Getting over with it

WITH the judges issue having apparently taken the back seat, the national scene now seems focussed on the president’s impeachment. Certain questions crop up. If the PPP co-chairperson had to make common cause with the PML-N, why did Mr Asif Ali Zardari have to wait for all these four months? He agreed to sign the Murree Declaration, which visualised an April 30 deadline for the restoration of the judges, extended it to May 12 and later appeared to be going back on it again. If he had agreed to stick to the Murree Declaration the nation would have been spared several unsavoury developments — like the PML-N’s withdrawal from the federal cabinet while the budget-making was on and the lawyers’ long march. The PML-N’s priority all along had been the judges’ restoration, which in its opinion would make President Pervez Musharraf go. It seems Mr Zardari feels that getting rid of the president is easier than restoring the judges.

Now that the grand coalition looks determined to go ahead with Musharraf’s impeachment all sides need to keep in mind the overriding need for ending the agony that has gripped the nation since March 9 last year when Chief Justice Iftikhar was made non-functional. Unfortunately, it is Pakistan that has been non-functional for 17 months, the ‘who will go to Beijing’ controversy itself announcing to the whole world the kind of ludicrous politics that exists in the country. The lawyers are unhappy with Thursday’s announcement, because they wonder what would be their fate if the impeachment move fails. Besides, sections of the people still doubt that the grand coalition will finally clinch it.

The constitution does provide for impeachment, but the procedure has not been spelt out. The National Assembly speaker has to make rules for what is going to be the first — and an unfortunate — constitutional move in Pakistan’s chequered political history. We thus hope that the speaker will make the rules at the earliest.

On Friday, the Senate saw angry exchanges because the opposition expressed the fear that there could be horse-trading to buy votes. To pre-empt the sale and purchase of lawmakers, it is essential that the vote for the impeachment be by a show of hands or division rather than by secret ballot. The president has resolved to fight rather than seek an honourable exit, and there are reports he is being advised recourse to the Supreme Court. This could prove to be a harrowing development, and the crisis could drag on indefinitely, the ultimate sufferer being the people. The onus is on the coalition partners to take the impeachment process to its culmination as quickly as possible. Pakistan has virtually come to a halt, and the nation feels as if there is no government which could tackle such problems as the deteriorating economy and the insurgency in Swat and Fata.

Tension in Kashmir

THE current communal tensions in Indian-occupied Kashmir have little to do with Pakistan at the moment, but if they persist they may open up yet another Pandora’s box with devastating consequences for regional peace. The crisis began in June when Muslims protested against a move by the authorities to give 40 hectares of forestland to a Hindu shrine trust for the accommodation of pilgrims. The government’s decision to rescind its decision caused anger among Hindus in Jammu. The resulting violence, including clashes between the police and demonstrators, has led to the loss of lives, the destruction of homes and an economic blockade of the Muslim-dominated Valley which is being deprived of essential supplies. In this turmoil, there are valid fears that extremist Hindu and Muslim elements would have no qualms about exploiting the situation to suit their own interests. This can harm the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan. The peace process recently suffered a setback following the Indian embassy blast in Kabul that New Delhi blamed on the ISI, and skirmishes between Indian and Pakistani soldiers along the Line of Control. Both sides would do well to pre-empt the designs of ill-intentioned extremists and agencies that could harbour designs to foment trouble in the occupied state.

Of course, the ultimate responsibility to douse the communal fires in Kashmir rests with the Indian government that has just deployed an additional 10,000 troops in the area to keep the situation under control. One hopes that the Indian army command is mindful of the Muslim resentment against its soldiers and that it does not come down with a heavy hand on the local population as it is routinely accused of doing. In Jammu, there are complaints that the security forces are not doing enough to prevent angry demonstrators from targeting shops and property owned by Muslims. Action must be taken to negate this impression as it will only exacerbate tensions between the two communities. Highhanded measures like the detention of prominent Kashmiri leaders go against the spirit of compromise that New Delhi is desperately seeking. Their arrest and the worsening condition of Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik, whose fast-unto-death continues, are deepening the communal rift, which is also being exploited by political forces like the BJP. Such elements must be dealt with firmly and the authorities should refrain from taking further controversial decisions regarding the land transfer issue.

