[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]Wreck on the highway[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]September 28th, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

Right now we can only mourn with the parents of the children who never came back from a school trip to the Kallar Kahar and Khewra Salt Mines area, located about an-hour-and-a-half out of Islamabad. At least 37 people died in the horrendous accident as the bus carrying the children back to Faisalabad and the Millat Grammar School to which they belonged overturned while travelling along the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway as a result of brake failure. Pupils of the school, the vice-principal and the driver of the bus were among the dead and the toll could rise with some 60 admitted to hospital.

On first thought it is easy to dismiss the terrible tragedy as an unavoidable mishap; an act of God that could not have been prevented. But they are aspects that need to be thought about in some depth. The bus was in the first place overloaded. With a capacity for 72 it was carrying 107 people. Accounts say that many of the passengers, including the students from classes six and seven, were standing when the bus turned over. According to reports they were the ones who died almost instantly, as the driver gave a warning of brake failure. The accident occurred moments later, before the vice principal’s suggestion that everyone jump from the vehicle could be put into effect.

Bodies will be carried back to many homes in Faisalabad and the villages around it to which many of the pupils belonged. There are lessons to be learnt. This is not the first time students have boarded an overcrowded bus; we see such sights everyday as schoolchildren go to school across the country, often clinging precariously onto the back of vans or buses; crammed rickshaws take others to school. A better system needs to be put in place to make their lives safer. Laws that bar overcrowding must be enforced and schools which violate basic safety rules while taking children on school trips also penalised in order to prevent more tragedies of the kind we saw as what should have been an educational and recreational experience turned into a nightmare.


[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]Eradicating polio[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]September 28th, 2011
[/RIGHT][/B]
The detection of three more polio cases in Sindh recently is a disheartening setback to the nationwide campaign launched a few months to eradicate the disease. This is especially true since all those infected had been reportedly administered the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), and this means that the effectiveness of the vaccine itself is in doubt. Earlier this year, a two-year-old girl was infected with the disease in Diamer in Gilgit-Baltistan, and this was the first case of its kind in that area in over a decade. Five years ago, with 28 cases detected nationwide then, Pakistan seemed on the brink of eradicating polio. Today, not only is its immunisation programme in disarray, it is actually being referred to as a ‘polio reservoir’, as in one that can transmit the disease to other countries. It is one of only four countries in the world which have failed to eradicate polio and, out of those four, has the highest incidence of the disease. Officials estimate that at the rate at which polio cases are emerging, Pakistan is likely to cross 300 this year.

Meanwhile, with 97 per cent of the funds for the eradication campaign coming from foreign donors, the pressure on Pakistan is piling on. UNICEF has warned Pakistan that it “stands in the way” of global polio eradication. According to a recent report, some European countries are considering travel restrictions if Pakistan fails to eradicate the virus by 2012. Health authorities are looking at new strategies to boost the campaign: enhanced payment for health workers and action against those instigating others not to take part in the immunisation campaign, and measures to ensure that the vaccine is stored in a manner that it is not rendered ineffective. The greatest challenge lies in areas where extremists have managed to convince, mostly uneducated, parents that their children are at risk from taking the vaccine. This can be countered by using the assistance of local ulema and imposing penalties for parents who don’t comply.


[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]Where is the humour?[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]September 28th, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

The term ‘gentle satire’ is an oxymoron. To be effective, satire must be unflinching and biting, or it will be toothless. This is a concept that seems to be beyond the understanding of officialdom in Pakistan and those in positions of authority. What else is one to make of a reported decision by the Pakistan Electronic Media Authority (Pemra) to send notices to managements of television channels asking them to stop airing programmes that make fun of the country’s leaders? It has to be said that — and the masters of this genre would have to no doubt be the classic Fifty Fifty followed later by Moin Akhtar and Anwar Maqsood — most of the programmes are quite popular with the watching public, perhaps because they strike a chord with the general mood among ordinary Pakistanis vis-à-vis the country’s leadership. The Pemra decision, it would be fair to presume, has come from the government whose various senior functionaries have been the butt of jokes on such shows. One reason why the politicians may feel slighted is because as far as the country’s leadership is concerned, most of these shows tend to make fun of leaders from the political class and do not usually touch the judiciary or the military.

However, that point aside, the fact remains that the conduct and actions of those elected to public office should be open to comment and criticism from society in general and the media in particular. In fact, if the latter weren’t holding public officials and functionaries accountable for their actions through this kind of feedback, it would be failing in its job of being a monitor and watchdog of the various pillars of the state. Also, it has to be pointed out that in the world of media and public relations, especially in this day and age, there really is no such thing as bad publicity. And even if an individual, who is in the public sphere, is made the subject of a satirical skit on a popular television show, then that amounts to publicity. Of course, such satire should be within the bounds of reason and good sense and should not make personal attacks on the said individual or malign or slander him. The problem in Pakistan is that the Pemra’s own guidelines on this are too vague and wide in scope, and in effect allow the state to include just about any kind of programming into the ambit of what’s not kosher.

[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]No time for war hysteria[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]September 29th, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

It often happens, and regrettably so, that the media in many countries tends to play a rather jingoistic and nationalistic role during times of war. When a war is actually underway and being fought, that may make sense to some extent given the need for the national/public morale to remain. This is what happened during the 1965 India-Pakistan war when songs by Madam Noor Jehan kept the nation’s spirits high. However, the situation right now is completely different. Pakistan is not at war with any country and certainly does not need a war either. To make this point further clear, Pakistan can hardly afford a war with the world’s sole superpower, a country that also happens to be its largest trading partner and second-largest foreign investor. If anything, the media should be asking the nation at large, and in particular the centres of power — who will decide how to deal with the crisis — to look inward and gauge whether the fault for the present tension perhaps lies with us, because of our actions — or inactions.

By no means does this mean that we should take such allegations lying down, in fact they need to be responded to, but not by beating the war drum, thumping our collective national chest and demanding that we give America a response that it will never forget. Let’s also not forget that the military, which is perhaps the key arbiter in this whole situation (though ideally this role should lie with civilian government and parliament), has benefitted immensely over the years from military aid and cooperation with the US and would be hurt by any permanent break in ties and/or cut in assistance. Any response to America — and the media, need to emphasise this point — should come not from the heart or the fist but from the mind and reason/logic. Can an economy withstand a permanent break in ties with the US? What would happen to foreign aid from multilateral donors and foreign investors since America has influence over them as well? Do we have other allies to fall back on? To what extent would these other nations come to our aid given that most of them, except perhaps Iran, have thriving ties with America? And perhaps, equally importantly, what kind of sovereignty are we talking about given that the state’s own writ doesn’t extend to large parts of Fata and many settled districts?


