December 18, 2013

DAWN EDITORIALS

Dual nationality
THE issue of dual nationality of public officials continues to rumble on, with the Senate on Monday passing a bill that prohibits senior civil servants holding dual nationality. It also deferred a resolution, at the government`s request, calling on the government to make the superior judiciary give details of judges with dual nationality. The issue of dual nationality is an emotive one, a debate grounded here in the specific political and historical context of Pakistan. This much is clear: there is little public acceptance of parliamentarians who possess dual nationalities and the superior judiciary`s attempts to weed them out of the assemblies have by and large been well received by public opinion. The danger, of course, is always that such debates can mask xenophobic or insular agendas and given Pakistan`s increasing drift towards isolationism, the debate needs to be grounded in rational andreasonable discourse. Since the beginning of the superior judiciary-propelled debate on dual nationality, this paper has held that it is a reasonable bar on parliamentarians who are specifically restricted by the Constitution from acquiring foreign citizenship. This should also hold for senior bureaucrats, judges and security officials. Given their various roles in making law, setting policy and executing policy, those senior state functionaries will invariably face a conflict of interest. How, for example, can a dual national in the Foreign Office or the Ministry of Commerce deal with issues pertaining to rights or privileges extended to a foreign country in a transparent manner that keeps Pakistan`s interests supreme if the individual making the decision has also pledged allegiance to that other country? Or, when it comes to matters of national security, on which evenjudges sometimes have to adjudicate in a limited manner, why should a state secret that is kept shielded from ordinary citizens of Pakistan be made known to a citizen of another country? Clearly, other countries can and do allow senior state functionaries to hold dual citizenship. But context matters and in a fledgling system where public trust in state institutions and functionaries is yet to mature and be taken as a given, steps that could undermine that developing trust should be avoided. Which is why it is particularly surprising that the superior judiciary has thus far declined to provide information to parliament on dual-national judges on the grounds that the law does not permit it. If the superior judiciary is so zealous in its pursuit of dual nationals in other institutions, should it not necessarily offer itself up to the same level of scrutiny? The country deserves to know the truth.

BDU`s unsung heroes

GIVEN Pakistan`s dire circumstances, it is little wonder that law enforcement and security personnelare in constant danger with some among them facing relatively higher risks than the others. This is especially true of the bomb disposalunits in the country. The death of at least four BDU personnel of the KP police in an IED explosion near Peshawar on Monday shows the threat level faced by those working in this department. While these men were killed as they headed to the site of an earlier blast, several BDU men have died while defusing bombs, including Hukam Khan who was killed last year and who had defused hundreds of explosive devices in his career. Many more have been injured and some have lost body parts. It is unfortunate then that while BDU officers put their lives on the line to protect the people, neither the state nor society appears to be doing enough to recognise their efforts or to support them. True, bomb squads themselves may be partially responsible. For instance, equipment to minimise the risks that BDU personnel face includes roboticsystems to defuse explosives. However, it has been noted that BDU officers don`t always use the robots, and at times circumvent standard operating procedures. AMANAT ALI Page 1

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It must be ensured that whenever officers are deployed in the field, all procedures are followed. That said, the provincial authorities have dragged their feet over matters like compensating the men for their efforts. For example, bomb disposal officers in KP receive a pittance where allowances are concerned as compared to their counterpartsin Punjab and Sindh. They must be compensated for the dangerous work they do and the state must constantly update their efforts by bringing in new technology and expertise to minimise the risk to their lives. This is true for bomb disposalunits across the country. In tragedies like the one on Monday, the state must care for the victims` families and help them through difficult times. Most of all, the government and people must show their appreciation to boost the men`s morale and let them know that their efforts are not going unnoticed.