Domestic tourism

THERE has been an attempt in recent years in Islamabad to spruce up existing recreational facilities and develop new cultural attractions for the pleasure of people in the federal capital. The idea is to also tap the potential of domestic tourism. One of the latest additions to the growing list of attractions in the city is the recently opened Heritage Café located in the renovated Lok Virsa cultural complex in Shakarparian. Other recently established or rehabilitated attractions include Saidpur Village, the National Art Gallery, Rawal Lake Park, Daman-i-Koh, etc. This development is in line with the recently unveiled policy to restructure the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation, which for decades lacked the necessary vision to effectively promote tourism in the country.

Domestic tourism has been a ‘poor cousin’ to the seemingly more glamorous international market. Yet it is domestic tourism which has the greater potential for sustained growth because it constitutes the greater proportion of tourism flows in Pakistan. Domestic travellers within the country are estimated to number over 40 million per year as compared to less than a million foreign visitors annually. A growing middle class is fuelling the demand for domestic tourism, while the lower middle classes have also begun to travel a lot more. Although family gatherings constitute the major motivation for Pakistanis to travel within the country, with business visits a close second, leisure ethic and consumerism are also becoming increasingly influential factors. Interest in nature and adventure is encouraging many urban dwellers, particularly students who form about 20 per cent of domestic travellers, to visit other places in the country. Apart from generating employment and revenue and encouraging investment, domestic tourism can also be instrumental in promoting development, besides helping to promote national integration.

In addition to drawing up a visionary domestic tourism plan identifying tourist destinations all over the country, the more important task is developing the proper infrastructure in the relevant sectors — attraction, accommodation, transport and travel organisation — in partnership with the relevant ministries, government agencies and private concerns. But if more attractions, middle-level hotels, economical holiday packages and festivals are essential to boosting tourism, so is improvement in the security situation in certain parts of the country.

OTHER VOICES - Indian Press

Playing with fire

Deccan Herald

THE law and order situation in Jammu has taken a turn for the worse in the last few days with protests against the cancellation of the order on land transfer to the Amarnath Yatra Board spreading to new areas and becoming more violent….

The protests … were a continuation of the earlier demonstrations in support of the transfer of the land to the shrine board. Political parties and groups in the Kashmir Valley had opposed the land transfer while those in the Jammu region had supported it. The Ghulam Nabi Azad government had collapsed on the issue. Unfortunately, the governor, the political parties or other groups had not given adequate consideration to the consequences of the decision in a … communally polarised state like Jammu and Kashmir. While the initial decision was the trigger for trouble, the seeds of more trouble were sown by the twists and turns the issue took. A decision which was taken with appeasement of the Hindu community in Jammu as its main aim has now backfired….

…There is strong appeal for Hindu fundamentalism in the Jammu region. Parties and groups which have a stake in promoting it are obviously behind the present trouble in the Jammu towns. This should be a lesson for the Congress. The immediate need in the state is to bring the situation under control and ensure normal life for the people…. — (Aug 5)

Don’t dither on Musharraf

The Economic Times

NOW that the ruling coalition in Pakistan has decided to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Musharraf, it would do well to press ahead without any dither…. The decision to impeach Musharraf reflects an across-the-board consensus, which has come to view the president as an impediment in the path of deepening the country’s hard-won democracy.

That the Pakistani army is unlikely to throw its weight behind its former boss is largely due to this consensus. The US-led western powers … should actively dissuade [Musharraf] from digging in his heels, and persuade him to resign….