[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]The Taliban & the Haqqanis[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B][B][RIGHT]September 29th, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

Just about everyone has weighed in on US accusations that the ISI is funding and training the Haqqani network. Now it’s the Taliban’s turn. A statement released by the Afghan Taliban on the Voice of Jihad website states unequivocally that the Haqqani network is controlled by the Taliban, not Pakistan. This statement further advised Pakistan to give up trying to please the US, whom it accused of deflecting blame on to Pakistan for their defeat in Afghanistan. A statement from the Taliban hardly counts as the kind of support Pakistan would have been hoping for and may, in fact, further suspicions that we are aiding the insurgency in Afghanistan. And the statement does nothing to prove or disprove whether we are working with the Haqqani network.

A string of statements by Pakistani officials has done nothing to allay the fear that we are playing both sides in Afghanistan. Interior Minister Rehman Malik accused the CIA of originally training and creating the Haqqani network, a remark that is true but neglects to mention that this was done with the willing cooperation of Pakistan and that it happened nearly 30 years ago when the two countries were training and arming militants to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Its relevance to the current situation is hard to see. It seems that pointing out past US support for the Haqqani network has become a talking point, as even Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar called them the CIA’s “blue-eyed boys”.

Trying to pin the blame on the US is not going to exonerate us. The Haqqani network is credibly accused of being behind attacks on the US in Afghanistan and we need to clarify our role in those attacks. If we have chosen not to take military action against the Haqqani network because of a lack of military capability, then that could be justified. However, what cannot be justified is to allow it to carry attacks across the international border in other countries, since that would risk Pakistan being labelled a sponsor of terrorism.


[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]A welcome step[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]September 29th, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

Women in Saudi Arabia now have the right to vote but who will drive them to the polls? The decision by the Saudi monarch, King Abdullah, to allow women to stand for election and vote in the 2015 election is a welcome one, but the country still has a long way to go before women can be considered as equal citizens. The ban on women driving is indefensible, as is the requirement of permission from a male guardian before a woman wants to leave the country or even for certain medical procedures. The hope is that by granting women the right to vote is the first step in ensuring that they have the same rights as men in Saudi Arabia and that it is not merely a sop to weaken the brave activists of the country.

This unexpected decision is probably rooted in two different Arab movements. The more proximate one is the surprisingly widespread protest by women demanding the right to drive. What started as a Facebook protest against the arrest of a woman for driving, quickly spread as women took to the streets in their cars and agitated for a right that has been denied to them for no good reason. Second, the monarchy in Saudi Arabia must have been looking nervously at the spread of democracy in the Middle East. The Arab Spring uprisings have already taken down the dictatorships in Egypt and Yemen, while Syria and Bahrain are barely hanging on. Throwing this bone to the women of Saudi Arabia, while gradually introducing further reforms, may nip any potential rebellion in the bud.

While welcoming this decision, we should keep in mind that giving women the right to vote doesn’t actually change the power equation in Saudi Arabia. It merely means that women will be as free as men to vote in mostly meaningless elections. Citizens of Saudi Arabia are only allowed to vote in municipal elections and even then, half the seats are selected by the monarchy. Also, the royal decree only goes into effect in 2015, so for the next four years activists will have to be vigilant to ensure that the monarch does not stall the implementation of this decision.

[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]A step forward[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]September 30th, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

he road to peace with India will invariably be filled with potholes so we should welcome all smooth turns. There were two unexpected bits of good news in talks between the two countries trade ministers. Amin Fahim and his counterpart Anand Sharma announced that trade between Pakistan and India would be doubled to the tune of $6 billion a year. Even more encouragingly, India is now going to drop its objection to the European Union importing Pakistani goods duty-free. This move is particularly welcome because it shows that India has put a high enough value on improving ties with Pakistan and that it is willing to make decisions that may well hurt its own textile industry.

This trade agreement is part of the peace process that was kick-started after a two-and-a-half year hiatus with Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar’s visit to New Delhi this summer. Given the fractures that existed after India pinned the blame for the Mumbai attacks on Pakistan, even such measures, small though they may be, are a sign of progress. With no solution to the Kashmir issue on the horizon, it is best to put that on the back-burner for now and try to find common ground. Increased trade between the two countries will be mutually beneficial and so it is heartening that they are willing to put political differences aside to achieve this.

But completely ignoring the deep divide that separates Pakistan and India will not be possible in the long-term. Just this week, the Indian government seemed to react with barely disguised glee when the US accused Pakistan of supporting the Haqqani network. The issue of Afghanistan will loom large for the two countries as the US withdraws its troops and both seek to become the dominant player in the war-torn country. A practical solution to the Kashmir issue also seems as distant as ever — while new strains in the relationship are likely to be caused by disputes over water. This is not to say that peace in our time is impossible; simply that it will not be achieved in a single summit. Regular high-level meetings, a liberalised visa regime and further strengthening of economic ties will lay the foundation for peace. It is only then that the hard work begins.


[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]The political economy of the dengue epidemic[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B][B][RIGHT]September 30th, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is doing the right thing lending himself to a high-profile campaign against the dengue mosquito wreaking havoc in his province. Statistics show that the female dengue vector has so far killed 99 people in Lahore alone and is gradually spreading. Across the border, Indian Punjab doesn’t seem to be affected so far, as if the dengue mosquito is ideologically loaded against our Two Nation Doctrine.