Buried rights of coal miners

IN industrial towns and cities across the country, there is no shortage of resentment on account of the insufficient generation of electricity and shortage of natural gas. Those whose businesses and livelihoods have been hit are loud in their protests. Yet there is a group of people who are equally, if not more, affected by Pakistan`s increasing energy woes, and whose very real victimisation is going entirely unnoticed by the state and society. They have neither a voice nor a lobby to take up their complaints, and thus continue to suffer in silence. They comprise the thousands of coal miners of Balochistan who work deep underground in the dark and in conditions so hazardous and appalling that their expected working lifespan is only about 20 years around the age of 30 or so, most develop severe respiratory illnesses that stop them from mining. Working conditions for Balochistan`scoal miners, as indicated by a report in this paper yesterday, have always been exploitative. They are paid a pittance and there are no safety measures in place. The fruit of their labour generally goes to the mine owners. Yet with the demand for coal increasing in the country to plug the gap left by the shortage ofgas,it behoves the state and society to step in. On paper, the regulatory system is there, with inspectors, and safety and other checks.In the absence of these, a mine, theoretically, can be shut down. In reality, though, the considerable influence that mine owners wield over government representatives means that the exploitation of men and boys continues. The state must of course intervene, and this is a fitting case for labour rights` bodies to take up. Addressing the plight of the poorest in the country`s least developed province can send out a strong signal of hope.

Participation of Muslim girls

DELHI: A fervent appeal to the parents of girl students of Delhi, to let their daughters take a more active part in the Muslim Students Movement and to work for the national uplift of Muslims, was made by Miss Humera Hashmat, presiding over a special meeting of Muslim girl students of Delhi at the Arabic College, organised by the Delhi Muslim Students` Federation. The great change that is coming over Muslim women and their awakening and political consciousness, she said, were manifested in the enthusiasm with which they assembled and participated in meetings like these. For this awakening among Muslim women in Delhi, she said, the active and energetic girl students of the Federation were responsible. Miss Hameeda Arif spoke of the famine situation in Bengal and the miserable plight of the helpless women and children there. She appealed to the Muslim ladies to contribute to the Bengal relief fund. Mrs. Bashir Ahmad, Saida Sultan, Miss Khurshid Hasan and Miss Laig Suriya also addressed the meeting. AMANAT ALI Page 2

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Ayub voices Pakistan`s fear

NEW YORK: President Ayub Khan said today [Dec 17] that Western arms aid to India posed a `grave threat` to Pakistan`s security and subjected its alliance with the West to increasing strain. President Ayub Khan emphasised that what was needed for the security and welfare of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent is a rapprochement between India and Pakistan. This `can be brought about only through a just and honourable settlement of the Kashmir dispute`, he added. The President wrote in the quarterly journal Foreign Affairs published here: `It is our belief that the SinoIndian dispute can and will be resolved peacefully. In our view, therefore, the continuance of military aid to India is unjustified. Furthermore, it poses a grave threat to Pakistan`s security. `Indian assurances to the effect that it will not use American arms against Pakistan, fail to carry conviction with the people of Pakistan in the light of India`s repeated repudiation of its solemn pledges regarding Kashmir and its record of aggression. Neither do American assurances against the misuse of weapons reassure our people,` he said. Reuter

A right royal mess

IF anything has changed in Nawaz Sharif`s style of governance in his third term in office, surely it is for the worse. Not only has the government increasingly become a family enterprise, its ineptness is getting more glaring by the day. The high-profile launch of the prime minister`s daughter in public office marks further strengthening of the family hold over power. Maryam Nawaz is, however, not the only second-generation Sharif being groomed for leadership. Hamza, the eldest son of Shahbaz Sharif and a member of the National Assembly, has already been given important administrative responsibilities in Punjab as his father gets more and more involved in running affairs in Islamabad. He is virtually acting as the de facto chief minister. It is all in the family when it comes to taking important policy decisions. The two Sharifs with in-law Ishaq Dar form the main power nucleus. No one else is to be trusted. Mr Sharif`s highly personalised style of governance is much more pronounced this time than in his previous two terms. It has hugely affected institutional functioning and resulted in the current disarray and paralysis in government. It has taken months for the prime minister to make decisions even on important diplomatic and government appointments. Perhaps the most glaring example of the prevailing dysfunction is the foreign affairs ministry. The irony is that the prime minister himself holds the portfolio of foreign minister with an adviser and special assistant to help him run the affairs of this critical ministry. Prolonged indecision and uncertainty over key appointments have paralysed this ministry. It is scandalous the way the appointments of the new foreign secretary and envoys to India and Brussels were reversed weeks after their announcement. As it is, all those appointments were approved by the prime minister after hesat on the decisions for months. It has been embarrassing for senior Foreign Office officers who were informed about the change only days before they were to join their new postings. Abdul Basit, the ambassador to Germany, was named as the new foreign secretary in October. But the decision was overturned some six weeks later because he was thought to be too junior for the post. Similarly, the decision to post Ibne Abbas and Aizaz Ahmed as envoys to New Delhi and Brussels respectively was reversed after their nomination papers were accepted by the host countries.

