Failure of intelligence

WHAT is happening in Islamabad? First the cabinet division issued a notification that “the prime minister has approved the placement of the Intelligence Bureau and the Inter-Services Intelligence under the administrative, financial and operational control of the interior division with immediate effect”. The “historic decision” was immediately hailed by Asif Zardari from Dubai. Then, within a day, a second notification was issued: “Notification regarding control of ISI is being misinterpreted. ISI will continue to perform its functions under the prime minister.” This is misgovernance on a grand scale. This reversal also indicated the over-arching power of Pakistan’s intelligence apparatus. There is no doubt about the need to bring it under civilian control urgently; however, clandestine, surprise moves of the kind attempted by the government on Saturday only backfire and further undermine the government’s authority. The humiliating back-pedalling of the government has also cemented its reputation for lurching from crisis to crisis, many of them self-made.

What was the rationale for handing over the reins of the ISI to the interior division? Since the change was not debated publicly, the country does not know. On paper, the ISI’s brief is external counter-intelligence and it reports to the prime minister. In reality, the ISI is known for meddling in domestic affairs and takes it cue from the army high command. Given this reality the government ought to have taken a very different path to the one that it chose. The starting point should have been a debate on the function and role of the ISI in the state apparatus. The debate needed to include all the stakeholders: parliament, the cabinet, coalition partners, the armed forces and the intelligence agencies. Then proposals for change should have been solicited, the differences squared and a reforms package developed. This is how good, inclusive, stable governance functions.

Many institutions of the state are flawed and rightly vilified; however, ad hoc decision-making will not correct such structural faults. In fact, not only has the government lost yet more political capital in its ill-fated attempt to bring change, but change will be all the more difficult now that the ISI will view the government with renewed suspicion. There are many reasons to give the government a reprieve: it is operating short-handed while the PML-N works out if it wants to remain a part of the coalition; there is an economic crisis headlined by inflation and food shortages; and militants are rampaging across large swathes of Pakistan. Missteps and errors are to be expected, especially from a political class that has never been allowed to be comfortable in power. Yet such grave and elementary errors of judgment suggest that the government is not learning from the mistakes of the past. This does not bode well for the transition to democracy.

Yet more bombings in India

COMING a day after the Bangalore blasts, a series of explosions in Gujarat state’s largest city, Ahmedabad, on Saturday left India in a state of shock. The responsibility for the bombings in Ahmedabad, as well as similar attacks in Jaipur last May, has been claimed by a shadowy group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen. The attacks in Bangalore and Ahmedabad have killed more than 50 people and left scores wounded. They must be strongly condemned and the culprits identified and brought to justice. As in Pakistan, police probes in India leave a lot to be desired. One can only hope that thorough and well-thought-out methods of investigation are employed so that the real criminals are nabbed. This is essential if one is to prevent a sense of alienation from setting in, especially among groups whose religious or ethnic identity makes them natural suspects in the eyes of the government. Positive use could be made of the existing joint India-Pakistan anti-terrorism mechanism which could help reveal whether the bombings, occurring in BJP-ruled states, were carried out by a homegrown organisation or were part of a greater international design.

Whatever the truth, it is obvious that the secular fabric of Indian society is being ruined by elements that are unhappy with what they see as uncaring official attitudes towards the country’s minorities. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the case of Gujarat that saw devastating Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002. More than 2,000 people, mostly Muslim, died in the communal violence but the state has yet to bring the criminals to justice and continues to be governed by the controversial Narendra Modi, perceived as one of the chief instigators of the violence. Like some other communities in India, the lot of Indian Muslims is not an enviable one economically or socially. However, until recently, India’s secular polity had been threatened more by foreign jihadists than by local groups. Things could well be changing. Globally terrorism in the name of religion is perpetrated as much by home-grown elements unhappy with their government’s policies as by those whose militant operations have no boundaries. Of course such violence cannot be condoned on any ground. But it will help India neutralise the factors that spawn terrorism if it were to reinforce its secular ideals as well as ensure that all its communities have equal access to social and economic justice. That alone can reduce the feeling of alienation that is a prelude to such attacks.

Girls under attack in Swat

THE violence in Swat has taken on a domino effect. Schools and places of recreation are falling one after another to the ongoing spate of violence that has engulfed the area. A girls’ school and 13 shops were blown up in a fresh spell of bombings in Swat on Friday. This has rendered the peace deal negotiated in May ineffective. Are such peace deals really viable? What impact do they have and what does the government hope to gain from them? The answers lie in the events of recent weeks. The fact of the matter is that violence has continued unabated. If the residents don’t get any respite from the violence, then one can correctly deem the deal to have failed. At least 39 girls’ schools have been bombed or torched in the last month alone in Swat. This is what Talibanisation is leaving behind in its trail. The pieces are for the government to pick up and it is not being able to do it very well.

