Pakistan has Laws, but not the Rule of Law

Closing line of the press release from Transparency International Pakistan announcing the publishing of results from 2009 National Corruption Perceptions Survey reads that "Pakistan has Laws, but not the Rule of Law". How apt!

On a positive note survey reveals today Judiciary appears to be the institution that has been able to repair its reputation compared to last year and has moved from the coveted position of 3rd most corrupt institution down to number seven. I believe that this is more to do with the high regard and esteem that general public gives to Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and the continued trust that people have in his intentions and ability to change the judicial infrastructure for the better.

Judiciary are followed by the Media in enjoying public confidence in their ability to influence change. Movement by the civil society that lead to undignified departure of dictator General Musharraf, and subsequent reinstatement of judges sacked by him for defiance against tyranny would not have been successful if independent Media was not standing besides the civil society facing all sorts of oppression from the military and later civilian rulers.

Biggest loser and rightly so is the Health sector i.e. the medical profession in Pakistan who are now perceived to be the 3rd most corrupt sector behind only the Police and Power (the electricity people!!!).

Unsurprisingly “lack of Accountability, “Lack of transparency ” and abundance of “Discretionary Power” in all walks of life are considered be to the root causes of spread of corruption.

There are some interesting results as well. Looking at the global corruption barometer produced by Transparency International [map below] I found it interesting that our regional neighbours India rate the Political parties as the most corrupt institution but not according to us Pakistanis. We give this dubious honour to our civil servants and public officials - although if asked the question who is the most corrupt person in Pakistan the honour will still be bestowed upon one Mr. Asif Ali Zardari our erstwhile president.

That brings me to the UK MPs who have become household names because of their household claims. The expenses scandal has resulted in some interesting media coverage and ways of exposing "within the rules" corruption. One interesting representation of this scandal is the heat map of MP expenses produced by MSN. One glance at the map gives you an idea of the scale of gravy train that the MPs had in place for God knows how many years. Click on your constituency and you can look at the details of what your local MP has been claiming from you during 2007/08. Made me wonder if we were to produce a similar map for Pakistan our green traditionally green coloured map would turn red hot all over.

Day of the vigilante

Not many might remember a development in Karachi around May 2008 that sent a chill down every god fearing (or just caring) human being's spine. Fed up with the deteriorating law and order situation in the city vigilante inflicted justice began to flourish and there was a series of episodes where robbers caught red handed were brutally murdered by the mob - in one case burnt alive. Images (disturbing images - discretion advised) published by Pakistani media shocked the nation and an outcry by those who believe in human rights brought this form of justice to an end before it took roots.

In the Upper Dir district of troubled North West of Pakistan a group of villagers took up arms against what has been reported as a group of Taliban and their supporters, razed their houses to the ground and killed four alleged militants. This is widely being reported as a positive development and that it could mark a return of Tribal Lashkars (literally meaning militias) to begin fighting against Taliban.

In a discussion on Pakistani security situation a friend raised a question that in North West Pakistan - where carrying arms is a local tradition and every household has a weapon of some sort, automatic assault weapons like Klashinkovs are widely and cheaply available - why don't people of every town and village pick up their arms and stand up against Taliban! This is a question that is raised by many but troubles me equally.

In the civilised world it is the duty of the state to provide security to its people and put in place institutions, mechanisms and tools to enforce law and order and justice for all citizens - whether they are in Karachi or Swat. When state fails to provide this security chaos ensues. Whereas the mobs in Karachi had no right to take law in their own hands and take life (even of those who committed crimes), it is also not right of anyone of us to expect citizens in the North West to take up arms to protect themselves.

Letting and asking common people to take law into their own hands can have other consequences as well. Over the last few decades we have seen religiously motivated mobs goaded by uneducated and hateful local mullahs murder those belonging to other sects or religions for the crime of committing blasphemy. We have also seen mobs being exploited by clever unscrupulous people to score personal vendettas and get away with murder.

I wouldn't like to see a group of MQM activists attacking a Pathan settlement in Karachi under the guise of attacking a Taliban hideout - a mob doesn't use brain - for them every Pushto speaking bearded man in a turban will be a Talib(an).

Vigilante justice has no place in a civilised world (all areas of Pakistan included).

Victims of War in Swat - don't take away their dignity

It can only happen in Pakistan…

On May 3rd 2009 Pakistani authorities stopped cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan travelling to the southern city of Karachi on Sunday because of fear his trip could trigger violence in the commercial hub. Stopping opposition politicians from travelling and forcibly confining them to one city has been a common ploy used by various governments of dictatorial leaning in Pakistan. Imran is not the first person who has not been allowed to travel from one part of his country to another. Now the same draconian tactic is being used against 2.4 million victims of military action in Swat.