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This is humiliating and demoralising for all these senior career officers. There is still no announcement of a new foreign secretary, though Aizaz Ahmed is believed to have been nominated for the top slot. Such confusion and chaos are also prevalent in the conduct of foreign policy. The reported turf war between Sartaj Aziz and Tariq Fatemi is actually a symptom rather than the cause of the disarray in foreign policy. There is certainly a need for a full-time foreign minister to deal with complex and critical issues confronting Pakistan. But the prime minister seems too keen to hold on to this portfolio as well as others. Mr Sharif`s concept of foreign policy is limited to foreign tours and personal diplomacy. There is no coherent policy on any important issue. Ef fectively there is no one in charge and policies are based on the whims of the prime minister. An old guard, Mr Aziz as an adviser was supposed to be guiding the foreign and national security policies, but he has effectively been sidelined. He seems to have already lost the turf war and rumour has it that he may soon be shown the door. In fact, foreign policy too has become family domain with Shahbaz Sharif dabbling in external affairs as well. The Punjab chief minister has been participating in almost all the meetings of the prime minister with foreign dignitaries. He also accompanies his elder brother on most foreign offi-cial visits. But his latest trip to New Delhi and his meeting with the Indian prime minister lends credence to the criticism questioning his role in external relations. Shahbaz Sharif seems to have initiated his own agenda seeking to build relations with Indian Punjab. A joint statement issued after Shahbaz Sharif`s visit to Indian Punjab proposed free movement for academicians, students and interns between the two sides. It was the first such exercise between a Pakistani province and an Indian state. For sure such exchanges can be very positive. But the issue is would the Pakistani government allow other provincial administrations to reach the same kind of agreements with neighbouring provinces or states across the border? Certainly not. In the absence of a clear policy direction it is a free for all. On several instances, cabinet ministers have publicly contradicted each other. An embarrassing situation occurred when the all-powerful interior minister publicly ridiculed Mr Sartaj Aziz on his statement on the US assurance to suspend drone strikes. Worse still, Chaudhry Nisar reminds us of former interior minister Rehman Malik. He`s fond of commenting on every issue, particularly foreign policy which is certainly not his domain. His hawkish statements, in particular on ties with the US often contradict the official line. The chaos and confusion in the foreign ministry is a mere symptom of the greater malady afflicting the government. Neither is the state of affairs in other departments encouraging. It is a royal mess given Mr Sharif`s ways of ruling the country like a family enterprise.

Art in exile
THE Babylonian Ishtar Gate, excavated from Iraq, cannot be seen by most Iraqis. This is because it is displayed at the Pergamon Museum of Berlin, far away from the sight of Iraqis. The gate, along with many other artefacts, was excavated by German archaeologists before the First World War in the territory that is currently modern Iraq. In the manner of the colonial enterprise in the Middle East and South Asia, the Ishtar Gate and other treasures were shipped to Germany and have been there ever since. AMANAT ALI Page 4