According to the most recent official figures, Punjab has 10,585 dengue-affected people, and 9,000 of these are in Lahore, which is unfortunately high enough for it to be called an epidemic. The result is a severe burden on the city’s hospitals and a rise in demand for medical care, mosquito repellents and even platelets (which fall sharply in the most serious dengue cases). The result is acerbic TV comment on a negligent government’s dereliction of duty and the PPP opposition’s unthinking back-biting in the provincial assembly. The truth is that Punjab like the rest of Pakistan is not equipped to handle a sudden upsurge of disease — any disease — especially one that has no cure. Fighting dengue, as a team of Sri Lankan doctors recently informed their counterparts in Lahore, can take years and requires a well-thought out and detailed plan of action. Pakistan is set apart from India and Sri Lanka where dengue has been laying the masses low for the past 20 years. The difference is Pakistan’s tumbling finances and a low economic growth rate. If it requires expensive preventive campaigns it has to borrow money and an affected Punjab is already groaning under an overdraft from the State Bank. The war against terrorism, which is said to be not Pakistan’s but America’s, has hollowed out the country’s coffers in lockstep with natural calamities, just as our military establishment is busy isolating Pakistan from its possible aid donors. Hence, Pakistan’s low response to the contagion has a part socio-political explanation as well.

But Mr Sharif’s response to the calamity is praiseworthy, given his disadvantages. He is personally lending his profile to the campaign and motivating others despite a shortage of spraying machines and parallel lack of stored medicine. He has acted against profiteering in the pharmaceutical market (with medical stores and laboratories that charge exorbitantly immediately closed) and has laid plans for an effective information campaign that will tend to lessen the bite of the disease when it returns with redoubled intensity in the years to follow. He will need to return Punjab to its clean-up routines that the local governments have abandoned. In Lahore, at least, vast areas with dense population have been covered with free examination of patients suspected of having caught the dengue infection, but more needs to be done.

In the category of ‘more that needs to be done’ is the return of local governments in Punjab. Shahbaz Sharif should go vaulting over the narrow consideration of keeping the rump PML-Q out of business and announce the holding of local bodies polls in the province. The benefits he will get will far outweigh any political advantage. Once the local governments are in place, the chief minister will be far better equipped to orchestrate his response against the dengue fever. He should realise that next year big cities other than Lahore, like Multan and Faisalabad, will fall sick and present him with a nightmare he cannot even imagine. The outreach of the local government is required urgently to tackle the dengue challenge and this has been made more than amply clear by the experience of the floods. When the TV channels go out to cover those affected by the floods, the state is nowhere to be seen.

India and Sri Lanka have learned to live with dengue on the basis of their local outreach in the countryside and city corporations in the urban areas. This is what Punjab needs and it can be achieved through devolution and not through concentration of power in the provincial capital. Let Shahbaz Sharif do the unusual thing and break the ranks of other chief ministers by putting in place authorities that will respond to his diktat against flooding and against the dengue mosquito.

[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]Their master’s voice[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]October 1st, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

The All Parties Conference (APC) of 60-odd political parties in Islamabad on September 29 has issued a statement that stands by the Pakistan military and challenges the United States on Afghanistan and its war against terrorism. It makes clear, rather unfortunately, that control of Pakistan’s foreign and security policies remains firmly with the military, and that the civilian political leadership, barring perhaps Nawaz Sharif, is a subservient spectator. The resolution recommended talks with “our own people in the tribal areas” (read terrorists), defence of national sovereignty and “national interest”, recommended “trade not aid”, and insisted on implementing earlier parliamentary resolutions mandating policy changes on terrorism. It rejected allegations that Pakistan kills American troops through proxies and offered unqualified support to the military “in defeating any threat to national security”. Ironically, the Taliban and al Qaeda did not even feature in the text.

An APC is not a discussion forum. It is a gathering of the like-minded with pre-determined views. The hidden intent of each participant may vary but the overall truth of APCs cannot be ignored, that they are an instrument of the weak: the defiance of the weak against the strong is finally self-damaging. (Prime Minister Junejo’s APC against General Zia climaxed in his own dismissal.) The intent of many parties was to put the PPP on the defensive and prepare the ground for its downfall. The intent of the PPP was to share the damage of the debris falling from a split between the Pakistan Army and America. In a way, the APC is a trophy presented to the military on a platter, a kind of affirmation of its supremacy — and that is precisely what one saw on their television screens on September 29.

The APC is not really aimed at America telling it how the nation is united. Instead, it is a confession on the part of the stakeholders of democracy about their limitations and their internecine relationships that prevent them from uniting against an undemocratic but powerful element in the state. The media is in the midst of another hour which is not its finest because instead of ringing the war drums, it should be ask questions such as what would yet another peace deal with the militants achieve. For now, the media is only playing to, or perhaps fuelling, the rampant anti-Americanism in the country. This is a fever that will only serve to debilitate and undermine the patient.

As for the PML-N, its Nawaz Sharif quite rightly asked that since the whole world was accusing the Pakistani military of helping militants and providing them sanctuaries, there must be some, as he put it, ‘daal mein kala’. The other unspoken signal has come from President Asif Ali Zardari who has remained silent, allowing instead Prime Minister Gilani to articulate the dubious ‘national consensus’ behind the APC. It is now left to ‘small-party’ leaders to say that peace in Afghanistan could be achieved “in a month if the ISI wanted it”. What will be the result of the APC? Its mandated action will not unfold the way that has been visualised, just like the past parliamentary resolutions against drone attacks and talks with terrorists. In the coming days, the Americans will use the drones and none of the corrective action or introspection that is so badly needed for the nation will materialise. Talks with the militants would make sense only if they accepted the system in place in Pakistan and agreed to lay down their arms, but that is not the case because they seek to establish a theocracy, like the Taliban tried to in Afghanistan in the 1990s. We have to ask ourselves whether that is what we want for ourselves? Of course, some of the APC’s participants would say ‘yes’ to this, but what would be the reaction of the mainstream parties?

And then there is also Pakistan’s fragile economy. The APC may arouse ‘ghairat’ as did the joint resolutions of the past but will not be able to do much for the economy. This will not happen because the message of the APC is intensely isolationist and will end up scaring the world. One hopes that an opening sought with India on free trade will not be scuttled by references to Kashmir and that relations with Iran will disarm Tehran about what Pakistan will do next in Afghanistan.



[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]A nation of illiterates[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]October 1st, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

For a short period last year, spurred by a campaign exploring the education emergency in Pakistan the country’s intelligentsia got very worked over the dire state of our educational system. The fervour died down but the situation has become even worse. The Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement survey for this year shows that the increase in the adult literacy rate has been anaemic and families are spending less than ever on education. This is an indictment of a government that made access to education a constitutional right under the 18th amendment. Government spending on education has remained more or less static even as the enormous defence budget continues to grow unchecked.