Imran Khan, when stopped from travelling reacted "Under what law can they stop a Pakistani citizen going to Karachi? Isn't Karachi a city of Pakistan?"

I ask the same question on behalf of my brothers and sisters from Swat. They are not refugees from another country. They are in their homeland and the constitution of Pakistan gives them freedom of movement to go anywhere they can find shelter and security in the country. Camps should be an option for those who do not have relatives and friends in other parts of the country to host them in their hour of need.

Number of people displaced from Swat valley as a result of war between Taliban terrorists and Pakistan army is now over 2.5 million. Numbers could swell if the military operation continues and stranded population are able to find a route to escape.

I have written earlier that the government policy of trying to keep them confined to camps is turning them into refugees in their own country. It is extremely disturbing that the central government is allowing its coalition partners MQM in Sind government to lead campaigns against hosting the IDPs in Sind. According to MQM they “believed in the sovereignty and stability of the country therefore it would not allow the spread of Talibanisation in the Sindh province.” What!!! Did Nazis not use similar arguments when rounding up Jews into concentration camps! Look at new face of Nazi-ism its MQM.

When I look at the government of the Punjab I see a similar hypocrisy in action. Where as we see the Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif sending millions of sacks of wheat to the IDP camps we also see his government deciding “in principle not to allow camps for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the province…“the IDPs can cause trouble for the province just like the Afghan refugees. So, we have decided not to permit their entry or setting up of camps for them in the Punjab,”. But they are not REFUGEES…

A Pakhtoon friend of mine highlighted that Zaradri, Nawaz Sharif, Altaf Hussain three key characters from Pakistan politics have all been political refugees at some stage (Altaf still is). But for them being a refugee meant moving out of a palace in Pakistan to an even bigger palace in Surrey, Saudi Arabia or London. They can never understand the true feelings of an honourable Pukhtoon farmer or shopkeeper having to exchange the dignified life of his farm/business with the humiliation of a refugee camp.

Farhat Taj wrote in January about plight of IDPs especially woman who suffered at the hands of Taliban in the North West - “An elderly woman, a grandmother, said her daughter-in-law is widow and she used to accompany her children to a hospital in Peshawar, whenever they needed medical treatment. The Taliban threatened women with dire consequences if they came in the public unaccompanied by men. One of her grandchildren had asthma-related problems. His condition got serious. She could not rush him to Peshawar. She sent for men who were relatives, all of them worked outside Bajaur. It took a male relative two days to come and the child died before his arrival. She said she will never forget that the Taliban imposed restrictions on her mobility led to the death of the child. She said the child died in her hands and she could do nothing for him.”

Stories like these are commonly heard from those who had the misfortune of living under Taliban hegemony. Need I ask what is the difference between the Taliban imposed restriction on movements on women and the government imposed restriction on IDPs.

American internment of over 120,000 Japanese Americans during the World War II remains shameful blot on American history. Having created a similar blot on our history by our treatment of Bengalis in East Pakistan we are creating one of our own if we don’t mend our ways immediately. Swat military operation is not the World War, we are not living in 1940s, and Swatis are not in a foreign country, it is there homeland - no political party or goverment can take it away.

US is after Pakistani Shalwar

Two media headlines reminded me of the picture that I saw in the aftermath of Taliban terrorist attack on the Police Training Academy in Lahore. This was the image of an alleged terrorist arrested by security forces during the operation. Immediately after overpowering the suspect the security agents removed his Shalwar [traditional trousers worn in South Asia] so that the accused is then more worried about saving his dignity and trying to cover up rather then attempt an escape or continue to resist or fight.

The two headlines that reminded me of this picture were:

• US bill links military aid for Pakistan to provision of direct access to US investigators to Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan
• Pakistan agrees to sell part of its Kabul estate to UK
  

Looking into the details of these news stories both stand out as examples of diplomatic bullying at its worse and can only be successful when you have a nation in headlock with its Shalwar pulled down.

US has been trying to push for access to Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistan's nuclear programme for quite sometime on the pretext that they would like to find out more about the network that was responsible for nuclear proliferation in the 1990s. Dr.Khan has been under house arrest for the last few years under American pressure. Had the rulers in Pakistan not been aware of the level of high esteem ordinary Pakistani people hold for Dr. Khan they might have relented a long time ago - even the all powerful dictator General Musharraf couldn't contemplate this. Now the American administration is attempting again, this time by linking the release of military and economic aid, which is primarily to fund the war against Taliban and Al Qaeda, to a financially weak political government.

