat could potentially see 40pc increase in input costs. But that’s
just one part of the story. The uncertainty created by the delay in the announcement of
the procurement price is forcing growers to look for alternative crops with shorter harvest
cycles but offering better returns. This is happening at a time when significantly large
parts of Sindh and south Punjab are severely affected by devastating floods and soil
remains unfit for sowing. Then floods have also flushed away large stocks of seed. With
demand likely to stay robust, the supply might have to compromise on quality and we
could see substandard quality seed being sown on a large scale. This could have a far-
reaching impact on crop health. The wheat crop could lose around 10pc area to floods. It
is thus surprising to see the federal government fix a massively optimistic production
target of 28.4m tonnes from an area of 9.3m hectares that ignores the ground realities.
Fears over reduction in the acreage and crop yields were being expressed even before
the catastrophic floods, which have made them only louder during the last few weeks.
That Pakistan will have to import a larger quantity of the cereal over the next several
months compared to last year to meet the demand is a forgone conclusion. This is not
good news for a country struggling to keep its head above water in the face of the worst-
ever balance of payments crisis. With the country already facing prospects of significant
food shortage due to climate-induced floods, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called
upon the global community for taking collective action for food security on World Food
Day. That’s the right call to make. But it shouldn’t be used to further delay long-overdue
overhaul of our own agriculture sector and wrong, short-sighted policies. With states
worried about their own food security amid surging inflation and food shortages due to
the Ukraine war, we must focus on fixing our agriculture.
Promising performance
IT was a loss by the narrowest of margins which ended Pakistan’s inspiring run at the
Women’s T20 Asia Cup. A one-run loss to Sri Lanka saw them fall one step before the
final last week, bringing an end to a campaign in which Bismah Maroof’s side secured a
notable victory over arch-rivals and eventual champions India. That victory, Pakistan’s
first over India since 2016 and one that came after a stunning loss against Thailand —
October 2022
their only defeat in the round-robin stage — had raised hopes that the national team could
go all the way. Set up by veteran all-rounder Nida Dar, Pakistan inflicted India’s only
defeat at the tournament and then recorded convincing victories over the UAE and Sri
Lanka to finish second in the seven-team first stage. But they couldn’t repeat the feat
against Sri Lanka in the semi-final despite being in the box seat as the climax approached.
Needing eight to win off the final over, Pakistan could only manage six. The quest for a
trophy might have ended but there is a lot of promise for the future.
Pakistan came into the Asia Cup following a dismal show at the Commonwealth Games
where they failed to win any of their three group-stage games. The players knew they had
to step up in Bangladesh with critics baying for blood and the long-standing questions
lingering about why the national team fails to perform despite being given adequate
resources by the PCB. Both the senior players and the youngsters performed admirably.
Batters Ayesha Naseem and Muneeba Ali alongside spinner Tuba Hassan have shown
that Pakistan have the personnel to make up the ranks when stalwarts like Nida decide
to call it a day. The advent of the Pakistan Women’s League, slated to run alongside the
upcoming season of the PSL, will help promote the women’s game and hopefully bring
more talent to the fore and professionalise the women’s game. Things are definitely
looking up for women’s cricket in Pakistan.
Blurred lines
IN a ‘normal’ democracy, fair and transparent elections can neutralise pre-poll bellicosity
and smooth the way ahead for the government and the opposition to play their respective
roles. Not so in Pakistan’s dysfunctional democracy, where even those claiming to have
‘people power’ behind them factor unelected forces into their political strategy. At a press
talk one day after winning six out of eight seats up for grabs in Sunday’s by-polls, PTI
chairman Imran Khan raised the ante still further in his campaign to force an early election
by describing the result as a “referendum against the government”. If polls were not called
soon, the long march would go ahead, he vowed, and this time the participants would be
“prepared to deal with violence”. The former prime minister also acknowledged for the
first time that back-channel talks were happening between his party and the powers that
be, but conceded there was “no clarity as yet”. Holding PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif
responsible for that lack of clarity, Mr Khan said Mr Sharif was afraid of elections and
therefore determined to let the situation drag on further.
October 2022
The by-election results have bolstered the PTI’s narrative regarding its popularity, but
they have also prompted Mr Khan to go public about his negotiations with the
establishment, something he had only hinted at earlier. That suggests he has decided to
use his triumph at the ballot box to not only put the squeeze on the coalition government
to call early elections, but also to increase pressure on the powers that be to throw their
weight behind him. Moreover, Mr Khan’s remark at the press talk that the elder Sharif
may get a “clean chit” much like other PML-N leaders and that he was “ready to contest
the election against him” suggests interesting possibilities. Could it perhaps allude to one
of the issues being negotiated behind the scenes, and indicate that the PTI chairman is
open (if reluctantly) to a ‘level playing field’ being devised for the next general election?
As everyone knows, however, negotiations are best undertaken from a position of
strength. Mr Khan has kept the threat of the long march hanging like a sword over a
government already on the back foot, and the by-poll outcome has strengthened the PTI’s
hand. Certainly, peaceful protest is a democratic right and Interior Minister Rana
Sanaullah is out of line in threatening the protestors with brute force should they attempt
to enter Islamabad. By that same yardstick, it is the government’s prerogative to decide
when to call elections, subject to constitutional limits: to do so at a time it considers more
advantageous to its prospects is simply sound political strategy. Long marches, on the
other hand, are an unreliable strategy for achieving professed objectives. The PTI should
return to the National Assembly, attempt to woo back its former allies and win the political
war from within parliament.
Postponed again
THE people of Karachi, unfortunately, will be deprived of an elected local government for
the foreseeable future. Pakistan’s biggest metropolis has been without a functional third
tier of government for the past two years, when the term of the last elected local bodies
expired.
The PPP-led Sindh government, never keen on empowering the third tier, had written to
the ECP calling for the third postponement of LG polls, and on Tuesday, the commission
acceded to Sindh’s request, saying it had no other option but to put off the polls if
adequate security personnel were not available. In a related move, the chief election
commissioner warned the Punjab government to enact legislation within a week to pave
October 2022
the way for LG polls in the province, or to hold elections under the existing law. As the
CEC noted, there has been no local government in Punjab for the last 10 months.
The fact that Pakistan’s two most populous provinces are dragging their feet over LG polls
speaks volumes about the value mainstream political parties place on the elected third
tier. Whether it is the PPP in Sindh, or the PML-Q-PTI combine in Punjab, those who
claim to be the standard-bearers of democracy are loath to see the democratic exercise
carried out at the grassroots level. The fear of losing influence at the local level, and the
possible emergence of alternative political options perhaps fuels the mainstream parties’
paranoia against LG polls.
The first phase of the local polls in Sindh, barring Karachi and Hyderabad, was held in
July, but urban parts of the province have yet to cast their vote. The elections were earlier
put off due to heavy rains and the subsequent devastating floods. But the waters have
started receding, and Karachi remained unaffected by the deluge. Yet Sindh’s rulers
came up with the plea that law enforcers were busy in flood relief work, and they face a
shortage of 16,000 police personnel to ensure polls’ security.
Moreover, the interior ministry also expressed its inability to free up army and Rangers’
personnel for election duty. The ECP is due to meet in two weeks to re-evaluate the
situation. Time will tell if a new poll date is announced, or if the Sindh government, which
wants a postponement of at least three months, will again express its inability to hold the
polls. As for Punjab, the ruling coalition needs to fast-track legislation to ensure polls are
not further delayed.
Crime-fighting app
IT is welcome to note that the Sindh police are opting for modern technology in order to
address the epidemic of crime that principally afflicts Karachi. Experts have often argued
that the long-used colonial methods of law enforcement are no match for criminals who
are often two steps ahead of the police, and it is only through using modern methods that
the crime graph can be brought down. In this regard, the Sindh police chief launched the
Talash app on Monday that will hopefully help his force rein in lawbreakers across the
province, particularly the metropolis. The app appears to have an impressive array of
options designed to assist the law enforcers in tracking down and capturing criminals.
This includes the fact that it is linked to the Nadra database. According to police officials,
it possesses the data of 1.5m criminals across Sindh, while the app can also pick out fake
October 2022
number plates and licences. As one police official put it, the Talash app is a “moving
online investigation centre”.
It is hoped that the Talash app proves fruitful and achieves the goal it was designed for.
Despite police officials’ efforts to downplay incidents of crime and put a positive spin on
the law-and-order situation, the truth is that law-abiding citizens remain terrified of being
mugged or killed for a wallet or mobile phone, while criminals apparently enjoy freedom
to stalk the city. The use of dubious methods such as ‘encounters’ to get rid of
lawbreakers has proved ineffective, while angry mobs have often decided to take the law
into their own hands by lynching suspects. What is therefore needed is proactive policing,
and the Talash app can surely help in this regard, if the tool is deployed effectively, and
regularly updated. Through the use of other technological aids, such as CCTVs, criminals
can be identified, caught and punished by the courts of law so that they can no longer
walk the streets terrorising innocent citizens.
Pakistan vs India
MERELY days after news outlets across the border reported that the Indian cricket board
was open to sending their national team to Pakistan for the Asia Cup next year, BCCI
Secretary Jay Shah has snuffed out whatever hopes there had been for the two rival
nations finally moving to restore their sporting ties. Jay Shah, who is the son of Indian
Home Minister Amit Shah, seemed to be regurgitating BJP policy when he said, “We
[India] can’t go there, [and] they can’t come here.” Now the PCB, rightly miffed at the
BCCI decision, is reportedly considering taking reciprocal measures, which may include
withdrawal from the 2023 ODI World Cup being hosted by India, as well as from its
membership of the Asian Cricket Council. This is terrible for the sport, but the PCB’s hand
is being forced. It cannot stand idly by as India uses its clout to bend the international
cricketing community to its will.
For the longest time, cricket has been a medium through which countries have revived,
maintained and improved their relationships with rivals. The practice has been described
