Dawn 29th December:

Bhitshah Meeting

THE MQM’s public meeting at Bhitshah on Saturday was notable for its symbolism.
Though the party convened the exercise ostensibly to get its supporters’ views on
staying with the government, it was also a foray into new territory. While party chief
Altaf Hussain railed — via telephone from London — against the usual suspects,
there were also positive messages calling for the integration of the Urdu- and
Sindhispeaking communities of the province. It is an obvious attempt by the
Muttahida to shake off its image as an ‘ethnic’, urban-based party as Shah Latif’s
shrine is a potent symbol of Sindhi culture and nationalism. Although similar
exercises have been carried out in Punjab in the recent past, the latest move is far
more significant considering the history of ethnic violence in Sindh in the late 1980s
and 1990s. The event was well-attended and included a number of notable figures
from the Sindhi nationalist movement, though some nationalists have dismissed the
meeting as a rent-a-crowd affair.

Yet where the overtures towards ethnic harmony are welcome, the business about
leaving the government is more complicated. The MQM has carried out this sort of
exercise before, gauging the mood of the street by staging dramatic rallies while it
has parted ways with several coalition governments in the past. The Bhitshah rally,
as well as the uncharitable remarks made by the Sindh home minister against the
MQM recently, will no doubt take the conflict with the PPP to a new level. If the
Muttahida does leave the coalition, the federal government may survive if, for
example, the PML-Q is cajoled into sitting on the treasury benches. But in Sindh,
where the MQM has a substantial number of seats in the assembly, if the party does
exit the coalition the thus far ‘friendly’ opposition may get decidedly unfriendly. All
parties who want peace in Sindh need to be mindful of adding to the prevalent
tension. The MQM-PPP union in Sindh — though imperfect — is a workable one, with
perhaps the only real irritant between the two being differences over the RGST.
Hence both sides need to avoid brinkmanship and focus on better governance.

Preservation Of Wetlands:

KEY to economic and human development is the preservation of ecological

resources. Sadly, Pakistan often fails on this count; many environmentally important
sites continue to suffer damage across the country. In many cases, the state fails to
adequately protect sites or properly apply the relevant laws, while citizens are
irresponsible about garbage disposal and do nothing to make their environment a
priority. The UNDP country chief for Pakistan, Toshihiro Tanaka, indicated such
attitudes when he said on Saturday that it was time for civil society to take up the
challenge of ecological losses. Speaking at the inauguration of the Narreri lagoon, a
Ramsar site near Thatta that has been rehabilitated by the UN agency, he said that
the revival of the country’s depleting wetlands and green meadows needs
immediate attention. Wetlands are significant as flora and fauna habitats and as
sources of sweet water. Furthermore, they also provide substantial eco nomic
benefits to human communities by constituting a source of food, livestock grazing
grounds, fuel-wood, irrigation etc. Indeed, the citizenry as a whole is a stakeholder.

The framework under which initiatives can be taken is already available. The
Convention of Wetlands of International Importance, commonly referred to as the
Ramsar Convention after the Iranian city where it was adopted in 1971, came into
force in Pakistan in 1976. Currently, 19 sites, with a surface area of over three
million acres, in the country are designated as Wetlands of International
Importance. As Mr Tanaka pointed out, little attention has been paid to improving
and preserving these sweet-water sources, particularly in Sindh. It is time this
deficiency was addressed, and the state and citizenry started taking an active
interest in the preservation of their ecological treasures. It should not be only the
UN that is rehabilitating such sites. Pakistanis should do so too.

Victim Of Terror:

IN yesterday’s issue, Dawn published a number of stories giving detailed accounts

of the courageous, though agonised, lives of some of the survivors of terrorist acts
across Pakistan. Those who live through a devastating bomb blast suffer in many
ways. It is not the families of the dead alone who are condemned to a life of misery
and dehumanising poverty; a survivor too may be crippled for life, unable to earn a
living or perhaps be affected psychologically by the long-term effects of trauma. As
our team of reporters informs us, a boy from the highlands is eking out a living by
selling boiled eggs; a photographer in a metropolis has been crippled; and the
widow of a rickshaw driver has been forced to pull out five of her children from
school. The overall picture is frightening. In 2010, more than 1,500 Pakistanis were
killed in terror attacks. If one assumes a minimum of 10 injured and 10 dependents
for every terrorist act, the number of injured and dependents would be above
30,000. Given the fact that terrorists have been shedding innocent blood since
2007, the number of those in dire need of aid and rehabilitation must torment the
nation. This also underscores the fact that the war on terror is Pakistan’s war,
because no country has suffered more civilian and military casualties than Pakistan.
The main victim is the common man.

Against this harsh reality one is appalled to note the absence of a comprehensive
national plan for the welfare of blast victims. To mitigate the suffering of survivors
and dependents, welfare plans must be multifaceted and not confined to financial
compensation. They must take care of the survivors’ monetary needs, the education
of children in affected families, long-term healthcare and housing in cases where
explosions have destroyed homes. The current mode of payment of compensation
is arbitrary, for the federal and provincial governments, including the police, do not
have a standard rate and welfare system like the armed forces.
On Saturday, President Zardari repeated that Pakistan was at war. In a speech
launching the Benazir Apna Ghar scheme for PIA employees, the president said the
government was determined to make Pakistan “secure for ourselves and future
generations”. While such sentiments may reflect the need to face the terrorist
onslaught with courage, a comprehensive plan for the welfare of terror victims will
send out a message that the resolve to eliminate terrorism is not empty rhetoric
and that the government is there to protect all citizens from the terrorists and to
help those who have been traumatised by their acts.