As much as the government is to blame, scapegoating it for our problems would be wrong. The truth is, the educational problem is partly caused by cultural factors. This is shown in the survey, which reveals that the average monthly expenditure of families on education has decreased over the last year. Education just isn’t a priority for many, it seems. Partly this can be explained by the runaway inflation, where families are now forced to spend more than ever on food, just to keep from starving. But in a society where there is a stark gender gap in education and girls just aren’t given the same educational opportunities as boys, you are bound to see such disturbing statistics.

What the government needs to do is redress the balance, particularly in rural areas. The provision of free, quality education for all is a must and the government has to ensure that all school-going children, particularly girls, are actually attending school. Families often use the valid reason that they simply cannot afford to send their children to school when they could have them working and bringing in another income instead. But such short-term thinking is doing grave damage to the country. Laws against child labour have to be strictly enforced so that all children are given the tools they need to be productive members of society. That will be possible only if they are given a quality education.

[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]Victory for the terrorists?[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]October 2nd, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

PML-N President Nawaz Sharif has asked the next question: what now? He said on September 30 that he was apprehensive that the joint declaration announced at the All Parties Conference (APC) would not be implemented just like the earlier unanimous resolutions passed at joint sittings of parliament. It goes without saying that the main thrust of the APC statement — which is against the United States — will remain unrealised, just like the earlier statements. But what is important is that the ‘internal thrust’ of the statement too will remain unrealised. The question is: why talk to the Taliban from a position of weakness?

Some of the invitees of the APC feared international reprisal. Maulana Fazlur Rehman recommended talking to Russia and China to prevent America from imposing sanctions on Pakistan through the UN Security Council. He, however, forgets that Russia is still chafing over the defeat of the Soviet Union and complains of Pakistan’s involvement in the recent attacks in Moscow by Chechen extremists. And Maulana Samiul Haq — whose madrassa is named Haqqania — said that the Haqqani network is indigenous to Pakistan despite the fact that it controls several provinces in Afghanistan and attacks Kabul at will. Point to note: like his father, commander Sirajuddin Haqqani attended Maulana Samiul Haq’s madrassa Darul Ulum Haqqania, in Akora Khattak, near Peshawar.

Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani says he is opposed to “military operations against our own people”. The next question is who will talk to the Taliban — Pakistani and Afghan — to persuade them to spare innocent Pakistanis and safeguard Pakistan’s interests in Afghanistan? It won’t be the PPP government; it can only be the military and its thinking arm, the ISI. Will the Taliban talk? And the other — equally important — question is that what signal will Pakistan’s requesting talks send to the Taliban? Surely, not one that would suggest that Pakistan is seeking negotiations from a point of strength.

Every time someone reports that the Taliban of all brands — including the ones found in abundance in Punjab — are joined at the hip with al Qaeda, he gets mauled. The truth is that talking to the Taliban is actually talking to al Qaeda. The other truth is that al Qaeda is strong because of the network it has developed inside Pakistan. Not only are the non-state actors linked to it but also the madrassa network from Peshawar to Karachi.

Meanwhile, the military, as seen from the recent arrest of a brigadier, is busy cleansing itself of terrorist sympathisers. The new al Qaeda chief, Ayman al Zawahiri — as if in anticipation — has already published a critique of the Pakistan Constitution, laying out the minimum that it will require from the military before agreeing to peace. And the peace that will be achieved in pursuance of the objectives spelled out by the APC will let al Qaeda and its appendages stay on in Pakistan, and with greater power and influence.

In this context, the future looks very ominous. Many ordinary Pakistanis would not want to see in their country a regime like that of the Taliban in Afghanistan in the 1990s. That would be a most frightening possibility, one that clearly most sections of the media either is ignoring or perhaps wouldn’t mind being realised. After all, it has been said, and with some justification, that over the years, society has been radicalised to such an extent that some people may well be sympathetic to the cause of the Taliban, and by that, also al Qaeda. What is most disturbing post-APC is that the Pakistani military seems to think that it is not worth fighting the Taliban and their various allied groups, notwithstanding the fact that most of the 30,000 people who we say have been killed following our participation in the war on terror after 9/11 have died at the hands of the extremists and militants. And it boggles one’s mind to see that how can the politicians of this country not see this clear connection. They are living in a fool’s paradise if they think that with the Americans gone, the Taliban will hand in their weapons and give up their cause to set up a rigid theocratic state in Pakistan. If this is not a victory for the terrorists, one doesn’t know what is.


[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]A welcome verdict[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]October 2nd, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

The verdict in the Salmaan Taseer assassination case is in and it comes as a pleasant surprise. Eight months after Taseer’s guard, Mumtaz Qadri, should him dead in cold blood, an anti-terrorist court has found him guilty on two counts and handed down the death penalty as punishment. Justice may have been slow but it has ultimately been served. Qadri’s guilt was never in doubt. He confessed to the assassination and a possible acquittal was dependent on either convincing the judge that Taseer essentially deserved to be killed for daring to stand up for a poor Christian woman accused for blasphemy or rousing the passions of the violent religious right to such an extent that no judge would dare convict him.

The verdict may be in but this is no time to let our guard down. Just because Qadri has been handed down a death sentence does not mean that the judge who had the courage to dispense justice should be given a death sentence too. The judge’s verdict was a brave one and he now needs to be given protection by the state. As for Qadri, his lawyers now have seven days to file an appeal with the high court. Given that he has a high-powered legal team, it is inevitable that the sentence will be appealed. The judges who hear the appeal will need to show the same bravery as the anti-terrorist court judge who found Qadri guilty despite the danger associated with coming to that verdict. There is also the possibility that Qadri’s freedom will be used as a bargaining chip by those who kidnapped Taseer’s son Shahbaz more than a month ago and one hope things do not come to that.

Now would also be a good time to reflect on what the assassination of Salmaan Taseer has shown us about the nation. That his killer was showered with rose petals by lawyers as he made his way to court, that Qadri was treated as a hero by many and that many people essentially believe that Taseer got what was coming to him is a reflection of a country that has lost its moral bearing. And while Taseer’s killer may have been found guilty, the governor’s lonely crusade to free Aasia bibi and amend the unjust blasphemy laws has not found many takers.