On a smaller scale, for sometime now the UK foreign office has been bullying Pakistan foreign office into agreeing to selling to UK a prime Kabul property [which used to be Pakistan Embassy before an Afghan government orchestrated attack rendered it insecure] owned by Pakistan. When facing resistance from Pakistan the British High Commission had the cheek to react by saying that London would be ‘highly disappointed’. Apparently the British have now succeeded into getting their hands on this property.

Almost a century ago the national poet of Pakistan Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal said in one of his poems "hay jurm e zaeefi ki saza marg e mafajat" literally meaning the penalty for the offence of weakness is unexpected undignified death. The message that sounds so pertinent now for Pakistan as a nation. Being a nuclear power and having one of the most well trained professional armies in the world it is not weak militarily perhaps, but definitely weak morally. with foreign and national policies with no roots among its people or democratic institutions, corruption at levels in the government and society and lack of good governance has brought the country to such a level of moral bankruptcy that international bullies are now able to corner us into agreeing to demands that no self respecting nation would ever agree to. I don't blame US, UK or for that matter India for trying to get what they consider to be best in their national political and diplomatic interest. I hold Pakistani leadership of last sixty years for bringing us to these cross roads. We have ourselves allowed US, UK and India to pull our Shalwar down.

Casualties of war against Taliban: time to help the Internally Displaced Persons in Pakistan - refugees in their own homeland

Major military operation being carried out against Taliban insurgents in Swat region of Pakistan has resulted in mass displacement of population who are fleeing for their lives. Their numbers according to various sources have now touched the figure of 1.56 million. Over one million people, currently stranded in Madayan, Behrain and Kalam valleys are seeking to flee the area, but they cannot do so due to continued curfew imposed by the army and road blockades and minefields laid by the militants.

They are being called Internally displaced persons (IDPs) - people who have been forced to flee their homes but who, unlike refugees, remain within their country's borders. But I believe that they are refugees in their own country confined into ill resourced camps.

I am calling them refugees because while only a negligibly small percent of these IDPs have been able to move in with friends and families in other parts of the country, a majority of them have been confined to camps and not allowed freedom of movement in their own homeland due to fears by the authorities that Taliban might try to get out of the region or infiltrate into populous areas and cause security situations.

OneWorld has used the headline "IDPs living like 'cattle' in Pakistan camps" to describe the plight of these refugees which is true to a great extent. Their misery is compounded by the fact that the government of Pakistan which is already on the brink of financial collapse is unable to support them on its own. It is time for those who care to roll their sleeves up and join in to help.

While Pakistan Army is trying to rid the world of Taliban menace it is our collective responsibility to join in helping these people who are having to pay the price. How can you join! If you can contribute financially, organisations doing remarkable work in Pakistan and in those I would put my personal trust in include:

• Edhi Foundation Pakistan
  
• UNHCR
  
• OXFAM
  

Clicking on the links above will take you directly to pages where you could make a donation or find contact details of centres nearest to you.

And finally there is a facebook group of caring People. Minimum you can do is raise awareness. Join in and let others who might like to contribute know.

Police run escort business in Pakistan - now that's diversification

It is not a laughing matter but I couldn't help laughing (laugh of desperation) reading reports coming from Lahore, Pakistan. Some administrative communication error lead couple of unsuspecting plain clothes female police officers to a house full of expecting customers. They were waiting for a pair of police prostitutes to arrive whom they had booked through a "madam" - a full time police officer who moonlights as head of a prostitution ring among the active police force.

Over the years it has been common knowledge that some Pakistani police officers have provided protection to brothels in return for share in their revenue and favours in kind. Their corruption, incompetence as professionals and moral degradation has always been a cause for concern but this is a new low for a police force that still runs on the policing practices established during the colonial era.

The photo in this blog post is how I have seen the police serving general public - in this case a political activist during a street protest. Police in Pakistan has been a ruthless tool of the state in all things unconstitutional and completely out of sync with public sentiments and opinions. Senseless subservience to political masters has always been considered to get such police officers lucrative (full of opportunity for making money through corruption) postings. I remember from my university days that police contingent on "security duty" outside the educational institutions were considered to be on punishment postings - you can't make much money from income-less students, can you! I believe the situation has not changed much since. Only difference is that majority of police are on a punishment posting now - that is of protecting the ruling political and administrative elite and their families - not much money to made there as well but abundant threat to life.

Back in 1947 father of Pakistani nation Muhammad Ali Jinnah set the agenda by stating that " first duty of a government is to maintain law and order so that the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects are fully protected by the state." Over the last sixty years and with every passing day this is one thing that the government in Pakistan and its institutions especially the police department have singularly failed to deliver. Resorting to running brothels of its own with some officers practising prostitution - if dead could have heart attacks Jinnah would be having one in his grave now.