Meanwhile, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack on Friday. The militants’ targets are symbolic and the message is very clear: everything that is synonymous with modernity has to go. This has paralysed life in this strife-torn region. Thousands of girls have been forced to abandon education in Swat. This is a pity because it was clearly stated in the 15-point peace agreement that the education of girls would not be obstructed. The constant breach of this term should serve as an eye-opener for the government. The dystopian visions of the north unravel the human side of the story and show how women are the targets of the dictatorial fiats of the militants. What the government needs to do is work out something that is practicable and workable in terms of the cessation of violence on the part of the militants. If peace deals are to be struck, it should be ensured that the terms are adhered to by both sides and lead to a durable peace. Let the effective implementation of the clause banning attacks on girls’ schools be made a test case for the good faith of the parties negotiating peace deals.

The rickshaw driver syndrome

AS a nation we learn not from looking upward, at higher intellects; we learn from those far below us in erudition or breeding. And so we pick up all the wrong things.

As far back as memory goes, lorries and buses in Pakistan were famous for the legends they bore on their tail boards. Most were inane and even meaningless, some were sharp and yet others hilarious. An all-time favourite was the Punjabi version of ignorance is bliss. It said akal nahin tay maujan hi maujan. This bit about tail-board slogans is actually an aside but it fits today’s treatise because as I said in the beginning, we learn most of what we know from intellects lower than ours.

And this is in the context of the slogans that today adorn not only trucks, buses and rickshaws but ordinary private cars as well. Time was when Lahore (where I have lived most of my life) had no more than a few hundred cars. That was until the real-life film called Dubai Chalo began in Pakistan and everybody and my neighbour’s cat were able to buy cars. That was when I noticed for the first time in my life the little black paranda hanging inside the rear window of the new purchased Mark IIs (in the mid-1970s this Toyota model was the rage with everyone back with their petro-dollars).

The paranda, or any other black rag, was the nazar buttu — the warder off of the evil eye. It was essential fitting for the newly purchased darling to be protected from the covetous eyes of envious neighbours who had been unable so far to get to Dubai and were begging one to get them a visa as well. Though heaven knows why anyone could ever believe that being a plumber or a driver in Dubai made me in charge of those upstarts’ visa policy.

A variation on the paranda was a child’s used and nicely battered shoe — it always had to be a used one for who knows whose envy might have been aroused by a brand-new piece. This warder off of the evil eye was festooned under the rear bumper. Sometimes, but very rarely, we saw it hanging by the rear view mirror in front of the driver. But such rare cases I always took to mean that the driver had a fetish for shoes and was smart enough to gainfully employ his kinkiness and to keep evil at bay at the same time.

This is what we who had kept our eyes open growing up in the 1950s and ’60s remembered from the rickshaw drivers. The shoe or the black rag was a great rage for anyone who got a new rickshaw in those far-off and only times when life was truly worth living in Pakistan. By the way, that was not the only thing on rickshaws. There being a revulsion for plain surfaces, their rear ends were plastered with all sorts of slogans and short adverts.

In the early 1970s this sorry land, starting with poor old Karachi, was hit by that greatest of banes, those accursed vans or wagons that later came to be known in that once-great city as yellow devils. From the staid pace of those lovable trams and buses, everyone moved on to the helter-skelter of getting on or off with the vehicle still moving at twenty miles an hour. These demon vehicles had the driver’s or owner’s name on the tail board. By the way, the other thing every driver of today learned from the maniacs who manned these killing machines was driving: today we all drive like the wagon drivers with total disregard for every other road user.

Going back to the name business, this was a move ahead from the legend ‘Sheeda mechanic’ or ‘Makha denter’ on the rickshaws. The first among us to copy this new trend of their names on their vehicles were motorcycle owners. There being limited space on a 70cc, the owner’s name was initially appended at the bottom of the number plate. Over time, the importance of the registration paled in front of the owner’s name: from then on the name was in bolder lettering than the registration number. And since we never learn from a higher intelligence, car owners were quick to latch on to this rickshaw driver syndrome.

Not long after that, all us Sheedas and Makhas, having returned from Dubai, started affixing our cars’ registration plates with our names or our sons’ names. About twenty years ago a car in Lahore had Loony, Koony, Toony, Poony and Swoony on its registration plate. Fortunately we do not give away our wives’ and daughters’ names or this car owner, judging from the number of sons, would very likely have had a billboard for a rear bumper. But even if he did, nobody, not even Lahore’s pathetic traffic police, would have minded.

Billboards being ungainly, however, the option of the rear windscreen dawned quickly. Over the past many years everyone (and my neighbour’s cat) have had their rear windows emblazoned with their names. Just wait for it and you will see hopeful, but unsuccessful, ladies’ men adding their cellphone numbers as well — there is one in Lahore already.

What manner of insignificant person would wish the world to know who he is, what his religious belief and his caste are? Would Justice Cornelius have had his name emblazoned on his car, if he had one? Would Faiz Ahmed Faiz or Dr Abdus Salam? It has to be an insignificant person, an utter nobody, who will advertise himself. It takes a nobody to assert his nobody-ness. No slur on poor Sheeda the mechanic who fixes rickshaws in Lahore’s Lytton Road and wishes his name broadcast, but that is where we have learned to be what we are: nobodies.