[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]Desperate times[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]October 3rd, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

The sight before us is not a pretty one at all. Millions of people, notably in the province of Sindh, are in desperate need of help after floods which according to the UN displaced 1.8 million, killed 415 destroyed over a million houses and swept away crops over 2.16 million acres.

It is quite obvious a huge amount of work needs to be done. The problem appears to be that there is no money to do it. The UN has said an appeal for US $357 million made two weeks ago has been funded by only six percent. This is merely a drop in the ocean when seen against the swirl of waters that leave people helpless and hopeless. It is quite obvious that without a massive mobilization of funds not enough can be done to assist them. The UN agencies and other groups on the ground are doing what they can; food supplies are being provided by the World Food Programme and Unicef is offering clean drinking water and sanitation facilities. But these international agencies warn that they will soon run out of money and be unable to do anything at all. In other words, people will be left quite literally to fend for themselves even though they are in no position to do so. Some of those affected were also hit by floods last year and have yet to recover from the crippling blow delivered by that catastrophe. They simply cannot sustain more hardship. The struggle to keep children and the sick alive is already on. The Sindh government had announced an emergency situation in all the districts of the province. But there is no certainty what this has resulted in or whether the schemes announced by the Prime Minister after his visit to the affected areas have had any impact in real terms.

One question we need to ask ourselves is why there appears to have been less compassion and concern for the flood victims this year compared to 2010. It is true the international community is displeased with the lack of transparency in the use of donations doled out at that time and has already made it clear more funds will not be offered until a proper accountability mechanism is set up. But even within the country there seems to be too little concern and only a relatively limited effort to deal with what is a calamitous situation. Perhaps they have simply run out of the energy to cope with yet another disaster; perhaps they have no money to spare and maybe there has been too little publicity given all the other crises that we face on so many fronts.

But this of course is not the fault of the stricken people of Sindh. The latest UN statement has made clear just what their plight is. The question to be asked is what is to be done to assist them. Emergency measures are required. We cannot simply wait and watch — or rely entirely on the international agencies that seem to be doing what they can. A draining away of what limited funds they still retain would be a disaster. Even the hands now at work would be tied. So, do we have solutions? They are not easy to find. The amounts the government has been able to persuade China and Iran to offer have not been very generous. Other than this, assistance from other countries has not been exactly forthcoming (perhaps because of a credibility problem following last year’s floods). At the official level we need to find more friends and draw international attention to the urgency of the situation and the fact that the people of an entire province appear to have simply been forgotten and left literally marooned in their own misery.

At home, greater fund-raising efforts are needed. The people of Pakistan are known for their philanthropy but the media should be used to launch an extensive campaign asking for sustained help, and by providing audiences with figures such as those above mentioned by the UN. All of this, of course, suggests that we learnt nothing from last year’s devastation. It indicates also that the federal and provincial disaster management authorities need to be far more proactive and efficient than they have been thus far in the distribution of flood relief, and in the drawing of contingency plans for the future.


[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]Targeting Anwar al Awlaki[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]October 3rd, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

US President Barack Obama swept to power on a promise of undoing the lawlessness of the Bush era. He vowed that the legal black hole that is Guantanamo would be shut down and that the US would regain its moral leadership under his rule. Guantanamo is still open for business and has been accompanied by an intensification of the drone campaign, both in war zones like Afghanistan and in the undeclared wars the US is fighting in Pakistan and Yemen. Obama has now also given himself the power to murder US citizens without any due process, simply on his orders. American citizen Anwar al Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen by an airstrike almost certainly carried out by the US, has been described by the Obama administration as a top al Qaeda leader and one who needed to be eliminated to disrupt the terrorist group. The government, however, has not been able to provide much proof for these claims. Awalki was involved in dissemination of al Qaeda’s poisonous ideology and was thought by some experts to have a role in the outfit’s operations in Yemen.

Killing Awlaki without first getting a court order sets a dangerous precedent for a country that has always valued its fealty to its constitution. And it certainly seems as if the Obama administration has violated the Fifth Amendment to the US constitution which says: “No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law.” Add this to the fact that Obama launched a war in Libya without first seeking approval of Congress, again as mandated by law, and one finds an imperial presidency that is outdoing even George W Bush.

Questions of legality aside, the benefits of targeted killings such as that of Awlaki also need to be considered. In order to get Awlaki, the US has had to ally with the ruthless Yemeni President Saleh, a leader who has made killing his own citizens into a sport. Awlaki may also not have been too important in the al Qaeda set-up but now that he has been killed, the terrorist outfit will undoubtedly venerate him as a martyr and use his death to attract more people to their cause. Obama has failed to learn the most important lesson of the Bush presidency: terrorism is best fought with brains, not brawn.

[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]Investigating the killing of Burhanuddin Rabbani[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B][B][RIGHT]October 4th, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

Afghan Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi, giving testimony in parliament in Kabul, has accused Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of having killed the head of the High Peace Committee, Burhanuddin Rabbani, through its agents, one of them a Pakistani. Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesperson for the Afghan intelligence agency, says Afghanistan has handed direct evidence of it to the Pakistan’s embassy, including names and addresses of the people in Quetta who had plotted Rabbani’s killing.

Pakistan’s answer is denial, a routine answer to accusations made by the Afghan government, the Isaf-Nato forces, and sundry field researchers fingering Pakistan as the mastermind of chaos in Afghanistan. The latest accusation, too, has been denied by the Pakistan Foreign Office which said it was a “baseless allegation”, relying based on an accused person’s testimony and calling Rabbani, perhaps excessively, “a martyr and a great friend who lived in Pakistan for a long time and had many friends here”. This time, however, relations between Pakistan and the US on the one hand, and by reflection those with the Afghan government on the other hand, are not so good; hence President Karzai’s palace adding its weight behind the accusation. Both sides need to think again. Kabul has to meditate whether it suited Pakistan to get rid of Rabbani and how his death has benefited Islamabad. On the other hand, any accusation involving “killers that came from Pakistan” has to be understood correctly by Pakistan before issuing a denial. If Kabul says the killing was plotted in Quetta and the killers too came from Pakistan, it is an understandable attribution because anything which happens in Pakistani territory is within the ambit of Pakistan’s administrative outreach and makes it liable. But facts on the ground have belied Pakistan’s administrative hold on its territory time and again. Given this condition, should Pakistan aggressively state that the accusation is a “baseless allegation”, as in should it not, at the very least, investigate the allegation?