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In May 2002, the government of Iraq appealed to the German authorities to return the gate (which is actually an entire tower that was lifted and taken away). Their request was refused then, and the gate, which the museum`s website calls `one of its major attractions`, remains at the museum. The colonial plunder of the antiquities and treasures of former colonies is a well-worn gripe, familiar to those whose histories are smattered with past glories and present want. In the subcontinent`s own tale of woe, the Kohinoor diamond, taken away under the auspices of the Empire`s East India Company, was presented in 1850 by the then governorgeneral to Queen Victoria. The 105-carat diamond has been set in the crown ever since and is on display at the Tower of London. Britain, one of the most actively plundering colonial powers of yore, also holds Egypt`s Rosetta Stone and the Grecian Elgin Marbles, which it refuses to return to their home countries. When asked about the issue Prime Minister David Cameron said, `I certainly don`t believe in `returnism,` as it were; I don`t think it is sensible. The logic of the sensibility of art and treasures looted during war and conflict takes a different turn when it is Western treasures that are at stake. In The Fate of Europa: The Fate of Europe`s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War, author Lynn Nicholas documents the Nazi plunder of art from countries that were occupied by Hitler. The book details how art was taken, smuggled, preserved and often sold at bargain prices by Nazi purveyors, often secretly, in order to obtain international currency. In other cases, artwork was recovered by the Allied Forces after 1943. In that year, the monuments, fine arts and archives programme was established under the civil affairs and military government sections of the allied armies. The purpose of the programme was to protect the cultural property and art of areas affected during and after the Second World War. Not only did the staff of the programme work to preserve the cultural and historical artefacts and treasures from the affected areas, they actually made significant efforts to return them to their rightful owners after the cessation of conflict. This task of reversing the plunder of war and occupation continues today.The discovery this November of a huge trove of art, some of it allegedly seized by Nazis, in an apartment in Munich is expected to fuel a new slew of restitution cases. Ownership, you see, does not end if the original owners belong to the Western, industrialised world. The wronged post-colonial world of robbed treasures cannot, however, afford any self-righteous smugness. If the occupations of former colonists, the plunder of antiquities, and the stubborn resolution that anything taken belongs to those who took it present one side of the equation of appropriation, the other presents conundrums that are just as vexing. The condition of antiquities, art, and archaeological finds that have been left behind presents this narrative. Not far from Islamabad is the archaeological site of Taxila, whose complex of ruins includes a Mesolithic cave, four settlement sites, and several Buddhist monasteries. Each of the settlement sites is said to belong to a different century, cumulatively revealing the course of urban evolution over five centuries, with the oldest going back to the 6th century BC. The ruins at Taxila, though in the possession of Pakistan, are in danger. The threats come not from abroad but from within. The monument of Sarai Karwan,located within Taxila, has been increasingly encroached upon by development around the area, with outlying areas of the ruins subjected to decay and even garbage disposal. AMANAT ALI Page 5

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Sandblasting and quarrying in the adjoining areas has exacerbated the deterioration of both the ruins and artefacts stored in the museum nearby. One report on the site alleges that sound-waves from the blasting have dislocated the shelves in the museum`s glass cases, leaving them lopsided and distorted. Those are just the structural problems. A report from the Global Heritage Fund alleges that the biggest threat to the artefacts discovered in Taxila is not simply inattention and neglect, but the political and ideological vagaries of changing times. In the words of the report, `over 2,000 priceless objects housed inside the Archaeological Museum of Taxila are vulnerable to theft and terrorist attacks, as the museum has insufficient security measures in place`. There is good reason for such fears; the blowing up of Buddhist statues and artefacts by the Taliban in Afghanistan and the recent burning of the Ziarat Residency near Quetta are both tragedies that underscore the point. In the Pakistani post-colonial case, the danger lies not simply in the appropriation and looting by powerful others in the past, but also by the petty politics of the present. In contexts where history is so contested, perhaps the exile of art and artefact is not a tragedy but instead a necessary measure to preserve what would be lost at home.