as ‘cricket diplomacy’. The most memorable examples of it in our context are Ziaul Haq
using the excuse of a cricket match to visit India in 1987 to defuse a brewing crisis, and
Pervez Musharraf’s fruitful 2005 visit to India on a similar pretext. Times have, however,
changed for the worse. Instead of heads of government interacting over their shared love
of the game to sort out political issues, Pakistan and India now refuse to play each other
October 2022
unless it is absolutely necessary. It is interesting to note that the few games that the two
teams have played have brought the people of both nations closer. There is now
considerable mutual respect, given the quality of both sides. It is quite common to see
Pakistani fans expressing admiration for Indian cricket stars on discussion forums online
and Indian fans reciprocating the sentiment. Even our cricketers — both men and women
— regularly share heart-warming moments on and off the field. It is clear that the people
of both countries would like nothing better than to witness each other’s champions in
action, and it is tragic that Indian politics is denying them the opportunity to do so in front
of home crowds.
The Indian government must reconsider its decision and give peace a chance. A restart
in cricketing ties can be a solid confidence-building measure that can open the doors to
engagement on other outstanding matters as well. The people of the two countries should
be facilitated in interacting with each other and sharing their love for the game. Helping
them enjoy cricket together will help lay the ground for a resumption of broader talks,
hopefully ease visa restrictions and lead to improved diplomatic relations between the two
countries. It is precisely what two nuclear-armed neighbours need in these uncertain and
fraught times.
Questionable acquittal
IN Pakistan, while convicts from poor families are sent to the gallows, the rich and
powerful accused of committing crimes get off scot-free, simply by gaming the system.
This appears to be the case in the acquittal by the Supreme Court on Tuesday of
Shahrukh Jatoi and his co-accused in the 2012 murder of young Shahzeb Khan.
To recall, Shahzeb was murdered in cold blood in a revenge killing by Jatoi and his
accomplices after the youth scuffled with the men, who had been harassing his sister.
Despite being nominated in a murder case, Jatoi managed to flee the country and had to
be brought back to Pakistan on court orders. Thereafter, a strange legal saga ensued, in
which an ATC sentenced the accused to death for murder but the victim’s parents
pardoned them later. The Sindh High Court then ordered a retrial and commuted the
death sentence to life imprisonment. When the accused took their appeals to the apex
court, the apex court ended up acquitting them.
It is pertinent to ask on what basis the convicts have been acquitted, especially after the
victim’s mother had in the past publicly said “we can’t live our lives in fear”, indicating
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there was pressure on the family to reach a compromise. In a similar case, the family of
Nazim Jokhio, murdered earlier this year allegedly at the behest of two PPP lawmakers,
has also filed a compromise petition, though the slain man’s mother had earlier
complained they were being pressured by the suspects.
These loopholes in the legal system need to be plugged lest more rich and powerful
convicts walk away free by ‘buying justice’ in the name of compromise or forgiveness.
Murder should be a non-compoundable offence, and as legal experts point out, even if
religious injunctions are invoked, the heirs can forgive only if the murder is not
premeditated. In the aforementioned cases, there is strong evidence to suggest that both
victims were deprived of their lives for wounding a powerful man’s pride.
In the Shahzeb murder case, the attorney general of Pakistan’s office has said it would
file a review petition “in the interest of justice” as the AGP’s view had not been taken into
account. It is hoped that justice is done in both the Shahzeb Khan and Nazim Jokhio
cases. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s criminal justice system needs to seriously address the
lacunae that allow influential convicts to get away even after committing the most heinous
of crimes.
Reforms in power sector
THE eyewash of ‘drastic’ measures approved by the federal cabinet in the name of power-
sector ‘reforms’ underscores how deeply ad hocism is rooted in Pakistani officialdom. The
decision to chuck out corrupt officials from key posts of state-owned power companies,
roll out smart-metering infrastructure and set up low-cost solar energy projects in order to
weed out corruption, revamp the distribution system and improve electricity generation
amounts to treating an illness with aspirin when complicated surgery is required. The
cabinet decision comes days after the World Bank president had impressed upon Finance
Minister Ishaq Dar the dire need for critical power-sector reforms at their meeting in
Washington. The issues bogging down the country’s electricity sector are too complex to
tackle with the appointment of ‘honest’ officers or shifting to solar energy. Any serious
effort to improve and restructure the collapsing power sector should simultaneously target
the multiple problems pulling it down.
Broadly, the comprehensive reform strategy must aim to supply uninterrupted electricity
at affordable prices to all types of consumers, privatise electricity generation, transmission
and distribution to woo private investment in the power infrastructure, and develop a
competitive market. No action whatsoever will work if implemented in isolation. The build-
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up of fiscally unsustainable power-sector debt to more than Rs2.5tr underlines the fallacy
of bureaucratic thinking that piecemeal measures like the ones approved by the cabinet
will help the government deal with the challenges present in the power sector. They will
not. For example, when the previous PTI government strong-armed independent power
producers to get them to revise their power purchase agreements, the people were told
this would make electricity affordable for them. That has not happened as yet. This kind
of thinking has only aggravated existing issues, burdening Pakistani consumers with
inflated bills and regular blackouts at the cost of big losses to the economy and industrial
competitiveness in the international markets. It is advisable for the government to make
an all-encompassing and serious effort to fix the power sector rather than implement
cosmetic measures.
Chastening comments
INDIA has built a slick, PR-backed image of itself as a ‘shining’ country, a sort of giant
amongst nations. But as chastening observations made by the UN secretary general
during a visit to the country have illustrated, much remains to be done where the rights of
minorities in the country are concerned.
António Guterres termed India a “partner of choice” of the UN. Yet other comments made
by the global body’s chief were far less flattering. Mr Guterres called upon New Delhi to
“protect … the rights of all individuals, including members of minority communities”, while
urging his host country to nurture and strengthen diversity.
He also asked India to do more to advance gender equality and protect women’s rights,
while calling upon the state to take “concrete actions” to protect the rights of journalists,
activists, students and academics — who have all faced the wrath of the Hindutva state.
It is not too difficult to understand what motivated the UN chief’s observations. After all,
ever since the BJP took power in 2014, India’s minorities, particularly its Muslims, as well
as other citizens who disagree with the Sangh Parivar’s blinkered vision have had a rough
ride. Indian Muslims have been lynched, and seen their homes bulldozed, while
discriminatory laws have been passed to disenfranchise millions of them. Moreover,
government officials and senior members of the ruling party have made incendiary
comments about Muslims, as well as Islam’s sanctities.
India’s brutal tactics in held Kashmir have also been widely condemned. And while
Pakistan, as well as independent watchdogs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty
International, has called out New Delhi for these transgressions, the Indian PR machinery
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has brushed aside these concerns as partisan statements or meddling. Yet when the UN
secretary general raises these concerns, Indian spin doctors will have a harder time
brushing them under the carpet.
Mr Guterres praised Gandhi and Nehru during his Indian visit. The problem is that many
in today’s India, piloted by the BJP, idolise Godse, Gandhi’s killer, as well as Savarkar,
the rabid ideologue who fathered the concept of Hindutva, a toxic mix of Hindu extremism
and European fascism, and who despised the Nehruvian vision for India. But the fact is
that India is very sensitive about its ‘branding’, especially when powerful foreign entities
chide it for its transgressions. That is why comments such as the ones made by the UN
chief are important, perhaps to help change the Indian rulers’ behaviour.
Other powerful actors, such as the US and EU, also need to call out India’s bad behaviour,
and not mollycoddle New Delhi in the hopes of using it to get even with China. Perhaps
such criticism could eventually help loosen Hindutva’s grip over India and pave the way
for a more moderate atmosphere in which minorities are treated like human beings, and
friendship is pursued with neighbouring states.
Fuelled by impunity
IN pointing out a land grab by the two biggest real estate giants in the land, a report of
the auditor general of Pakistan goes where angels fear to tread. According to the
document, Bahria Town and Defence Housing Authority have encroached upon 785
kanals of state land along the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway. Both firms have humungous
gated projects coming up on either side of the Motorway. The information was uncovered
while auditors were scrutinising the finances of the National Highway Authority. As per
the audit report, Bahria had used 491 kanals of NHA land for constructing an interchange
in the vicinity of Bahria Town Karachi “without any approval of NHA authorities and without
entering into a lease agreement with NHA”. Similarly, DHA constructed an interchange
and access road on NHA land/right of way: “294-kanal land was illegally utilised by DHA
without any approval of NHA authorities and without entering into a lease agreement with
NHA”. In a telling remark, the report says the auditors drew the attention of the NHA to
this issue but despite repeated requests, the latter’s departmental audit committee did not
meet to examine this audit para.
In its reluctance to follow up, NHA, the custodian of the encroached land has conducted
itself in much the same way as do many others in this country — that is, kowtowing to big
developers regardless of whether they break the law. This has only emboldened the more
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unscrupulous among them to acquire real estate in questionable ways and use it as they
please with scant regard for indigenous communities, easement rights, the environment,
etc. While the superior judiciary has at times handed down bold and insightful verdicts to
contain the plunder of public land for commercial purposes, several of these have been
reversed on appeal. Lest one forget, it was the apex court’s implementation bench for the
May 4, 2018 judgement against Bahria Town which declared that no references were to
be filed against those involved in its massive land grab on Karachi’s outskirts. Even when
legal proceedings are initiated, they target the small fry — the local land revenue
employees — rather than those who are the driving force behind such crimes. Also, when
the ‘encroachers’ are hapless citizens without pelf and power, the state has no qualms
bringing out the heavy machinery to ‘establish its writ’ — otherwise so glaringly absent
when confronted by the heavyweights in the real estate business.
Lahore’s challenges
LAHORE is bursting at the seams, and is now offensively deformed. Can the new Master
Plan-2050 for the city approved by the Punjab government earlier this week fix the