For all practical purposes, Quetta is without a normal writ of the state. Killers seem roam its environs and people they don’t like, like the Hazara Shia, are killed with impunity. Journalists have gone to Quetta and testified that an Afghan Shura is present there. Once the Afghan government even gave addresses and telephone numbers but Pakistan responded by proving them to be false. The entire world knows that Pakistani writ runs but thinly in Balochistan and that it is home to a million-plus Afghan refugees including the Taliban and such homegrown terrorists as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

Pakistan’s ex-foreign secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan recently spoke more realistically about what Rabbani meant to Pakistan: “He played his hand masterfully in early 1992, when the Najibullah regime crumbled, to facilitate the entry of his ally Ahmed Shah Massoud in Kabul who had already succeeded in winning over key Parchami generals controlling the city. Rabbani manoeuvred to give the strategic defence portfolio to his party, Jamiat-e-Islami, and ensured that the position of prime minister did not go to Massoud’s archrival, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.” The Taliban — backed by Pakistan — took down the Rabbani-led government in 1996 and he had to flee to Badakhshan province in Afghanistan’s far northeast. A year earlier, Rabbani’s warlord Ahmad Shah Massoud had attacked Pakistan embassy in Kabul, killing one person he took for the ambassador. Massoud withdrew to Panjshir and the Indian embassy in Kabul closed down. It returned pointedly after an international force attacked Afghanistan and made Mullah Omar go on the run in 2001.

Pakistan’s problems are three: 1) It doesn’t control its territory where foreign and local terrorists have their safe havens; 2) It cannot control the actions of these terrorists either inside Pakistan or across the border in other countries; and 3) it is completely isolated internationally when it comes to the credibility of the ‘denial’ postures it adopts when accused of terrorism from inside its territory. So, the strategy of responding to such accusations has to be changed, so that we are not pushed further down the abyss of isolationism.


[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]Powerless people[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]October 4th, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

Across Lahore, and in other cities of Punjab, people have come out on the streets armed with sticks, stones, catapults and any weapon that they can find. The widespread protests on October 3, which continued late into the night on dark streets as people poured out of airless houses where there had been no power for hours — demonstrates the desperation of the people. In weather conditions that remain sultry, power has vanished for up to 16 hours a day in some localities. Outside the capital, in smaller towns, the situation is even worse. Both the Punjab chief minister, as well as his party’s chief and elder brother, have quickly blamed the federal government, going so far as to suggest that the loadshedding is being done “deliberately”. Nawaz Sharif said that were the present government free of corruption, there would be enough funds available for the circular debt to be paid off and the present power shortages could easily be eliminated. While Mr Sharif is essentially correct, he must not forget that allegations of corruption dogged his government as well and that it’s far easier to resort to name-calling and political point-scoring than to find actual solutions to the problem. The people in general do not care for such things and they are only interested in their misery being reduced. So all parties, the Punjab government, the PML-N as well as the federal government, need to devote their energies and resources to finding solutions that create tangible benefits for the people affected by the power outages, and in a reasonable timeframe. Also, the Punjab chief minister, who every now and then accuses the centre of treating Punjab like a “step brother”, should perhaps explain why police in Lahore, directly under the command of his provincial government, treated the protesters as worse even than chattel — using batons, tear gas and bullets.

Furthermore, Punjab should not feel that it is the only victim. Other provinces continue to suffer as badly as far as the power situation is concerned. The government needs to urgently come up with solutions that bridge the gap between power demand and supply at least in the medium-term but given that this is the same situation every summer since 2008, it seems to have ignored this very important issue altogether.

[CENTER][SIZE=5][U][B]Talking to the Taliban[/B][/U]
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[RIGHT][B]October 5th, 2011[/B]
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After Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said that his government would talk peace with the Taliban — ‘and if they don’t talk peace we will go ahead with military operations against them’ — the deputy chief of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Maulvi Faqir Muhammad issued a statement in which he said that the TTP welcomed the prime minister’s offer. However, this came with two preconditions for dialogue: the first, that the government should reconsider its relationship with the US and that Sharia be enforced in the country.

Maulvi Faqir, the most ferocious of the TTP commanders, has put paid to the All-Parties Conference (APC) resolution that mentioned the TTP as “our own people”. The fact of the matter is that the TTP deputy chief’s statement makes it all clear that what his organisation is saying is not really all that different from what Pakistan’s mainstream religious parties, as well as conservative sections of society in general, have been demanding all along. They want Pakistan to sever ties with the US and they want Sharia to be imposed. The latter is the demand of those who run and study in the country’s madrassa network. Of course, the Objectives Resolution is not enough for such elements and they want a more direct imposition. The question is that will the prime minister agree to these two conditions and if so, what would be the repercussions for Pakistan as a whole?

For better or for worse, the APC (which includes the parties that are in government) has handed over policy and its implementation to the military. Will the latter talk to the TTP from a position of weakness? It has just forced the US government to retreat; can it do the same thing with the TTP? Maulvi Faqir has already rejected the possibility, saying that the TTP will not straightaway side with Pakistan and stop killing innocent Pakistanis just because Pakistan has challenged the US through an APC and forced it to backtrack. The truth is that the APC has placed the TTP on a platform of strength in Pakistan from where, if the state negotiates, it will be tantamount to abject surrender.

Acts of high emotion — indulged in by politicians, and prompted in no small measure by sections of the the jingoist media — will not solve Pakistan’s economy and security-related problems. First reports from the captains of Pakistani industries who export to the West, don’t favour a break with the US. External friends like China are watching the scene carefully, reluctant to back Pakistan’s APC games because American presence shores up their own policy against Islamic fanaticism. Iran too prefers America to a repeat of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan backed by unthinking Pakistani soldiers of fortune; it is clearly seen as preferring India there as a make-weight against Pakistan.