The media`s role

LAST week the Indus Resource Centre (IRC) and the Sindh Education Foundation held a joint consultative roundtable the second such event in a series to study the impact of the Sindh Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2013. The project funded by UKAID and DAI Europe seeks to mobilise schoolchildren to create a visible demand for education. This consultative process has proved to be an instructive exercise and holds great promise, provided the IRC`s strategy remains judicious and does not succumb to ill-considered demands by the financiers. Ideally, education projects should be indigenously funded to ensure local discretion to determine strategy. But this is not always possible given resource constraints. Initially, the IRC held a baseline survey in eight districts of Sindh. Called `It`s my right, make it happen`, the survey found that barely 2pc of the respondents knew about the right to education (RTE) law. Even the functionaries of the education department lacked awareness of the act passed in February 2013. This would not have surprised me but for the fact that recently Shahzad Roy, a pop singer and the darling of the youth, had cycled around Pakistan advocating the cause of education. He was featured in a programme titled Chal parha by a TV channel said to be the most influential in Pakistan. One would have thought that this exercise by Shahzad Roy would have created more understanding of the issues that have proved to be obstacles in the spread of education. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Apart from the law against corporal punishment, which was enacted after Roy highlighted the problem, nothing much has changed. And the law notwithstanding, corporal punishment has continued with the same frequency as before. The IRC`s survey confirms it. This should explode the myth that the media is the magic wand that can blow away all our problems. Education needs a serious approach to understand the obstacles in the way of progress. The crisis in education will not be solved by gimmicks.Yet many NGOs and think tanks have been led into believing that without the support of the media nothing can be achieved. AMANAT ALI Page 6

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Since we are a society where illiteracy is accepted unabashedly as a way of life, it is believed that only the electronic media can take the message to the common man. Even the IRC project`s sponsors speak of `engaging with media to highlight campaign activities and promote awareness about the Sindh RTE law`. It is time we realised that the electronicmedia has a role to play only when there is advocacy to be done to create social acceptance of an idea that is new and is meeting resistance from the public. Those working on the ground and various surveys have conclusively established that the advocacy campaigns of the earlier decades have created acceptance of new values. Only a minuscule minority now resists them and obstructs the process of social change. The next step after raising awareness is creating the infrastructure which obviously cannot be done by the electronic media. It calls for a carefully thoughtout strategy of capacity-building and interpersonal communication to persuade people to go the extra mile to achieve results. This second phase cannot be handled by the electronic media which itself `creates` many problems and then offers itself as the redeemer. Thus foreign financiers who fall into this trap spend millions paying media houses to carry on campaigns that achieve nothing. Education and population are the most vulnerable sectors in this context. Televised campaigns on these issues give the impression that education and family planning programmes are failing because the people are dead against limiting their family size or sending their children to school. Surveys on the ground have a different story to tell. The Population Council`s latest factsheet says that there is an unmet need of 25pc. In other words, eight million women want family planning services but don`t get them. As for religion being a factor in keeping couples away from birth control methods, the Demographic and Health Survey showed that a very small ratio of respondents said that it was religion that held them back from family planning. Yet some very `popular` anchors harp on the theme when it should be left alone. Similarly, the IRC`s baseline survey reports that most parents and children cite the heavy cost of schooling, the students` fear of teachers and the irregular attendance of teachers as the cause of high dropout rates. Will media programmes rectify these ills? Or will administrative measures produce better results? The IRC plans to hold one-to-one briefing exercises with the stakeholders, ie political party representatives, policymakers, functionaries of the education department and even community leaders. That is a more sensible approach rather than turning the project into a media circus which is only counterproductive.

House of Kim
`DESPICABLE human scum` is not an altogether unusual turn of phrase in the context of official pronouncements from Pyongyang. What makes it remarkable is that it was part of a lurid description of North Korea`s second most powerful man. Jang Song-thaek also happened to be the supreme leader`s uncle. His fall from grace would have been intriguing even if it had not swiftly been followed by brutal retribution. As the official news agency KCNA put it, once a military tribunal gave its verdict, `the decision was immediately executed`. Unofficial reports suggest a machine-gun was used to carry out the sentence. AMANAT ALI Page 7