ET 29th December:

Taliban In Bajaur:

After news that the Pakistan army had the Taliban on the run from South
Waziristan, Orakzai and Mohmand agencies in the Federally Administered Tribal
Areas (Fata), the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has struck a heavy blow in Bajaur,
killing 47 innocent citizens collecting food items from a World Food Programme
distribution point in Khar, the main bazaar in Bajaur Agency.

The TTP and its escaping warriors were hit hard by drones in Tirah in Khyber Agency
recently and the speculation was that this represented part of an important reversal
inflicted by the army on the terrorists. This could still be true, judging by the
lethality of the retaliatory attack on Sunday, which was carried out by a girl suicide
bomber. The TTP had remained quiet during the first ten days of Muharram and
may have been licking its wounds till now.

The practice of inducting girls as suicide bombers was uncovered in February this
year when a girl named Meena from Malakand was interviewed by the BBC as an
escapee from an underground ‘factory’ where her father and brother were earning
good money training and transporting suicide bombers from South Punjab to the
Taliban for attacks inside Afghanistan. Her sister had met her death near Kabul as a
suicide bomber but she had somehow overcome the effect of drugs to escape from
the den where she was being ‘prepared’ as a ‘martyr’ to earn big money for her
family.

Spokesman of TTP, Azam Tariq — named after the late leader of the Sipah-i-Sahaba
— says his organisation carried out the attack in Bajaur to prevent the Salarzai tribe
from fielding an anti-TTP militia with the help of the government. This makes us
aware of the local reaction against the TTP and its Arab friends across the Durand
Line in the Afghan province of Kunar. Bajaur is the smallest tribal agency in terms of
area and largest in terms of population and qualifies to be integrated with the rest
of Pakistan because of the high level of consciousness of its people. It has 70
percent television coverage which is comparable to that in Kurram Agency, which
too qualifies for integration before other agencies.
The population, dependent on remittances from within Pakistan and the Gulf, is not
easily persuaded to the cause of the Taliban war, but the neighbourhood of Kunar
has produced a serious dent in the resolve of the local tribes — mostly of Uthmanzai
origin — to resist the TTP. Aiman alZawahiri, the ideological boss of al Qaeda, lived
here comfortably and married into a local pro-Taliban tribe, the Tarkani. TTP also
got its most ferocious commander from the Tarkanis, Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, who
boasts of having collected the most number of suicide bombers after Hussain
Mehsud of Orakzai. The army went into Bajaur in 2008 with all guns blazing but he
survived the onslaught. Today, Maulvi Faqir commands around 6,000 fighters,
including about 500 Afghans and 100 other foreign fighters, mostly Arabs and
Chechens. Uzbek fighters — commanded by Qari Ziaur Rehman, who also trains
other foreign fighters — are present in the Charmang area of Bajaur’s Nawagai
tehsil.

Among the agencies, Bajaur is most inclined to resist the TTP and its patron al
Qaeda, but the strength of the likes of Maulvi Faqir is more than they can fight.
Thinking that Bajaur was strategically important — it abuts on Swat-Malakand and
can easily reverse the military’s victory in Swat — the army has tried to clean it up.
However, the two big sections, Salarzai and Tarkanis, are at loggerheads, and this
has caused the TTP and al Qaeda to kill a large number of local elders to ‘persuade’
the population in their favour. The battle in Bajaur continues to fluctuate. The army
is in control but the TTP warriors return to the cleared areas at night. There is a
great misunderstanding in Pakistan that the Taliban are of two kinds, and that al
Qaeda stands apart from them. Maulvi Faqir, the ruler of Bajaur has proclaimed
allegiance to both the Taliban of Mullah Umar and Osama bin Laden and will send
TTP warriors into Afghanistan to fight the Americans while the same Taliban kill
innocent Pakistanis in our cities.

Coalition Concerns:

At the PPP Central Executive Committee meeting in Naudero, President Asif Ali
Zardari has made it clear how much significance he attaches to the need to retain
allies. In the wake of the JUI-F’s angry exit from the coalition and the MQM’s threat
to follow suit, the President has imposed a gag order on PPP legislators, urging them
not to make provocative statements. The move comes as both parties consider their
future ties with the PPP. In some ways, at least the order makes sense. Running a
coalition government is always a task that involves good sense and tact and the
attack launched on the MQM recently by the Sindh home minister, Zulfiqar Ali Mirza,
triggering the latest crisis, was obviously unwise. Some degree of restraint is
definitely required because nothing is achieved when elected representatives wash
their dirty linen in public.

Perhaps the president’s warning can persuade PPP members to more carefully
consider what they are saying and what impact it could have. It is also sensible to
work out internal differences through calm dialogue, rather than public airing them.
This indeed needs to be made clear to all lawmakers.

But at the same time, a balance needs to be found between the requirements of
coalition government and the question of offering people the kind of government
they voted for. Too many compromises make the matter of sticking to principal
rather hard, and this disillusions people. The key purpose of government is to offer
leadership to people, to solve their problems and set a direction for the future. Too
great a focus on pleasing coalition partners can only detract from this. In view of
some of the comments we have heard from government members and the ugly
squabble between ministers which led to the dismissal from the cabinet of the JUI-
F’s Azam Swati, a little discipline would do no harm. Seeing more deeds and fewer
words would do us all a great deal of good. The president’s attempts to control
damage therefore seem wise under the prevailing circumstances. We need
somehow to create greater political stability in order to move forward. Preventing
lawmakers from expressing controversial opinions without obtaining approval from
the party high command could help achieve this and lay the ground for more
successful governance in the future.