As for the Haqqani network, it alone cannot ensure peace even if it responds to the APC’s resolution by acquiescing. Pakistan may not be able to repeat the example of disastrous Taliban government of 1996, which was funded by money from some Gulf states and had our solid backing. And, most importantly, it will not be able to talk to the TTP without losing its current identity as a moderate Islamic state.

The Pakistan Army got Bajaur back in 2010 by all signs after a military operation which turned violent and displaced a large portion of its residents. By June 2011, Maulvi Faqir had resurfaced, reportedly in hideouts just across the border in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, from where he was directing vicious attacks on Pakistani border posts and some villages. A FM radio station, according to several reports, was also back in operation, and this has spread fear among the local people, who may again be compelled to leave their homes. Recently, his men were the ones who had abducted several school children from Bajaur, a sign of how the TTP would rule if it were allowed to by the state: through intimidation and fear, and not via a social contract based on popular consent.

The Pakistan military has a much bigger challenge at home than it realises. It is falsely reassured by a purblind APC. A post-APC Pakistan is thrown into an unrealistic fever. It needs to wake up and tackle the problem of the Taliban, not talk to it from a position of weakness which it wishes to compensate with an illusory position of strength with America.


[CENTER][SIZE=5][U][B]Where is the state’s writ[/B][/U]
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[RIGHT][B]October 5th, 2011[/B]
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Death, it appears, is not willing to leave the denizens of this god-forsaken land. Those who kill, strike with impunity, and it seems that the state has all but abandoned its duty of protecting the lives of its citizens. Clearly, Fata is not the only place where the writ of the state runs very thin, because most parts of Balochistan seem to have descended into anarchy and complete lawlessness, as demonstrated by the attack on a bus carrying Shia pilgrims in which 13 lost their lives. This follows yet another massacre, which had targeted the Hazara Shia as well, less than a fortnight ago in Mastung where 26 lives were lost. One would have thought that after that tragedy, the government would have provided adequate security to buses carrying pilgrims but that clearly did not happen, or Tuesday’s carnage may have been avoided. The Mastung massacre was claimed by the banned sectarian outfit, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), and it is possible that it may have again been involved.

Perhaps the same group is active once more; perhaps other forces but who share the same dangerous ideology and are allied with the LeJ are responsible. (It should be remembered that sectarian groups such as the LeJ are closely allied with the Taliban, the same people that the government is contemplating negotiating with.) What is alarming is that these forces appear to be fanning out, creating more and more animosity between groups in a society where too much distrust exists in the first place.

What we have also witnessed through the years is the inability of our security forces to deal with the problem. It is hard to understand why groups like the LeJ remain able to carry out operations across the country. Clearly, our intelligence agencies are failing in tracking their activities and plans or else these attacks would not be happening with such alarming regularity. Given the recent past, it may well be a case not of inability but rather a lack of will, at least among some element’s in the state’s security apparatus. After all, what else can explain the occurrence of two such massacres targeting the Shia Hazara in Balochistan, in a matter of two weeks?

[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]Ties between Kabul and New Delhi[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B][B][RIGHT]October 6th, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

The conciliatory words from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, terming Pakistan a “brother” will not really undo the hurt felt in Islamabad by the agreement reached between India and Afghanistan on October 5 — Kabul’s first strategic pact with another nation. Signatures were placed on various important agreements after a visit by Karzai to New Delhi and what appear to have been extremely affable talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The central point of the deal, which also touches upon cooperation in other areas, essentially envisages a plan under which India will help train Afghan security forces — as they prepare to take over the defence of their own country once the US pulls out — a moment that is now rapidly approaching.

The accord means some of the worst fears of at least some elements in Pakistan have now changed into reality. The nexus that has been developing for some years between Kabul and New Delhi has already caused a great deal of trepidation, particularly in military circles, where the thinking runs along a single track: control over Kabul and the events that take place there is vital to Pakistan’s strategic assets. The notion of an ‘enemy’ country gaining charge there is difficult to stomach, and in the lexicon of the military, this essentially means that Pakistan is flanked on either side by nations who are not allies. The idea that “my enemies’ friend is my enemy” runs strong. And of course the current state of relations between Pakistan and the US adds a further dimension of angst to the situation.

But we must live with realities and not with imagined scenarios of what should be. Kabul, of course, has a right to choose its own friends. But the elements who make the decisions in our own country must also consider why it is wary of its own designs and what impact our links with militant elements will have on a country that has already suffered immensely because of the Taliban. The accord with India will have a clear impact on Pakistan. We must reconsider where we stand and find ways of building peace across the whole region. This, after all, is the only way to combat terrorism and create the greater trust that we need in ties with our neighbours.


[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]Addressing the problems of the power sector[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B][B][RIGHT]October 6th, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

Widespread protests, over the last couple of days, against the frequent loadshedding reveal one very important facet of governance: that the people of this country care far more about the provision of basic services than they do about abstract matters like the state’s relations with the US. The protests have been countrywide and have turned violent in several cities and towns in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The government needs to address this not as a law and order situation, but one where the factors causing the acute power shortages need to be urgently addressed. In this, there are indications that a shortage of furnace oil may have been the reason behind the sudden drop in electricity generation (and hence its supply), which resulted in the unusually long hours of loadshedding, and the consequent massive protests.

The supply chain of the fuel, which is transported mostly from Karachi to generation plants upcountry, may have been disrupted and this shows the fragility of the system in place for a service as crucial as electricity. The supply chain needs to be strengthened, by addressing the factors that are contributing to its frailty. One is the issue of circular debt. Sometimes, the independent power producers (IPPs) run out of money to purchase the fuel, and this is linked to the fact that the government owes them significant amounts in arrears from the purchase of electricity. The amount of circular debt is upwards of several hundred billion rupees, and this means that successive governments have simply looked the other way as it ballooned out of control.

Currently, there is a power shortage of some 8,000 MW, almost half of the country’s electricity needs. Part of it is caused by a lack of generation capacity — but most of it is because of the inability of the IPPs as well as those in the public sector — to produce even the electricity that their installed capacity permits them. That is precisely why addressing the issue of circular debt is so important. Another matter that also exacerbated the situation was that of rental power plants. Most of them were allowed to charge excessive tariffs, rates that Wapda has been unable to pay regularly. So, in a sense, the addition of rental power plants to the national grid worsened the country’s circular debt. Now, all this has resulted in a law and order issue but the stakeholders involved in the electricity industry — the IPPs, refineries, and consumers alike — have been demanding for months that the government resolve this crisis before it becomes unmanageable. In this context, for the petroleum minister to say that the issue will “soon be resolved” holds little credence because no one really believes the government on this issue. Indeed, if the crisis had indeed been ‘resolved’, the prolonged power outages would have subsided.