provincial capital? From the sketchy details published so far, the plan doesn’t offer much
hope for the multiple challenges — such as pollution, urban sprawl, housing, sewerage,
water supply, public transport, scarce health and education facilities, traffic, vanishing
agriculture land, haphazard commercialisation, rising crime, etc — that face the 13m
residents of the city. With the city’s population projected to double to 25m by 2050, its
already inadequate infrastructure and public services are billed to come under
insufferable stress in the years to come.
Does the plan offer a solution to these real problems? If it does, where will the money to
fix the metropolis come from? At the moment, it is not generating enough resources to
maintain the existing infrastructure and public services let alone build a new one. That’s
not all. Decades of faulty urban planning and the rise of the property mafia have created
multifaceted social issues. The flawed ‘land-use rules’, for example, have pushed the poor
away from the city to its peripheries without any civic facility at all, distorting the inclusive
social structure it was once proud of. The Ravi City that the PTI and its PML-Q allies are
so bent upon building as an island of wealth by evicting helpless farmers from the land
they have tilled for generations will only deepen the divisions between the residents of
the city on the basis of their economic status. On the face of it, the new master plan also
focuses merely on facilitating the large real estate developers and builders in the name
of development, instead of dealing with actual public problems. No plan whatsoever,
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which doesn’t seek to revive the city’s economic, cultural and social inclusiveness, and
make it liveable for all of its old and new residents, can stop Lahore from imploding like
Karachi.
Imran disqualified
WITHIN days of sweeping to victory on six of the seven National Assembly seats he had
contested in the Oct 16 by-polls, former prime minister Imran Khan has been disqualified
from being chosen as or remaining a member of parliament under Article 63(1)(p) of the
Constitution.
The sentence against the PTI chief was passed unanimously by a five-member bench of
the Election Commission of Pakistan over his failure to properly account for monetary
proceeds from the sale of gifts he had received from foreign dignitaries while he was
prime minister. Apart from depriving him of the seats he had just won, the verdict also
formally removes Mr Khan from the National Assembly seat he had retained in 2018.
While the ECP’s findings in the Toshakhana case may not have been completely
unexpected — the PTI seemed to have an idea of what was coming, given how
persistently it had been assailing the commission’s partiality — it must be said that the
sentence seems unnecessarily harsh.
Instead of participating in and precipitating the technical knockout of yet another popular
leader on flimsy grounds, the ECP should have considered turning the matter over to the
tax authorities. It has, instead, issued a verdict that does not seem very different in intent
and effect from the one disqualifying PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif over an iqama and
undeclared salary.
In both cases, the judgements have looked like an aberration from the norms of our legal
system — a system which is otherwise known for flawed investigations, weak
prosecution, and abysmally low conviction rates.
It is also difficult to believe that justice was done in either case because both leaders
seem to have been handed disqualification verdicts after they fell out with the all-powerful
establishment. For that reason alone, even if the ECP’s intent and legal reasoning may
be right, few will expect the verdict will hold up under the test of time. Just like most of the
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headline ‘open-and-shut’ cases of yesteryear against other politicians — which are now
imploding rather spectacularly — we can expect that this judgement, too, will be overruled
when the wind starts blowing from a different direction.
The country is in crisis, yet we seem to be making attempt after attempt to put out fires
with petrol. Our civilian leaders should realise that they must sit together, set rules and
negotiate a way out of the present crisis. There are no winners where things stand at the
moment, and it would be folly to ignore the growing discontent and anger in the
hyperpolarised citizenry any longer.
The political stalemate must be broken unless the parties wish to rule a country broken
by an economic crisis and divided bitterly along partisan lines. There will be little left but
ashes to rule if things continue in the manner that they have in the past few months.
Criminalising torture
THE passage of The Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Bill,
2022, by the Senate on Thursday is a welcome step on the way to abolishing some of the
most abominable practices in Pakistan. While it is unlikely that the law will result in the
swift elimination of torture and similarly abhorrent tactics — particularly at the hands of
law enforcers — from society, the passage of the bill at least sets the right goals. In
Pakistan, as events have proved, even sitting lawmakers can be subjected to torture by
the powers that be. The rough treatment meted out recently to Senator Azam Khan Swati
is a case in point. What the ordinary citizen — the one without connections and money
— goes through, should he be suspected of wrongdoing by the police or intelligence
agencies, can be much worse. In order to put an end to this ghastly behaviour, the bill
seeks to prevent and criminalise torture, custodial death and custodial rape of persons
“held in custody by public officials”. Under the law, torture by public servants will be made
a cognisable, non-compoundable and non-bailable offence. Already passed by the
National Assembly, the anti-torture bill should become law as soon as the president gives
his assent.
While the law appears to be a progressive one, the question, as with all other types of
such legislation, is: who will implement the law and monitor its enforcement? Pakistan
has a history of passing excellent laws, but their lack of implementation renders them
meaningless. The fact is that if we are to eliminate torture from society, all pillars of the
state will need to be on the same page to pursue this goal. This means the civilian
administration, the judiciary, as well as the security establishment must speak with one
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voice against torture, custodial death and other such deplorable practices. That is easier
said than done. From eliminating the colonial throwback known as the thana culture,
where suspects are beaten and tortured in order to ‘confess’ to their supposed crimes, to
ending enforced disappearances and midnight knocks, a national consensus is needed
to do away with extrajudicial methods. The fact is that torture must be replaced with
modern, civilised methods of investigation, and those public servants — including
personnel from the police, agencies or other law-enforcement bodies — that torture and
illegally detain citizens must be held accountable before the law. The task is difficult, but
one that must be undertaken.
UK’s leadership failure
FOR those in Pakistan watching the self-implosion of the British government, the scenes
were familiar: a spate of U-turns, breathless speculation about whether or not the PM is
exiting, a change of finance minister in the thick of economic despair, and the pressure
to call early elections — the parallels have been tragically uncanny. There was even talk
that Tory MPs would stage a coup, a word we know well. But Liz Truss’s resignation after
just 44 days in office took the drama to unprecedented levels. Her term will be
remembered as catastrophic and her exit humiliating. Her failures are a result of the failure
of leadership on her part. It is a moment of self-reflection for the Conservative Party. After
a leadership race which saw the party cannabilise itself to appoint a new leader, Tory
party members picked and backed Ms Truss. It was her plans for tax-cutting and growth
that won their support versus those proposed by Rishi Sunak. But these plans sent UK
markets into a spiral. Analysts say they reflect a misunderstanding of how markets work
and how fragile the UK economy is. Instead of taking this opportunity to accept its
collective failure to appoint a competent leader and go for a general election, the Tory
party is once again scrambling to find a new face to lead the country at a time of serious
economic hardship. The new leader will have the party’s vote, but not the people’s
mandate.
Though a cloud of despair hangs over the UK as a harsh winter approaches, there are
signs that democracy, though complicated, still works in Britain. What happened to Ms
Truss is unusual. Her approval ratings fell drastically, unlike Donald Trump’s, for instance,
whose popularity remained intact no matter what he did. There are also lessons for
Pakistan, where many civilian and non-civilian office-bearers cling to power, oblivious to
their failings. The coming weeks will show how much stability the next PM can bring to
the UK, and whether British politics can regain its lost stature.
October 2022
FATF exit
AFTER nearly four-and-a-half years of trials and tribulations, Pakistan has finally exited
the FATF’s so-called grey list of countries. It is a victory that ought to be celebrated as an
example of what it is possible for the country to achieve when the national leadership
works together towards a common goal.
The exit had long been awaited, with the country hoping for a reprieve after each progress
review held in the last couple of years. Islamabad had been prescribed two concurrent
action plans by the FATF, which tracked compliance on a total of 34 action points. It is no
mean feat that the country came through on them all, even though it seemed at times that
the goalposts were being shifted to put it at a disadvantage. A FATF team had, towards
the end of August this year, verified Pakistan’s progress on reforming its anti-money
laundering regime as well as the measures taken to block terrorism financing and found
them to be satisfactory.
Pakistan’s placement on the FATF’s enhanced monitoring list had been widely resented,
but it has done considerable good for the country. As a result of the pressure from the
international watchdog, Pakistani authorities worked together to overhaul the regulation
of the domestic financial system to enhance monitoring of who has been using it and how.
This not just helped satisfy the FATF’s conditions, but it has also made it much more
difficult for nefarious elements to use the system to launder black funds or move them
around. Oversight of the various channels of the financial system will greatly strengthen
the state’s hand as it targets criminal activities and the proceeds from their crimes in the
future.
Where we go from here is entirely up to Pakistan. So far, the authorities have been acting
on a prescription handed to them by the FATF, but they should take the baton and
continue strengthening the Pakistani financial system. Nobody understands its
deficiencies better than the people who operate within it. They should use those insights
to plug any remaining gaps and make sure no vulnerabilities are remaining that may be
exploited.
The fact is, Pakistan would never have ended up on the FATF grey list in the first place
had our regulatory agencies acted more responsibly and proactively in the past. Grey-
listing scares both investors and lenders, hurts exports and creates a barrier for the global
financial system from participating freely in the country. We should now do everything to
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make sure we are not exposed to those risks again. Pakistan is at a difficult juncture in
its history, with global powers no longer averse to pointing fingers or even punishing it
over transgressions, perceived or otherwise. It would be wise to cover our flanks,
especially if any weak spots may create further sanction risks.
New Sindh LG law
THE Sindh information minister’s recent revelation that the PPP-led provincial
administration is willing to amend the Sindh Local Government Act (SLGA), 2013, in order
to grant greater powers to civic bodies comes as a welcome development for the entire