The Pakistani political class … should … not make Musharraf’s exit into an exercise for settling personal scores. Instead, his removal ought to be envisaged as the first crucial step towards rendering the country’s notorious military-intelligence establishment truly accountable to its polity. It’s time the Pakistani political class realised that this cannot be accomplished as long as it does not become … the only centre of power in the country…. The failure of Pakistani politics to transform a thoroughly stratified and oppressive society into a more inclusive entity has rendered its wretched of the earth either indifferent or susceptible to the ideological sway of the Islamists. The country’s army has thrived precisely on such apathy and regression. — (Aug 8)

Setting the record straight

THE PPP government made a faux pas in trying to bring the ISI under its control and it is probable that the move may have come under great pressure to do so after the recent bombing of the Indian mission in Kabul.

But let it be clear that the notion the ISI spends most of its time on external defence is false and that civilians should therefore not bother about it is an equally flawed argument. History does not support this view. It is also wrong to believe that the US administration’s reservations about rogue elements in the ISI are a recent or post-9/11 phenomenon.

When intelligence agencies are not accountable to the elected government and are not subject to checks and balances they can become a state within a state. The Shah of Iran’s Savak was notorious for its repression. The FBI under J. Edgar Hoover was even suspected of carrying out the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the CIA was directly involved in the assassination of foreigners before it was forbidden to do so by an executive order issued by President Ford in February 1976.

Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence was formed in 1948 by the then deputy army chief of staff, Gen R. Cawthorne. Prior to the 1958 coup, the ISI reported directly to the army chief. After the imposition of martial law, the ISI began to report to President Ayub Khan. It was not Mr Bhutto who started the use of the ISI for domestic intelligence. It was under Gen Ayub Khan that the ISI became responsible for monitoring Pakistani politicians, especially those in what was then East Pakistan. Ayub expanded the ISI’s role and it was to protect Pakistan’s interests, which included the creation of a covert action division within the ISI to assist Islamic militants in north-east India, as well as to support the Sikh Home Rule Movement in the 1960s.

Altaf Gauhar, one of the most powerful bureaucrats to serve Ayub Khan, wrote a revealing piece about the nature of ISI operations in the daily Nation on Aug 18, 1997: “The president used to receive regular reports on the political situation in the country from the ISI and the MI. These reports in sealed envelopes marked ‘Eyes Only’ were usually handed over to the president by the C-in-C. On a few occasions the president gave me these reports and it seemed to me that the agencies were keeping the politicians, particularly the East Pakistanis, under close surveillance. I rarely found anything insightful in these reports. The DIB had direct access to the president and his weekly reports used to be fairly exhaustive. It was during the presidential election in l964 that the ISI and the MI became extremely active [emphasis added].”

According to Altaf Gauhar, the crisis of intelligence failure came during the 1965 war. Brig Riaz (then ISI chief) told Altaf Gauhar that he had contacts inside Occupied Kashmir and in other major Indian cities. “I will flood you with news. Don’t worry”. When the war started there was a complete blackout of news from all the intelligence agencies. When Gauhar got nothing out of the ISI for two days he went to Brig Riaz only to learn that all his contacts had gone underground.

The ISI played a key role in the Afghan war and worked closely with the CIA in what was its biggest covert operation since the Vietnam war. While much is made of its role, most Pakistani analysts have either ignored or not given due importance to the fact that oil prices collapsed in the 1980s and the Soviet Union became bankrupt.

Notwithstanding this aspect, by 1985 the tide of the war had shifted in favour of Moscow according to analysis produced that same year by Richard Clarke, who was the US deputy assistant secretary of state for intelligence at the time. According to his memoirs, his boss told him: “Don’t just tell me we’re losing, Clarke, tell me what the [expletive deleted] to do about it.”

Secretary of Defence Casper Weinberger’s decision in 1986 to send Stinger missiles was crucial in turning the tide in favour of the Afghan fighters trained and backed by the ISI. By this time US aid had also been increased to $600m from $35m in 1982.