The PPP government has been in power for well over three years so the excuse that it inherited the crisis from the Musharraf regime no longer holds water. What it needs to do, apart from short-term, stop-gap measures such as making emergency payments to clear a fraction of its arrears to the IPPs, is to come up with a medium- and long-term strategy to enhance the country’s power generation capacity over, say, the next five-year period. Although the economy is not growing by a healthy rate, it can be assumed that demand for electricity will rise in the coming years. And if the situation remains the same, with the government being a silent spectator, always in a reactive, as opposed to a proactive mode, the future could see more serious trouble.

The solution to the power crisis will not be found in feel-good solutions like exploring solar or wind energy, since these, for the time being, are prohibitively expensive. Equally, measures like reintroducing daylight savings hours, having a two-day weekend and forcing shops to close early, have only a symbolic effect. Until there is a large-scale effort to develop dams and tap the potential of rental power plants and IPPs in an honest and transparent manner, there will be no relief for the thousands of protesters on the streets and the millions suffering silently in their homes.

[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]The Supreme Court on Karachi[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B][B][RIGHT]October 7th, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

So complex is the situation in Karachi that no one actor, not even the powerful Supreme Court, could hope to solve it. What the Supreme Court did do, in its verdict on the suo motu case on Karachi, is confirm what many had suspected. The violence in Karachi, it concluded, was partly spurred by criminal groups that had political backing. No one political group was singled out by the court, with the PPP, the MQM, the ANP, the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Sunni Tehreek all accused of making the city a criminal haven thanks to their involvement in extortion. Partisans of these parties have all been quick to blame their opponents for their criminality; thanks to the Supreme Court we now have evidence that all are culpable.

At least half of the killers, responsible for over a thousand deaths in Karachi this summers, had political backing, the Supreme Court said. But merely stating what was already known will not be enough. The police lack the will and ability to take on killers with political connections and apart from that evidence to convict them in a court of law is often found wanting. Another option would have been to ban the political parties but the court has rightly ruled that out as unpragmatic and unenforceable. The suggestion by the Supreme Court that appointments to the police be made on merit rather than political considerations is a sound one but again can only be enforced if the political parties in the cities are willing to change the way they operate. More useful is the suggestion that the monopoly of political parties in certain areas be broken by altering the boundaries of administrative units. The Supreme Court, thankfully, also poured cold water on the idea that a military operation could bring peace to Karachi, by pointing out that previous such operations were mostly failures.

Ultimately, though, even a verdict from the Supreme Court will not be enough to stem the bloodletting in Karachi. Until the political parties in the city decide that they will no longer patronise criminals in their ranks, peace will remain an illusion. The solution to Karachi’s woes lies in political compromise, not court hearings, however, well-intentioned they may be.


[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]Master move[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]October 7th, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

The coalition at the centre appears to have regained the strength that had been draining away. The PML-Q, and hours later the MQM, are back in the fold. The see-sawing game that has been played by the party for years continues. At the joint press conference in Karachi where Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, along with Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali, announced the decision to re-join the government, no specific reasons were given, aside from some talk of the national crisis and the need for unity at such a time. Certainly, a strong central coalition is important at this moment.

But if we look more carefully, we see a master hand at work. It seems that using the sense of political acumen he has consistently demonstrated, President Asif Ali Zardari was able to achieve just what he wanted, playing the MQM off against the PML-Q, and as a result holding firmly onto both parties. While the MQM had parted ways with the PPP some weeks before, primarily over the situation stemming from the killings in Karachi, the PML-Q had been expressing discontent over what it termed the PPP failure to keep promises. These murmurings will quieten down with Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s announcement that the coalition will be kept intact, even though there is said to be some division within that party.

We must hope that the MQM decision this time round is a more lasting one than those we have seen in the past. The constant process of the making and breaking of coalitions does little to build faith in our democracy. It will take time for this to build into a solid, reliable entity — but the process needs to begin. The skill demonstrated by the president defeats the rather bleak — or perhaps hopeful — predictions from opposition parties, notably the PML-N, that the coalition could tumble. This has not happened — but let us hope that following the latest developments we can move towards the kind of stability we so desperately need to overcome the multiple problems we face, and move towards solutions through lasting cooperation between the partners instead.


[B][U][CENTER][SIZE="5"]Steve Jobs (1955-2011)[/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/B]
[B][RIGHT]October 7th, 2011[/RIGHT][/B]

His death came too soon, but he lived a life complete. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, an innovative genius, died on Wednesday at the age of 56, leaving the world just a little poorer for his absence. His loss is being mourned by the technology industry, as well as the millions of users and fans of his products the world over. Jobs’ significance to the world of computers and consumer technology as we know it today cannot be underestimated. When he founded Apple in 1977, he was the first person to think of computers as something an ordinary person might be able to use, leading the team that designed the first mouse-based computing experience that has since become standard. After a 12-year hiatus from Apple, Jobs returned in 1997 to lead the charge that eventually led the company to completely revolutionise the world of technology, changing the way the world listens to music (the iPod), what we can do with our phones (the iPhone) and most recently, how we interact with digital content (the iPad). Yet for all the impact that Jobs had on the world of technology, we cannot help but think that he was the product of a uniquely American upbringing, having been raised in a liberal society that allows its young people to be free and question authority — any authority.

That remarkable freedom of thought, nurtured in a democratic political culture and an entrepreneurial economic one, is what has made so many of its people bold thinkers, and enabled them to change the way the rest of us view the world. How else, for instance, would one explain a man who was neither an engineer nor a programmer become the founder and visionary leader of the world’s most valuable technology company? In Pakistan, we would probably have kept asking Jobs for relevant degrees and qualifications (or worse, his connections). America let him be free. That rebellious spirit reflects an ethos found in whatever Jobs did in his life. While addressing Stanford University’s graduating class of 2005, he said: “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” We will miss you, Steve.