province. Both urban and rural Sindh have suffered greatly due to an LG law that many
find lacking in its ability to empower the local bodies to take on the challenges of
governance; instead, these powers have been handed to the provincial government and
bureaucracy. Sharjeel Memon told a presser that there was “room for improvement” in all
laws, while Karachi administrator Murtaza Wahab had earlier said that the next mayor of
the metropolis would have control over the water and solid waste bodies, as well as KDA.
Urban Sindh, particularly Karachi, is in an advanced stage of decay, thanks largely to the
fact that since the Musharraf-era LG law was rolled back, subsequent legislation has
failed to meet the megacity’s needs, while the PPP has also tried its level best to avoid
elections to the third tier. The situation in rural Sindh — the PPP’s heartland — is even
worse. Therefore, an attempt to frame a more progressive and inclusive LG law which
paves the way for elections to Sindh’s local bodies can only be hailed.
The information minister hinted at the fact that the new LG law could be passed as an
ordinance if the Sindh Assembly is not in session. This is a bad idea. After all, calling a
provincial assembly session is not difficult. Moreover, all stakeholders need to be taken
on board as this important legislation does not just concern the ruling party in Sindh, but
all the province’s inhabitants. For example, when the PPP amended the law last year,
there were widespread concerns that the changes did little to give back powers to elected
civic bodies’ heads. Instead, there was a feeling that the amendments tightened the
provincial government’s grip on the local bodies. Things need to be different this time
around. All parties in the provincial legislature — as well as those outside the assembly
— should be consulted, as should civil society and urban planning experts. For over a
decade, there has been enough experimentation with Sindh’s LG system, and it is a waste
of time and taxpayers’ resources to amend the law every few years because of
shortcomings that should have been addressed when it was being framed.
October 2022
Tragic apathy
A RECENT, deeply troubling story from Lahore about a two-year-old suffering from
severe burns who was denied treatment by not one or two but four teaching hospitals
should rattle the conscience of the nation. The child, who had received severe burns on
her face, chest and legs from boiling water in an accident at her home in Okara, suffered
hours of unending agony as she was turned away from hospital after hospital as her
desperate father begged, pleaded and threatened doctors to get her the attention she
needed. She was first refused treatment at the Okara DHQ Hospital, where doctors told
her father that she needed to be transported three hours away to Lahore as they would
not treat a paediatric burns patient. Forced to make that journey in excruciating pain, she
was then turned away from Lahore’s Mayo Hospital, Children’s Hospital and then the
Jinnah Hospital. It was not until the next day that some influential people prevailed and
managed to get her admitted to the Mayo Hospital burns ward. After that incident, the
Punjab government has now mandated the allocation of 10 beds in each paediatric
surgery department of state-run teaching hospitals for children suffering from burns.
How did we get to a point where the pain of a minor child elicits nothing but cold
indifference from people sworn to alleviate suffering and save lives? The hospitals say
they lacked specialists and resources to deal with paediatric burns, and that may well be
so, but it is still difficult to imagine that no doctor from four major hospitals cared enough
to take the two-year-old child in and provide palliative care till a specialist could be
arranged to take over treatment. What do the usually very active doctors’ associations
and representative organisations have to say about the gross disregard for human
suffering that seems to have set in their ranks? If four hospitals can turn away a suffering
toddler, what does it say about the people who run them?
Growing alienation
BALOCHISTAN’S agony has once again been laid bare before Pakistan’s elected
representatives. Akhtar Mengal, who heads his eponymous faction of the Balochistan
National Party, made a blisteringly forthright speech in the National Assembly last
Wednesday.
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In it, he pulled no punches about the human rights violations in his province, warning the
state that its tactics were sowing the seeds of hatred that would be impossible to
eradicate. Indeed, according to him, most Baloch youth have “reached a point of no
return”. Mr Mengal angrily denounced the fake encounters in the province in which
innocent people were killed and presented as terrorists. He referred specifically to the
incident in Kharan on Monday, where the Balochistan CTD allegedly killed three missing
people they described later as BLA “terrorists”.
According to the CTD, the men opened indiscriminate fire on the law-enforcement team
and were killed in an hour-long exchange of gunfire. However, the Voice for Baloch
Missing Persons chairman said three of the dead men had been identified as missing
people; one of them — the leader of a local chapter of the Baloch Students Organisation
— had been picked up on June 9, 2021, from Khuzdar.
There is a realisation among much of the civilian leadership that this is an untenable
situation. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, in response to Mr Mengal’s speech,
acknowledged that remaining in denial of these long-festering wounds would be harmful
for any nation. The weight of this baggage, he said, “was getting heavier by the day …
We need dialogue”. But who will bell the cat?
The state’s neocolonial attitude towards Balochistan — for how else can such utter
disregard for its people’s fundamental rights and the extractive nature of the state’s
relationship with the province be described? — is profoundly altering Baloch society.
Alienation and despair run deep among its populace. Pakistan’s integrity and well-being
are linked to all its people being given a fair deal and a just share in resources. Instead,
Balochistan has descended into a dystopian hellhole, a laboratory of flawed and
shortsighted policies, such as allowing violent extremist groups safe haven in the province
as a quid pro quo for them to counter separatist groups.
There have been half-hearted attempts to address Balochistan’s grievances — among
them ‘development packages’ under both the PML-N and the PPP governments — but
they have all come to naught because Balochistan was not to be allowed real agency
over its workings or its resources, and people continued to go missing. And the much-
vaunted ‘game changer’, CPEC, has only exacerbated the sense of marginalisation. Even
the approach to the ‘angry Baloch’ leaders went nowhere.
In any case, today’s educated, middle-class insurgents are more likely to despise the
powerful Baloch sardars, whom they see as an extension of the state. A truth and
reconciliation commission, as suggested at Wednesday’s National Assembly session,
may be viable, but sincerity is in short supply when it comes to Balochistan.
October 2022
No more Panadol
WHAT is worse? That a patient is able to purchase an essential medicine any time, even
at a somewhat higher price, or not get it at all? The government believes the people would
be better off without a medicine than with a pricier one. At least it appears to be thinking
on these lines, considering it rejected a request to raise the price of Panadol, a popular
brand of generic paracetamol, used to treat fevers and aches. This was despite the fact
that the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan had allowed its manufacturer a price
increase back in January. That was on account of the elevated domestic headline inflation
and manifold surge in the costs of imported raw materials on the back of the
unprecedented global commodity price super cycle. After failing in its efforts to get the
retail price increased to reflect its manufacturing costs, the producer, GlaxoSmithKline
Consumer Healthcare Pakistan, has suspended the production of Panadol, declaring
force majeure and saying it has become unsustainable to produce this ‘over-the-counter’
medicine on ‘negative margins’. It wasn’t unexpected. The company had already scaled
back the production of Panadol for some months to reduce losses, which had created a
shortage of the drug in much of the country.
Both the government and the manufacturer have ‘solid reasons’ to back their decisions.
If it had approved the Drap-recommended price increase, the government feared a
political backlash from the PTI, which could have used the issue as fodder in its campaign
to force an election. GSK is a business and not a charity. Therefore, it will be unfair to
judge its decision to shut down one of its most popular products. At the heart of the issue
is the excessive government control over drug pricing, which is stopping the sunshine
pharmaceutical industry from exploiting its growth and export potential. In the past, we
have seen several foreign pharmaceutical firms wind up their operations in Pakistan and
quit the country. Others have been unable to invest and upgrade their technologies and
production facilities because they cannot make decent profits and recover their
investments. Unlike us, India understood the importance of deregulated drug prices in the
1990s and is now a world leader in this industry, along with China, and one of the largest
exporters of pharmaceutical raw materials, generics and finished products. We, on the
other hand, aren’t even sure if we need Panadol or not.
October 2022
Dementia plan
THE launch of a new plan by the Punjab government to identify and treat dementia
patients is a welcome step. It is a sign that the country’s health authorities are not averse
to new approaches to healthcare, as compared to the traditional disease-based treatment
model followed in the country. Initiated in partnership with the World Health Organisation,
the Punjab Dementia Plan intends to provide comprehensive dementia services ranging
from diagnosis and care to spreading awareness and research on the subject. WHO
describes dementia as a syndrome that causes significant loss and degeneration of
cognitive functions in the brain. It is often preceded by mood changes and a deterioration
of the thought process. It is estimated there are more than 55m dementia patients in the
world, with 10m new cases every year. Between 60pc and 70pc of these, however, are
of Alzheimer’s disease, the most commonly reported type of dementia.
With more than 400,000 dementia patients in Pakistan, and the elderly population — the
age group most affected by the disease — expected to swell to 43m by 2025, the plan is
a good first step in recognising the overlapping and multiple healthcare needs of senior
citizens. However, it should be kept in mind that though dementia might appear to affect
the elderly more, experts say it is not a direct outcome of the aging process. If executed
well enough, the dementia plan might also enable improvement in services for patients
with multiple medical needs because it could underpin the conversion of at least some
parts of the country’s healthcare system, built on a disease-based treatment approach,
towards integrated and supportive care. Such a shift would automatically enhance the
health apparatus’s performance in treating other neurological or physiological diseases
requiring more supportive and nursing care for patients, and also extend support to their
families who are usually deeply impacted by the physical, social and behavioural changes
in their loved ones. Other provinces should follow suit and roll out their own dementia
treatment plans.
Pointing fingers
CONDEMN the man, not the institution, says Supreme Court Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who,
despite finding much to be discontent about in his institution, appears nonetheless to be
keeping faith in it. The honourable justice believes men must be fearless and act on their
conscience and that those who do not — those who sully their offices with their
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incompetence or flaws of character — must be held personally responsible for their