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It is not unknown for members of North Korea`s ruling family to be sidelined. The nation`s founding father, Kim Il-sung, banished one of his brothers to the countryside in the mid-1970s, and Jang himself appears to have been purged at least once and possibly twice in the past he not only survived but was able to return to the hierarchy. A year or so before he died in December 2011, the present ruler`s father, Kim Jong-il, picked his sister, Kim Kyong-hui, and her husband Jang to groom his designated heir, Kim Jong-un, for the leadership. The latter`s turn at the top appears to have come rather sooner than anyone expected, which evidently made Jang the power behind the throne. We are now told he was a monster of depravity who distributed pornography among his confidants, was addicted to sexual promiscuity and a `decadent capitalist lifestyle` in 2009 alone he is accused of having squandered at least 4.6 million euros, including on `enjoying himself in a casino in a foreign country`. Profligacy and corruption weren`t his only vices, though. `Dreaming a fantastic dream to become premier at an initial stage to trap the supreme power of the party and the state`, Jang purportedly `schemed to drive the economy of the country and people`s living into an uncontrollable catastrophe`. One of the primary problems with reflecting on developments in North Korea is that external knowledge about the secretive Kim-dom is strictly limited and based largely on hearsay. As a result, opinions about what exactly is going on and the possible consequences tends to be highly speculative. For example, analysts initially presumed that Jang`s fate would also reflect on his wife (now his widow), but it was indicated at the weekend that Kim Kyong-hui had been named as a member of the ruling Workers` Party`s funeral committee. It is unclear whether the irony was intentional, but this is supposedly a prestigious position.Unofficially, there are even suggestions that she helped to nail her treacherous husband. Notwithstanding the paucity of objective information from Pyongyang, one thing is clear: the official reaction to Jang`s ouster and execution is unprecedented. A quiet purge, without much in the way of official comment, would have been less surprising. It has been reported that some of Jang`s colleagues were indeed quietly dispatched last month, while others are said to have sought asylum abroad. It is also true that initial indications of Jang`s fate came from South Korean sources.Yet entire front pages of North Korean newspapers have subsequently been devoted to colourful accusations and sordid details. There can be little doubt that to a large extent this has been intended for domestic consumption, although analysts are unclear as to whether the impetus came from Kim Jong-un himself or from hardliners in the military hierarchy. Is it a case of the latest Kim establishing his supremacy, or has the nation`s most powerful institution stepped in to sound a warning against civilian interference? Another explanation for recent events could lie in the notion that Jang, a leading interlocutor with Beijing, was keen to instigate Chinese-style economic changes, and that the denouement of his career is chiefly intended as a warning to China to mind its own business. If true, that would be remarkable, given that Beijing is one of Pyongyang`s only allies and there are limits to its indulgence. The American reaction to the recent events in Pyongyang has been reasonably predictable, with spokespeople decrying the brutality and warning against provocations by the nuclear-armed state. One of the main problems with the hermit kingdom is that, unfortunately but inevitably, its opacity and proclivity towards bizarre pronouncements make it easier to mock than to analyse. Power struggles within North Korea are hardly a novelty, but their precise nature is hard to ascertain. AMANAT ALI Page 8

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There is something appallingly Stalinist about the latest developments but, personality cults notwithstanding, neither Josef Stalin nor Mao Zedong sought to establish hereditary rule. In its present state, North Korea cannot survive forever although it`s worth noting that predictions of its demise have proved premature in the past. How soon the House of Kim might crumble remains an open question, but the end could come as suddenly as it did for Jang.

Price hike drone

KAWISH The government and almost all political and religious parties are opposing American drone attacks. But the government is launching drones of its own in the form of price hikes, about which political parties are observing a deceitful silence. The target of the price hike drones is not some particular group but the entire nation. ... It has also been observed that ministers and members of parliament belonging to the ruling party do not bother to attend house [proceedings]. ... Law and order and the price hike are crucial issues. ... Only good governance can respond positively to the problems of the people. It has been standard practice that the rulers shift the blame for all problems to [earlier] governments. ... Our rulers have found an easy prescription of raising oil and gas prices to meet all financial [obligations], which is causing an increase in [the prices of] all consumer items. During the PPP`s [last] government the incumbent rulers played the role of friendly opposition. And now there is an exchange of roles as the previous rulers have become the opposition. ... Both parties are friendly to each other but unfriendly to the people. After getting mandate from the people the elected representatives consider themselves kings. ... People are committing suicide due to poverty. ... But the rulers have become deaf ... as the ministers and members of the ruling party are not ready to listen to the [people`s] problems. ...(Dec 11) Selected and translated by Sohail Sangi.

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