At the conclusion of the war, the CIA and the Americans abandoned the Afghans but the ISI continued to play a key role in Pakistan’s Afghan policy, including the training of the Taliban in Afghanistan. What complicated matters was the Taliban’s involvement with Osama bin Laden. The Taliban regime had provided sanctuary to bin Laden who was wanted by the US even before 9/11. President Clinton ordered cruise missile attacks on Afghanistan in August 1998 to target what he described as one of the most active terrorist bases in the world. In his television address on Aug 20, 1998, Mr Clinton named “exiled Saudi Arabian dissident” Osama bin Laden as the mastermind behind the embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. On the same day, a spokesman for the ruling Taliban, Mullah Abdullah, told CNN and Reuters that “bin Laden is safe and no damage has been done to any of his companions.” Top Clinton administration officials suspected, even in 1998, that if “Pakistan’s ISI wanted to capture bin Laden or tell us where he was, they could have done so with little effort”, according to the Richard Clarke, Bill Clinton’s counter-terrorism chief.

The ISI’s name figured again in the aftermath of 9/11. Dawn published the following story on Oct 10, 2001.

“Director General of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmed has been replaced after … FBI investigators established credible links between him and Umar Sheikh, one of the three militants released in exchange for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane in 1999. The FBI team, which had sought adequate inputs about various terrorists including Sheikh from the intelligence agencies, was working on the linkages between Sheikh and former ISI chief Gen Mahmud which are believed to have been substantiated, reports [the] PTI website. Informed sources said there were enough indications with the US intelligence agencies that it was at Gen Mahmud’s instruction that Sheikh had transferred 100,000 US dollars into the account of Mohammed Atta, one of the lead terrorists in strikes at the World Trade Centre on Sept 11, it adds.”

While this news was disturbing to say the least, the objective fact remains that Gen Mahmud Ahmed, the ISI chief, was replaced barely a month after he had returned from Washington after spending about 10 days meeting top officials of the Bush administration.

The record speaks for itself. The ISI has played a key role in elections beginning with the 1965 presidential polls and in conducting Afghan policy and operations. We have hardly ever had free and fair elections and the Afghan crisis now threatens the very survival of Pakistan as it exists today.

Indian tribe’s fight

INDIA’S highest court has ignored the pleas of tribal people fighting to protect a sacred mountain by allowing a British company to establish a multi-million-pound bauxite mine across a vast swathe of the area.

Despite months of protests by campaigners who say the mine will all but destroy the Niyamgiri Hills, the Supreme Court said Vedanta Resources had met the conditions required to proceed with the project. It ordered, however, that the company must invest a percentage of its profits from the mine to help the local people.

The tribal people have vowed to continue their protests and said they would rather die than give up their homes. Jairam, a villager from the Rayagada district, said: “Even if you kill us we will not give Niyamgiri. Our souls are in Niyamgiri. Our food, water, homes are in Niyamgiri. There is nothing without Niyamgiri.”

For the Dongria Kondh tribe, the Niyamgiri Hills in the state of Orissa represent not just their home but their deity. They say the mountain gives them everything they need for their survival and that they could not live anywhere else. They have repeatedly argued that they cannot understand why their homes should be taken over by a company that will destroy the mountain, especially by a foreign corporation.

But the plan has the backing of powerful interests and both the federal and state governments have given to their support to the project, saying it will help industrialise and exploit the mineral interests of an underdeveloped region.

For campaigners, the battle to save Niyamgiri has become a cause celebre at a time when much international attention focuses on India’s economic development. Some believe Friday’s ruling could come to represent a landmark decision in which the interests of those people left outside the bubble of growth were deemed less important.

Bratindi Jena, of the charity Action Aid, said: “When any country is developing or shining in terms of its economy, it does not help the marginalised communities — the tribal people, women, and so forth. They remain outside of the benefits. [This decision] is devastating for the indigenous people living there.”

At Vedanta’s shareholders’ meeting last week in London, its chairman, Anil Agarwal, said the project would only proceed with the “complete permission” of the courts and the local people.

— © The Independent, London