misdeeds.
He said as much as chief guest at the inaugural session of the Asma Jahangir
Conference, held to honour the memory of one of the most fearlessly principled persons
this country has produced.
The learned justice made the remark while recalling the role of the judiciary and the
executive in subverting Pakistani democracy, pointing to various individuals whom he
held responsible for the present state of affairs. However, it must be noted that the opinion
takes too charitable a view of Pakistan’s power dynamics.
As Justice Isa mentioned, non-democratic players have repeatedly found willing
collaborators in both the judiciary and the legislature for their conspiracies against
democratically elected governments.
It would have made sense to blame individuals had these conspiracies been limited to
one or two. Instead, our institutions completely failed in their constitutional duty to act as
a check and balance on each other as successive usurpers continued to make a mockery
of the law. Given our history, is it fair, then, to blame a few when the institutions
themselves have lost all regard for the law?
“If anybody tells you they are under pressure, they are not true to their oath of office,”
Justice Isa said at the event. “If you can’t handle the heat in the kitchen, get out.” The
honourable justice is respectfully asked: how many have done so, and how many more
have not?
“History will remember you” is an empty warning for those willing to rip up the very
foundations of the state for their ill-conceived experiments. The citizenry, forced to
spectate powerlessly each time a new ‘individual’ dictates their fate, can do little more
than curse and point fingers at the institution which enables them. It is unfair to ask them
to be more charitable when the institutions should apologise first for the many harms they
have already committed. In the past few years, Justice Isa has been a lonely crusader
fighting the normalisation of expediency when dealing with violations of the law.
He has been slandered and maligned relentlessly for his unwillingness to yield. The
respected justice has shown himself to be a bigger person if he is still willing to excuse
the complicity of state institutions in the long-running campaign to smear and punish him
for embarrassing the men who consider themselves above any institution or the law. He
should not expect the public to be as forgiving.
October 2022
Xi’s moment
MODERN China is largely the product of Mao Zedong’s revolutionary — and at times
controversial — struggle and leadership, as well as Deng Xiaoping’s economic vision,
which in essence began the end of the austere Maoist state, and the ushering in of
‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’, a euphemism for a capitalist economy overseen
by the Communist Party of China. But over the past decade, China’s current leader Xi
Jinping has sought to join this elite club that has shaped the Chinese state, by
restructuring the People’s Republic as per the requirements of ‘Xi Jinping Thought’. On
Sunday, Xi appeared to cement his position as a successor to Mao and Deng as he was
re-elected CPC general secretary to an unprecedented third term, which means his
appointment to the Chinese presidency for a third term remains a mere formality.
Moreover, many of those considered to be Xi loyalists have been appointed to the
politburo. The signs that Xi had been concentrating power had been visible for long; for
example, last year, the CPC urged members of the party and Chinese people to close
ranks around “Comrade Xi Jinping as the core”.
Much of the Western media has depicted the recent events in China as a virtual
coronation of Xi as a modern-day emperor. While the Chinese leader has certainly
acquired immense power, things may not be that simple. The People’s Republic is indeed
an autocratic entity, but it is unclear whether Xi will launch an era of one-man rule. As far
as the contours of ‘Xi Jinping Thought’ go, domestically, this has translated into a
crackdown on graft, as well as clamping down on ethnic minorities, such as the Muslim
Uighurs, and dissent in Hong Kong. On the international front, Xi’s China has pursued a
more muscular foreign policy, sending unambiguous signals that it firmly opposes
Taiwan’s independence, while laying claim to islets and atolls in the South China Sea,
much to the chagrin of other states that share this body of water. Xi has sought to project
Chinese power globally through his signature Belt and Road Initiative, of which CPEC is
a part, as well as offering loans to nations within the Global South. China’s economic and
military rise has, however, sent alarm bells ringing in the US, which now sees China as
America’s number one strategic rival. Much of the future global order will be shaped by
how Beijing and Washington manage this intense rivalry.
October 2022
Riveting cricket
THE fiercest rivalry in world cricket produced arguably the most spectacular Twenty20
match ever and perhaps the greatest innings by one of the most iconic batters of all time.
Virat Kohli was at a loss for words after dragging India from the depths of despair to
unbridled joy in their last-ball victory over Pakistan on Sunday.
His unbeaten 82 meant so much — coming at the biggest stage; the Group 2 opener of
the Twenty20 World Cup, at the grandest venue; a full-house Melbourne Cricket Ground,
and in a riveting contest between the arch-rivals. Pakistan will head to Perth for their
second Super 12 game against Zimbabwe. They lost by the finest of margins and will
have to show grit to bounce back.
Captain Babar Azam admitted that Kohli rose above the pressure. Two Pakistan batters
too rose to the occasion. Counterpunching half-centuries by Iftikhar Ahmed and Shan
Masood allowed Pakistan to post 159-8 after the early departures of batting mainstays
Babar and Mohammad Rizwan. They looked on course to defend it, with India reduced
to 31-4, only for Kohli to snatch it all away. A dramatic final over, which started with India
requiring 16 runs to win, saw Mohammad Nawaz pick up two wickets before bowling a
wide when the opposition required two off one.
Almost a year after kicking off their campaign at the last edition of the World Cup with a
win against India that inspired a barnstorming run to the semi-finals, Pakistan now have
work to do to make it to the final four this time. The takeaway from the game will be Shan
and Iftikhar providing runs when the opening pair failed.
The lower order wiggled too but pinch-hitter Asif Ali couldn’t fire. Pace spearhead
Shaheen Shah Afridi wasn’t at his best after his injury. Pakistan will hope Shaheen finds
his form and may have learnt that including a fourth pacer in the playing XI will help. The
good thing is that this is just the start and there’s some distance to go.
SC appointments
THE approval of three judges for elevation to the Supreme Court by the Judicial
Commission of Pakistan is, unfortunately, not the breakthrough it was hoped to be. On
Monday, though the forum unanimously agreed on Islamabad High Court Chief Justice
Athar Minallah, its approval for Justices Shahid Waheed and Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi of
the Lahore and Sindh high courts, respectively, was by a wafer-thin margin. The latter
two, both fourth on the seniority list of their respective courts, were nominated only
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because the attorney general and the law minister seemingly changed their earlier stance
on their eligibility. The government representatives’ surprising U-turn on the matter
subsequently invited speculation over a quid pro quo arrangement between the
government and the apex court.
Though filling pending vacancies in the apex court has been a matter of considerable
urgency, the process remains arbitrary and subject to individual discretion, which leaves
it open to needless and damaging controversies. This voting divide represents a pattern
that has been seen frequently in recent months whenever the JCP has considered
elevating judges based on criteria other than the so-called principle of seniority. It is worth
recalling that a vote on the nominations of Justices Waheed and Rizvi had failed by the
same margin in July, and Justice Ayesha Malik, also junior to her colleagues at the time
of nomination, had been approved by the same margin in January after initial deadlock
over her eligibility.
Despite various stakeholders repeatedly urging the chief justice to formalise a nomination
and assessment process, it appears that substantial efforts have yet to be made towards
this end. This is unfortunate, as this means that controversy can follow the appointment
of any judge to the Supreme Court. The divisions arising from the split over the new
nominations — as evidenced by the various bar associations and councils in Sindh going
on strike on Monday — are bad for both the judiciary and the two junior judges. They cast
a needless shadow, even though the nominations may be well deserved. Similarly, even
though he has cited different reasons for his decision, the decision of Law Minister Azam
Nazeer Tarar to resign soon after the JCP meeting is being seen as a form of protest
against allegedly being made to vote against his wishes. It is concerning that the superior
judiciary appears so divided while the country navigates one of its most turbulent periods
in recent history. There may be a valid argument for the elevation of judges based on
merit rather than seniority alone, but it is also important that the criteria for elevation be
objective and holistic. The chief justice had previously expressed displeasure over the
fact that his nominees had been blocked by other members of the JCP. Would it not be
better if any future decisions were to be based on reasoning that others would find difficult
to contest?
Journalist’s killing
TOO many questions are swirling around the tragic killing of senior journalist Arshad
Sharif in Kenya late on Sunday. And unless they are answered, by the Kenyan authorities
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as well as our own administration, the truth about Mr Sharif’s killing may never be
unveiled, and those responsible for his death will not be brought to justice.
As per the Kenyan police, the late TV anchor was travelling as a passenger in a vehicle
which failed to stop at a roadblock. The police, who were searching for a stolen car
according to the official version, opened fire, resulting in the death of Mr Sharif.
Kenyan law enforcers say it was a case of ‘mistaken identity’. But it needs to be explained
why lethal force was used when the automobile failed to pull over, and why officers shot
the late journalist in the head.
Arshad Sharif had been in self-imposed exile since August after an arrest warrant had
been issued for him, following a controversial interview the anchor had conducted with
PTI leader Shahbaz Gill, while he had been critical of the establishment since Imran
Khan’s government was ousted in April.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has urged the Kenyan president to ensure that a thorough
probe is conducted, while on Tuesday the PM said a judicial commission would be formed
to investigate the killing. The need for a transparent probe is all the more important since
Mr Khan’s claim that Arshad Sharif was the victim of a “targeted killing”, and that the slain
journalist had been receiving threats.
Moreover, the military too has also called for a high-level investigation to put speculation
to rest, and end the ‘smear campaign’ against the institution. It is hoped that the state
goes beyond words and commits to uncovering the truth behind the killing.
Apart from what transpired in Kenya, the circumstances that led to his exit from Pakistan
must also be examined. Clearly, the climate in Pakistan was such that the late anchor did
not feel safe staying here.
The fact is that our record when it comes to protecting journalists is far from satisfactory.
According to Unesco’s figures, 85 journalists have been killed in Pakistan since 1993,
with hardly any of the perpetrators of these crimes being punished. Every threat to
journalists must be taken seriously, while those who threaten the media fraternity must
face justice to end this climate of impunity.
Rishi Sunak’s challenge
THE United Kingdom has its first non-white prime minister, who, at the age of 42, also
happens to be the youngest PM the country has seen in two centuries. It is indeed a
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historic moment for many reasons. That an ethnic minority MP is now sitting in 10
Downing Street is a milestone moment, as it sends a strong message that people from
any faith or heritage can and do have representation in public service at the highest level
in the UK. It is also a hugely symbolic moment for a country that for almost 200 years
colonised the nation to which Mr Sunak traces his roots. Many have remarked that a few
decades ago, the notion that a British citizen of Indian origin would have led the
government of the former colonial power would have been shocking and unheard of.
But although Mr Sunak’s elevation is indeed a welcome moment, it by no means suggests
that the UK is now a post-racial society. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that racism