The sad thing is that we do not even get the act of being a nobody right. Friend and fellow writer Shahzada Irfan has a photograph of a Suzuki Mehran somewhere on a Karachi street with the legend ‘Anus’ in bold lettering on the rear window! This poor car owner is not self-deprecating; only this is the way his father spelled the Arabic name Annus upon his son’s birth. Not knowing any better dear old Anus goes around advertising what he really is. Good on you, kiddo. Keep it going.

PS. Ever noticed the slogan ‘Mom says no girls’? Such a moron does not only advertise being a mamma’s baby but also gives away that mom does not mind his being gay.

The writer is the author of several travel books.

odysseus@beaconet.net

The London connection

THE London insurance connection propping up the murderous Burmese military dictatorship can be revealed in a development that will acutely embarrass leading City of London figures.

Three Lloyd’s of London operators will be named as helping to insure the junta’s state-owned airline Myanma Airways earlier this year. They are Kiln, Atrium and Catlin. All were contacted by The Observer and asked to explain their involvement but refused to comment.

Other Lloyd’s syndicates have shared the risk of insuring the junta’s shipping interests. Without shipping and aviation insurance, the Burmese government would not be able to export gems, timber, clothing, oil and gas, which would lead to economic ruin for the generals running the oppressed south-east Asian nation.

The London insurance involvement, to be exposed this week in a report by Burma Campaign UK, will acutely damage the reputation of the City. It is likely to trigger a wave of campaigns aiming to force Lloyd’s of London to recommend that its members pull business from Burma. Campaigners are demanding a face-to-face meeting with Lloyd’s chairman Lord Levene.

‘The insurance industry is helping to fund the Burmese dictatorship. Insurance companies, including members of Lloyd’s, are putting profits before ethics. They don’t care that they’re helping Burma’s brutal regime fund the purchase of guns, bullets and tanks for their campaigns of repression and ethnic cleansing. In an age where companies like to claim they behave ethically, the truth is these companies are helping to finance a regime that rapes, tortures and kills civilians,’ said Johnny Chatterton, Burma Campaign UK’s campaign officer.

Lloyd’s last weekend argued that its members were not breaking the law by insuring Burma’s key infrastructure. While the US has imposed across-the-board sanctions on Burma, the European Union has taken a limited stance. EU sanctions cover gems and timber but not financial services. Despite pressure from the European parliament to extend sanctions, heads of state have failed to unanimously approve the measure.

Lloyd’s said: ‘Unless there are official international sanctions in place, we do not instruct the market where it can and cannot write business.’

Lloyd’s intransigence will put pressure on the UK government to intervene. Gordon Brown has in the past made plain his disapproval of any business trading with Burma. It is unclear whether the Foreign Office has raised the issue with senior Lloyd’s officials.

The Burma Campaign report will expose eight other insurance companies. While Lloyd’s is vital to the regime, much business goes to Singapore and Thailand. By Burmese law, all insurance has to goes through Myanma Insurance, in which the state is the sole shareholder. It is an imprisonable offence to get insurance through any other organisation.

— The Guardian, London

OTHER VOICES - Sindhi Press

Prime minister’s US visit

Awami Awaz

IT is hoped that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s three-day visit to Washington will make the present government more steadfast in taking decisions on domestic as well as foreign policy matters. He is expected to meet President George Bush, the secretary of state, members of American think tanks and presidential candidate Barack Obama. He will hold talks on Pak-American relations, the war on terror, Pak-Afghan relations and other important issues. It is believed that the future of President Gen Musharraf and the restoration of the judges will also come under discussion.

If the prime minister succeeds in building a working relationship with the US, the government will be in a position to work in an undaunted manner. Otherwise dictatorship and undemocratic forces will prevail. Therefore, this visit is of the utmost importance and is an opportunity to strengthen ties between the US and the PPP.

A meeting of the coalition partners took place prior to the departure of the prime minister. In a briefing by Information Minister Sherry Rehman the press was apprised of the fact that a balanced outline for the talks has been worked out which will prove to be of mutual benefit to both countries and should be acceptable to the US.

Will Pakistan be able to use this opportunity to put forward the grievances of the populace? We believe that Pakistan should convey what the world expects from the US as a superpower. The prime minister should articulate the perception of the Pakistani people that the US is the root cause of all the problems in Pakistan. This is due to its unwavering support for undemocratic and unpopular forces which has damaged the image of the US, portraying it as an imperialist force.

The US might be a functioning democracy at home but in the rest of the world it is recognised as an imperialist and undemocratic country. The US should be informed that the world considers the 9/11 incident to be a farce, a drama played out to use force against Muslim countries on the pretext of terrorism…. The US previously promoted fundamentalism to contain the Soviet Union. The people of Pakistan consider the US responsible for creating obstacles in the way of democracy and extending support to undemocratic and dictatorial regimes.

If this impression is wrong, the US should cooperate with the elected government which should be allowed to carry on with its independent policies so that it may succeed in introducing a democratic system in accordance with the wishes of the people. Pakistan will have to convince the US that the solution to all the problems lies in democracy and through negotiations and that America should change its stance. — (July 27)

— Selected and translated by Sohail Sangi.