continues to be rampant in the UK. From reports of racism in the judiciary and in
immigration offices to studies on the discrimination that minorities face in their daily lives,
it is clear that unfair treatment and even abuse are not uncommon. Therefore, the fact
that Mr Sunak has what some would consider the ‘perfect’ Tory pedigree ie, a boarding
school education, an Oxford degree and multiple family connections to wealth, is very
relevant. While Mr Sunak is the first Asian PM in the UK, he is also, by net worth, the
wealthiest man to ever make it to No 10. What lies ahead for Mr Sunak? A divided Tory
party that has for months made a public spectacle of itself and a nation battered by rising
costs of living. With a loaded in-tray, and a public whose patience for change in the
executive office has worn thin, Mr Sunak has his work cut out for him.
Another march
ON Tuesday, after weeks of prevaricating, PTI chairman Imran Khan announced that his
party would, for the second time this year, begin its march on Islamabad on Friday. Public
emotions are riding high after Arshad Sharif, a prominent journalist who had been strongly
critical of the state in recent months, was shot dead by police in Kenya under highly
suspicious circumstances.
His killing has rekindled public anger and distrust of state institutions. PTI supporters
believe that Mr Sharif may have been targeted for his views — an allegation backed by
Mr Khan. It remains to be seen, however, if the PTI can channel this new anger into a
stronger campaign — which it may this time around.
Meanwhile, Mr Khan’s reported frustration at not achieving an agreement — behind
closed doors — with the establishment is also being cited as a possible trigger for the
march announcement.
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It may be recalled that the PTI’s last attempt at forcing the government’s ouster had
flopped quite spectacularly. The party’s supporters, facing a crackdown by the Islamabad
and Punjab administrations, had been unable to draw large enough numbers to pose any
major threat to the PDM.
Things will be different this time, as the PTI’s ally, the PML-Q, is in power in Punjab, and
the party will be able to consolidate there before moving to the capital. Regardless of how
the campaign plays out, neither the government nor the PTI can afford to exceed their
limits in the pursuit of their respective goals.
Last time, the government had made a royal mess of things by resorting to violence and
subversive tactics that greatly damaged its democratic credentials. Giving law enforcers
free rein only ends up exacerbating tensions rather than defusing them. The protestors,
too, need to be told to eschew violence.
By Imran Khan’s own admission, his supporters had turned up to the May protests
carrying weapons. He claimed he was forced to call off the protests prematurely to avoid
a civil war-like situation. The PTI is within its rights to march peacefully, but it must take
care to prevent such occurrences this time if it wishes to retain those rights.
Lastly, the PTI must be asked again what it hopes to accomplish with its ‘long march’. Its
move will roil domestic markets till the new wave of uncertainty that has been unleashed
simmers down. Meanwhile, the government has made it clear it is in no mood to call early
elections, and it is uncertain how bringing protestors to the capital, no matter what their
numbers, will change that.
The PDM, too, had tried to pressure the PTI government on multiple occasions during the
latter’s tenure through marches and protests but was only able to achieve its goal through
parliament. Does the PTI expect to rewrite the playbook? Only time will tell if Mr Khan
actually has a plan or is just taking a swing in the dark.
New approach needed
THE good news is that PTM lawmaker Ali Wazir, along with several others belonging to
his party, has been acquitted in a sedition case by a Karachi anti-terrorism court for lack
of evidence. The bad news is that the MNA from South Waziristan will stay behind bars
as he faces numerous identical cases. The lawmaker, along with his party men, was
booked for allegedly making an anti-state speech in Karachi in December 2020. In a
related development, PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen has been booked under terrorism
October 2022
charges for making a hard-hitting speech at the recent Asma Jahangir Conference on
Lahore. Slogans critical of some state institutions had also been raised at the same event.
But before there is a rush to judgement, one thing should be considered. While the
speeches made by Mr Wazir and Mr Pashteen may be unpalatable to some, and while
anti-state slogans cannot be condoned, these are largely reactions to the state’s decades-
old policy of treating all dissent with an iron fist, which can cause legitimate movements
for rights to metastasize into separatist insurgencies. Little has been done to alleviate the
concerns the PTM leaders raise, though the state swoops in when their speeches hit a
nerve. If injustices continue and are not addressed judiciously by the state, such slogans
will only increase in volume and ferocity. And if peaceful leaders such as Ali Wazir and
Manzoor Pashteen are incarcerated, radical groups can emerge in their place.
Whether it is Baloch, Pakhtun or Sindhi nationalism, the establishment’s use of
crackdowns and force has only exacerbated the problem. While the state periodically
offers ‘amnesty’ and ‘dialogue’, these offers are usually half-hearted and skin-deep. To
protect the federation and genuinely attempt to alleviate the concerns of all those citizens
who feel they are not getting their constitutional rights, the progressive solution lies in
talking to estranged elements, and delivering justice. It is unfortunate that Ali Wazir, an
MNA, has been kept in prison on dubious charges. The remaining cases against him need
to be disposed of, and instead of filing terrorism and sedition cases against anyone who
seeks to secure their rights, the state should listen to their grievances. Ironically, those
who are using peaceful means to press for their rights are facing terrorism charges, while
the state is ready to negotiate with those who have murdered tens of thousands of
Pakistanis. A change in the state’s attitude towards nationalists and other dissenting
voices is required.
Targeting the protectors
TUESDAY’s attack on a polio team in Pishin, Balochistan, where a police official escorting
the immunisation team was shot dead, underscores the deep-rooted challenges that
Pakistan continues to face in its attempts to eradicate the crippling poliovirus. Tragically,
the attack follows a spate of killings of polio workers and those guarding them in the
country this year. The format has been the same, with unknown assailants targeting
teams during a polio vaccination drive, and killing workers as well as the security officials
guarding them. The fact that these attacks follow a predictable pattern raises serious
questions. Is the security adequate? Are the officials equipped with the arms and training
October 2022
needed to protect themselves and the vaccination team? How are gunmen able to locate
and target these teams, and manage to flee so easily each time?
After reporting just one case of polio in 2021, this year the number of cases is around 20
— all of them reported in the northwest of the country. This raises serious questions about
the drive, which while seriously hindered by threats from assailants, is also hampered by
a mindset where families resist vaccination due to harmful propaganda and
misinformation. The government must do everything in its power to find out who the
perpetrators are and bring them to justice. It is unfortunate that despite the $5bn spent on
the eradication programme since 1994, Pakistan is still reporting over a dozen cases.
Though progress has been made in some years, officials cannot afford to be complacent,
especially as cases are rising. Earlier this year, when philanthropist Bill Gates met Imran
Khan, he said that continued and sustained polio vaccination efforts in Pakistan and
Afghanistan in 2022 would be critical to eradicating the virus from the world. It is
embarrassing and deeply unfortunate that Pakistan has gone many steps backwards after
moving forward and making gains. Those responsible for the lapses must be called to
task, and the security provided to these teams reviewed.
Burnt bridges
THE establishment on Thursday reached for the nuclear option as it attempted to reassert
itself ahead of the PTI’s announced long march on Islamabad. Smarting from recent
allegations and insinuations of its involvement in the killing of journalist Arshad Sharif, the
military brought out its big guns to respond.
For the first time in the country’s history, the DG ISI, the chief spymaster of the country’s
premier intelligence agency, addressed the public in a joint press conference alongside
the military’s spokesman.
Saying he was “forced” to make an appearance and set the record straight because his
institution and its people were being relentlessly attacked, Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum, who
otherwise prefers working away from the cameras, expressed at length his indignation at
those slandering the armed forces.
“When lies are being spoken so easily, fluently, and without inhibition from one side that
there is a danger of chaos and upheaval in the country, the truth cannot remain unspoken
for too long,” he said about his decision to speak out.
October 2022
The two generals dismantled the PTI’s post-ouster narrative. “Calling someone a traitor,
or Mir Jaffar or Mir Sadiq without proof cannot be condemned enough,” the spy chief
remarked. “It is an allegation that is 100pc based on lies.”
No punches were pulled as the DG ISI dismissed the Cablegate controversy and
condemned the PTI for targeting the army leadership.
“They are not traitors. They did nothing unconstitutional or illegal. The [allegation of
treachery] was levelled only because they refused to do something unconstitutional and
illegal.”
The spy chief revealed that the army chief was offered an unlimited extension in March
in return for thwarting the vote of no-confidence. “The offer was made in front of me,” he
said. “If you thought your [army chief] was a traitor, why would you do that?” he asked.
He also confirmed that two meetings had been held since then, with President Arif Alvi
acting as mediator, and that in both meetings, Mr Khan had been told that whatever he
desired would have to be sought through the Constitution and the law. It is likely that Mr
Khan pushed the army to pressure the government to call early elections in those
meetings.
The fact that the DG ISI himself had to address a press conference to counter the PTI’s
narrative suggests that attempts at backdoor negotiations have been all but exhausted.
Attempts to negotiate a compromise between the PTI and the PDM, silence Mr Khan or
make him back off appear, for now, to have failed. The establishment has, in strategy
terms, now ‘climbed the escalation ladder’.
The DG ISPR said in the press conference that internal instability is currently the biggest
threat to the country. This appears to be a warning for the PTI not to consider taking any
measures that may disrupt the status quo through its long march.
It is stunning how spectacularly the PTI and the military have fallen out. There is now little
question that the military establishment, especially the ISI, played a key role in bringing
the PTI to power. It ‘persuaded’ the smaller parties and independents to join the party and
help it form a government.
It seems that Mr Khan, out of hubris or something else, forgot those ‘services’ and started
to believe that he had come to power on his own. As a consequence, the friction between
the two eventually grew. When the establishment finally turned against Mr Khan, either
for his refusal to toe the line or because they had decided to turn ‘neutral’, the allies and
independents also parted ways and took the PTI government down with them.
Mr Khan has not been able to swallow that insult. He continues to believe that it has only
been his right to govern. This thinking has been evident in the campaign he has run over
the last few months. The army’s darling has now become its bête noire.
October 2022
How matters will be resolved between the two is difficult to say at this stage. Perhaps
realising the gravity of the situation, the PTI has been guarded in its response. Instead of
going on the attack, it took a defensive posture, stressing that it has only sought an early
election both privately and publicly, and intends to proceed with the long march and
ensure that it remains peaceful.
It did ask, however, that if the army was apolitical, why did it need to hold this press
conference? It is a question that needs to be contemplated.
Meanwhile, there are other lessons to be learnt. Due to the manner in which the
establishment repeatedly interfered in political and civilian affairs over decades, the civil-
military schism we see today was bound to happen. It is true that the people of Pakistan
have always loved their armed forces and will continue to do so, but their love should not
be considered unconditional.
It is there for those who give their blood to protect the country against its enemies, not for
those who manipulate the country’s political system. We sincerely hope that at least this
one lesson has finally been learnt from the situation.
Gas management
GAS shortages have been an integral part of everyday life in Pakistan for around two
decades. In recent years, however, the shortages have worsened owing to depleting local
gas reserves and a growing demand from residential consumers due to the fuel’s
concessional pricing. Even gas imports from Qatar since 2015 have never helped fully
bridge the supply gap during winters when the demand for residential heating surges. The
coming winter season is expected to be the worst ever due to the inability of the
government to purchase additional LNG cargoes from spot markets, owing to the fuel’s
elevated rates because of the rising European demand after the suspension of supplies
by Russia since the latter’s invasion of Ukraine. This is quite evident from the load
management plan chalked out by the authorities, envisaging the supply of fuel to
residential consumers just thrice a day for cooking and heating, from November through
February. That the residential users will get only limited supplies in spite of the diversion
of a large quantity from the power and non-export industrial sectors, as well as imported
LNG, underscores the growing magnitude of the gas crisis each year.
Gas shortage is likely persist in the absence of new discoveries. Till then, we will be
dependent on expensive gas to partially meet our needs. But there is a way to cut its
wasteful and inefficient use, albeit politically difficult since it involves a massive increase
October 2022
in gas prices for residential consumers as well as a reduction in subsidies for industry,
especially inefficient units. The government will also have to use policy tools to shift
residential consumers to LPG for cooking and heating water. That will allow the
government to divert the available gas for efficient electricity generation and direct
industrial use for co-generation where efficiencies are far greater than its use for cooking
and heating at home. This will help near full recovery of costs and reduce the subsidy
burden on taxpayers. This is also important because huge gas subsidies are being
pocketed mostly by affluent households while the vulnerable segments remain dependent
on expensive LPG or other fuels. That is not all. Line losses are high and theft is rampant
in pipeline networks of both the SNGPL and SSGC. The incidence of ‘unaccounted for
gas’ is estimated to be close to 18pc due to line losses and theft. The shift to LPG can
address this issue too. Unless reforms are implemented, the nation’s gas woes will
continue to increase.
Reviving CPEC
PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s first official trip to China, that begins early next week,
will focus on the immediate ‘restart’ of the multibillion-dollar CPEC initiative and a swift
completion of the pending large infrastructure projects. On the table are a $10bn railway
project, the Karachi Circular Railway, and energy generation schemes worth $18.5bn that
had been delayed due to frosty ties between the PTI government and Beijing, deferrals
in payments to Chinese power producers and the liquidity troubles Pakistan has been
facing for the last five years. According to the government, the Joint Cooperation
Committee meeting held after a long time has cleared the projects and a formal
announcement will be made during Mr Sharif’s visit. The JCC, where both sides
discussed ‘missed opportunities’ and ‘prolonged delays’ in the execution of schemes like
SEZs agreed upon eight years ago, also decided to include water resources
management, business-to-business investments in the energy and industrial sectors and
climate change concerns in the new phase of cooperation. Islamabad has also sought
Chinese investment for its 10,000 MW solar power generation plan, facilitation of export
of some agricultural products to China and exclusion of the 300 MW coal power plant in
Gwadar.
With Pakistan in dire need of foreign loans and investments to shore up its dwindling
foreign exchange reserves to stabilise its currency and external sector, the resumption of
CPEC will provide relief to its teetering economy. Begun in 2015, so far 28 projects worth
$18.8bn have been completed. Other schemes worth $34bn are under different phases
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of execution or at various stages of planning. It was unfortunate that the initiative lost its
momentum under the Imran Khan administration due to lack of foresight; by the time the
government realised its potential for Pakistan’s economy and people it was already too
late.
Ever since its formation, the new coalition government has repeatedly emphasised the
importance of the initiative and expressed high-level political commitment to the revival
of Chinese investments on multiple occasions. Mr Sharif has himself been taking an
interest in resolving the payment and approval issues facing Chinese companies. That
his efforts now seem to be bearing fruit is a positive sign for Pakistan as the CPEC
schemes can help us bridge our infrastructure gaps and revive Pakistan’s moribund
economy. Nonetheless, it is advisable that the country’s political leadership avoid past
mistakes that had allowed this enormous investment initiative to become a source of a
major public controversy due to lack of transparency in the deals done with Chinese
companies. It is therefore vital that the prime minister convinces Beijing to share complete
information on the deals made and the costs involved with the people and bilateral
lenders. Unnecessary controversies around the CPEC initiative can be detrimental to the
schemes under it as well as relations between China and Pakistan.
Hollow sabre-rattling
RESPONSIBLE officials of state should know better than to make incendiary claims that
have the potential to further poison bilateral ties. However, the BJP-led dispensation that
currently rules India seems to have no shortage of sabre-rattling officials that seek to
stoke conflict with Pakistan by making irresponsible remarks.
The latest Indian official to direct uncalled-for comments towards this country is Defence
Minister Rajnath Singh, who, while speaking at an event in held Kashmir on Thursday,
said that “the mission will complete only when Gilgit-Baltistan and areas of Kashmir …
reunite with India”. The ‘mission’ he was referring to is New Delhi’s dubious 2019 move
to do away with occupied Kashmir’s limited constitutional autonomy, and the ‘reunion’
with India of regions in Pakistan implies a hostile intent.
Ironically, the day the Indian minister was making these reckless remarks, the people of
Azad Kashmir were observing a black day to mark the controversial ‘accession’ by the
ruler of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian dominion 75
years ago.
October 2022
Regarding any foolhardy ideas the Indian defence minister or his colleagues in
government may harbour of attacking Pakistan, they should know that this country can
and will defend itself. Moreover, it is highly irresponsible for a minister to make such
provocative remarks in a region which hosts two nuclear powers.
The most viable option for a solution to the question of the future status of Azad Kashmir
or India-held Kashmir is through dialogue. Decades of mistrust and warfare between
Pakistan and India over the Kashmir question have failed to resolve the issue, and it is
folly of the highest order if India’s rulers believe that GB or AJK can be taken by force.
Any such irrational attempt would have catastrophic consequences for the entire
subcontinent.
Many formulas have been put on the table to resolve this lingering issue through
negotiations, and the matter came tantalisingly close to being clinched during the
Musharraf era. These old formulas can be dusted off, while new ones can also be
discussed, but the key question is that of intent. Does the hard-line BJP, which loves to
beat the drums of confrontation where Pakistan is concerned, have the sagacity to come
to the table to discuss Kashmir frankly and without inhibition, paving the way for a
solution? Till such a time comes, Indian officials should refrain from making preposterous
claims about ‘taking’ Pakistani territory.
Renewed resistance
ONCE again, Israel is on the rampage in the occupied territories. Whilst most incursions
over the recent past have devastated Gaza, this time it is the West Bank’s turn to face
the Israeli war machine. At the centre of the storm is a new Palestinian armed resistance
group, the Lions’ Den, based out of Nablus and composed of young fighters belonging to
Fatah, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Israeli media has termed the new
group a “major headache”, and Nablus has been facing a “state of war” for the past
several weeks, say Palestinian journalists. The apparent spark that led to the current
round of violence has been the killing of an Israeli soldier on Oct 11 near an illegal
settlement by Palestinian fighters. Israel, typically, has responded with great brutality, with
Palestinians describing the Israeli reaction as an ‘invasion’. Five Palestinian men,
including Lions’ Den fighters, as well as non-combatants, were killed on Tuesday,
resulting in Arab outrage and a massive outpouring of mourners at the funerals. In the
latest violence, two Palestinian men were shot dead by Israeli forces at a checkpoint near
Nablus on Friday.
October 2022
The emergence of new armed groups is a reflection of the fact that the Arab-Israeli peace
process is dead. In fact, many younger Palestinians, who have failed to see any benefits
of negotiations, and have directly felt the brutal force of the Israeli occupiers, term their
ageing leadership ‘collaborators’ of Tel Aviv. It is telling that young Arabs are willing to
leave established Palestinian parties and directly take on the occupation. When talks with
Israel have given the Arab side nothing but more illegal settlements, and more bodies to
bury, greater resistance is but the natural outcome. Sadly, the international community
that has shed tears over Russia’s occupation of Ukraine, has failed to express similar
remorse over Israel’s over five-decade-old occupation of the Palestinian territories, while
numerous Arab states continue to bend over backwards to develop relations with Israel.
Hunting season
IT is quite unfortunate that, despite the widespread misery wreaked by record rainfall and
floods this year, influential quarters remain eager to welcome the foreign dignitaries and
royals hoping to prey on the country’s wildlife resources for their pleasure. According to
a news report published in this paper, the Sindh government has, ostensibly under
pressure, allowed falconry and trophy hunting activities to continue as usual this winter.
The provincial forest and wildlife department has defended the decision saying that the
activities have been allowed only in the foothills and desert regions in the province “on
the grounds of non-occurrence of natural calamity in such areas”. Thankfully, the
department has been able to secure a ban on the hunting of native game birds and
waterfowl for the season.
While hunting purely for sport seems unnecessarily cruel and exploitative, many continue
to defend it as a cherished tradition. Additionally, the foreign dignitaries and royals who
frequent Pakistan for adventure spend lavishly while they are here, providing a significant
boost to economies that are otherwise neglected by the state. However, even among
those who support the activities, there is now an understanding that wildlife populations
need to be carefully managed if traditions like falconry are to be kept alive. The climate
devastation seen this year has taught us that the consequences of upsetting the balance
of nature can be catastrophic. While sharing their fears, wildlife officials have said that
various Sindh habitats have been severely disturbed due to the heavy rains this year,
forcing different birds and animals to disperse and find safer areas. There is not enough
information about how various wildlife populations have been affected by the floods and
whether or not these populations are stable. In such circumstances, it would be prudent
to let nature heal itself before the state starts handing out permits. The decision-makers
October 2022
should realise that the pleasure of a handful of foreign royals should not be placed above
the conservation of our national resources.
Foreign policy test
THE global order is changing at an incredible speed, and unless states keep up with these
changes and configure foreign policy accordingly, they risk getting sucked into the vortex
of destructive bloc politics and confrontation. Pakistan, which sits in a difficult
neighbourhood and has to manage a number of delicate bilateral relationships, must
study its options well, even though its choices have been limited due to economic turmoil
and mismanagement, as well as domestic political dissonance. Speaking at an event in
Islamabad on Friday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif noted that the country’s relations
with ‘friendly’ states had suffered over the past few years, and that he was making “all-
out efforts” to mend ties. While the PM’s observation had a clear political angle —
criticising his predecessor — there can be little argument about the need to improve ties
with foreign partners. Mr Sharif seems to have been giving a renewed push to proactive
foreign policy of late, having just returned from Saudi Arabia while he is next headed to
China. Of course, Pakistan’s dire financial situation has much to do with this focus. Yet,
creating a progressive and robust external policy will require more than just securing
loans and MoUs from our foreign friends. It will require us to tread carefully to avoid the
landmines lying ahead, and to put our own house in order so that Pakistan’s standing
overseas can improve.
Pakistan must balance ties with a diverse collection of foreign partners, who often do not
see eye to eye with each other, and many of whom expect this country to take sides when
the going gets tough. That will be Pakistan’s principal foreign policy challenge in the days
ahead. For example, the US has been a long-time partner of Pakistan, though the
relationship has been more transactional than strategic. China and Saudi Arabia have
also been steady partners, yet as things stand, the US considers the People’s Republic
its number one foreign adversary, while ties between Washington and Riyadh have also
started to fray. In such a scenario, will Pakistan be asked to pick sides? This is only one
of the challenges that lie ahead. Pakistan’s interests — defence, economic, strategic —
must come first, while the elected leadership needs to formulate a sagacious and
balanced foreign policy, implemented by professional diplomats, that is able to withstand
the strong headwinds that are today shaking the global order.
October 2022
Imran’s response
THE gloves are well and truly off in the showdown between the state and the PTI, and
the security establishment will find that it only has itself to blame for exposing the spy
chief to the trenchant criticism now being levelled against him by former prime minister
Imran Khan.
The military leadership ought to have foreseen the reaction to the decision to formally pit
the ISI against a politician who is riding a growing wave of public support. Instead of being
intimidated, Mr Khan seems to have found a reason to strike back with added
vindictiveness.
He is now channelling his rage at the spy chief and other intelligence officials by name
and without inhibition, because Thursday’s press talk by the military has apparently
provided him with an opening to do so.
While addressing the participants of his ongoing long march on Friday, Mr Khan went on
the offensive against Lt-Gen Nadeem Anjum for the latter’s assertion that the spy agency
is “apolitical and neutral”, arguing that the ISI chief had, in fact, delivered a “political
presser” — “more political than anything Sheikh Rashid has ever managed” — while
ignoring the “group of thieves” currently sitting in government.
Mr Khan also positioned himself on the moral high ground when he suggested that he,
too, could embarrass the security establishment if he chose to speak but would remain
quiet in the interest of the country and the institutions of the state.
He was also able to publicly cast doubt on the claims of the army leadership that it was
staying away from politics, by referring to the alleged involvement of senior officers in the
arrest and torture of two PTI leaders.
Editorial: It is stunning how spectacularly the PTI and the military have fallen out
The PTI’s long march was being perceived, at least till Thursday morning, as just another
battle of wits between the PTI and the PDM. The security establishment walked itself into
that equation, displacing the ruling coalition that now found itself on the sidelines of the
battle for political supremacy. It may have felt there were good reasons for doing so, but
what those reasons were is still not clear, even if one can understand the concern to
counter Mr Khan’s narrative.
October 2022
What was it that needed to be said by the intelligence chief himself on a public rostrum
that the military’s spokesman could not have conveyed? What was the objective of the
exercise and what has been gained from it?
These are the questions that are being asked about the security establishment’s decision
to enter into confrontation with a political party, which appears to have worsened the
distrust prevailing among the citizenry rather than healing the existing divide.
Instead of taking the sting out of the PTI chairman’s campaign, the decision to involve the
ISI chief only appears to have stirred the hornet’s nest. Mr Khan seems to have the
advantage in this round at least.
Unheeded appeal
WITH the waters receding and international attention moving on to other pressing global
issues, a major human catastrophe is in the making in Pakistan’s flood-hit regions, as
underscored by a top Unicef official last week. In a passionate appeal, the regional
director of Unicef for South Asia urged the world to step up to save the lives of hundreds
more children who would likely perish in the coming weeks if international support does
not come in. “The boys and girls of Pakistan desperately need our support to survive and
yet the international appeal for Pakistan remains severely underfunded,” Mr George
Laryea-Adjei observed following a visit to the flood-affected areas in the country. “As the
catastrophic climate disaster continues to upend the lives of millions of children, it is the
most vulnerable boys and girls who are paying the steepest price,” he said, warning that
without urgent global action, the climate devastation seen in Pakistan is feared to be only
a precursor to many more catastrophes linked to the survival of children.
Separately, the post-disaster needs assessment conducted jointly by international
agencies has put flood damage and loss estimates at over $30bn and has warned of a
“substantial increase in poverty levels, widening fiscal and external account deficits amid
political and economic instability”. It has also called for “coordinated international
(financial) support” of $16.3bn for recovery, and building a disaster-resilient economy,
infrastructure and institutions to fight off the rising challenge of climate change. Based on
the PDNA, Pakistan has renewed its call for relaxing IMF conditions and demanded
‘climate justice’ in order to invest in rehabilitation and climate-adaptation efforts. But is the
world listening to the appeals being made by the UN and Pakistan for urgent international
help as millions fight a losing battle against disease, hunger and the approaching winter?
October 2022
After recognising that it must help Pakistan and its people deal with a ‘one in 1,000-years’
tragedy induced by global climate change to which Pakistan has contributed little,
international sympathy seems to be ebbing. Initially, the international community was
quick to lend a hand in rescue efforts when the deluge was submerging a third of this
country and displacing millions who remain homeless and hungry. But that was then. That
the appeal from the UN for flood survivors has largely gone unheeded, and the effort
remains underfunded is enough to demonstrate donor fatigue. It may be shocking for
many of us who were hoping for large foreign aid for recovery and reconstruction in the
aftermath of the floods. It is time to acknowledge the fact that the world wants us to fend
for ourselves. Perhaps, that is a lesson we should have learnt a long time ago, one that
should have prompted us to fix our economic house and end reliance on foreign
assistance in such catastrophic emergencies.
Abuse inquiry
A SEVEN-YEAR inquiry into child sexual abuse in Britain has revealed some shocking
truths: that the reprehensible practice is rampant; that institutions and politicians have
prioritised reputations over the well-being of young people; that the abuse is hidden for
decades; and that protection measures are poor. The scale of the abuse, say social care
experts, is an “ever-increasing” problem. The investigation began in 2014 after a string of
child abuse cases became public, including the shocking case of abuse involving late
BBC star Jimmy Savile. It found that children were being abused in institutions such as
the Catholic Church, the Church of England and Westminster and that the rich were
treated differently — even protected when it came to their involvement in child abuse.
Though the extensive inquiry is a first step towards acknowledging and chronicling the
serious abuse against children, it is clear that Britain has its work cut out for it. The
conclusions reached by the authorities at the helm of this inquiry are harsh, and involve
prosecuting those who fail to report abuse, but they are absolutely necessary in a society
that has often criminally failed to protect its most vulnerable members. As the UK mulls
its next steps, the repercussions of unchecked and rampant abuse there has
repercussions for other parts of the world — especially Pakistan. In 2019, it emerged that
Sohail Ayaz, a convicted paedophile who had served jail time in Britain, was deported to
Pakistan. But due to the absence of a mechanism by which the UK and Pakistan could
share information on sex offenders, Ayaz managed to slip through the cracks. As a result,
he resumed his criminal activities and was eventually arrested — but only after 30 cases
of child sexual abuse were reported. As the UK prepares to deport two Pakistani members
October 2022
of the infamous Rochdale grooming gang after they were stripped of their citizenship,
there has to be a moment of reckoning for the Pakistani authorities. Too often the cases
of child abuse that make it to the mainstream media are followed by complacency. During
the PTI government, there was talk about a child sex offenders register — similar to the
one that exists in the UK — but it is unclear how this is maintained and made accessible
to parents and caregivers. This has to change. The UK and Pakistan must not only share
information, they must also adopt a zero-tolerance approach and do everything in their
power to protect children.
Serious allegations
SENATOR Azam Khan Swati’s allegations against two senior officers working for the
nation’s top intelligence agency are very serious and require clarification from the military
top brass. Mr Swati was taken into custody by the FIA earlier this month after he posted
a controversial tweet critical of the military leadership.
On Friday, the PTI senator named names, claiming he was physically tortured by two
senior ISI officials. The interior minister, however, denies Mr Swati’s charges, saying the
lawmaker was treated “respectably” during custody. Moreover, PTI supremo Imran Khan
also took up the issue as he launched his ‘long march’ from Lahore, saying that the two
intel officers Mr Swati had identified should be removed.
To bring clarity to the matter, a thorough probe is needed. After all, when the ISI chief
made an unprecedented appearance in front of the media on Thursday, he repeatedly
made references to the law and the Constitution. Therefore, when such serious
allegations are being made against national institutions, the only way to resolve this issue
is through transparency and pledging to respect the law.
State institutions are guardians of the law and need to lead by example. The fact is that
in Pakistan, from the local thana to the ‘safe houses’ of the security establishment, torture
and violence during custody are not unknown practices. While ordinary folk are meted out
this abhorrent treatment quite frequently, when lawmakers and other members of the elite
are subjected to torture in custody, it becomes headline news.
Perhaps keeping in mind this grim reality, the Senate has recently passed a bill
criminalising torture in custody. To ensure the rule of law, it is imperative that all security
institutions, including the police and intelligence apparatus, pledge to eliminate torture as
part of their SOPs. The Azam Swati incident can be a test case; let the authorities
October 2022
investigate and if his claims are proven true, then those responsible must be made to
answer before the law.

October 2022: For CSS, Pms and Other Competitive Examination

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October 2022

For CSS, PMS

Compiled and Edited By

The CSS Point, Pakistan’s The Best

Untruths and politics

ON Friday morning, Kabul’s Dasht-i-Barchi neighbourhood was rocked by a terrorist

Fuel price reduction

KARACHI Administrator Murtaza Wahab’s announcement that the second phase of

More than economics

Renewed TTP threat

Subsidy for exporters

Bucking the trend

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2022

Russian oil option

What next for Nawaz?

CONFUSION and obfuscation have become a predominant feature of our national

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2022

ECP’s welcome decision

Acknowledging the inevitable

Breast cancer awareness

Looming wheat crisis

Reforms in power sector

UK’s leadership failure

Published in Dawn, October 22th, 2022

New Sindh LG law

incompetence or flaws of character — must be held personally responsible for their

Rishi Sunak’s challenge

New approach needed

Targeting the protectors

Foreign policy test

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2022

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