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Afghan dilemma

TWO years have lapsed since the Afghan Taliban took Kabul, and the Western-backed
government melted away, bringing to a close a lengthy and expensive nation-building
experiment. However, while the Taliban may be celebrating the occasion, the Afghan
people have little to cheer about.

While it is true that the relentless violence Afghanistan has been witnessing since the Soviet invasion
and later the American invasion has come down considerably, the Taliban continue to enforce their
ultraconservative version of religious rule upon the populace, while international isolation and a
long-running drought have inflicted crushing poverty on the Afghan people. Women in particular
have seen their limited freedoms snatched by the hard-line rulers of Kabul, especially the right to get
an education and participate in society.

The sooner the Taliban address these concerns, the better; yet the hard-line leadership in Kandahar
appears to have a dominating veto on such matters over politicians and pragmatists in Kabul. The
clerics in Kandahar seem intent on dragging Afghanistan back to the Middle Ages. Sadly, their
intransigence is having a devastating effect on the Afghan people.

The Red Cross says 28.8m Afghans are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, while the UN has
observed that 15.3m people in the country face acute food insecurity. The Taliban, therefore, need to
reconsider their obstinate stance so that help can easily reach their devastated countrymen.

If Kabul’s rulers were to improve the human rights situation — especially for women — and assure
the comity of nations that their soil will not be used to host terrorists, global recognition could be
forthcoming. However, as long as both these expectations remain unmet, few in the world will be
willing to advocate for engaging the Taliban.

Pakistan, for example, has long called upon the world community to talk to the Taliban, yet its
concerns about the TTP remain unaddressed. But regardless of political developments, the world
cannot leave millions of Afghans to face starvation and death.

Support must continue to the Afghan people to help them survive tough times. In this regard, billions
of dollars belonging to the Afghan central bank — being blocked by the US — must be released so that
food, medicine and other essential needs of the Afghan population can be met. Afghanistan’s people

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deserve a chance at rebuilding their country, not more isolation imposed on them due to the short-
sighted policies of their rulers.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2023

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Frank assessment

PEOPLE of conscience the world over have long criticised the atrocious crimes the
Israeli state all too frequently unleashes on the Palestinian people. Yet when a voice
from within the Israeli establishment finds the courage to speak the truth, the
righteousness of the Palestinian cause — and the extent of the Arabs’ suffering —
become self-evident. Former Israeli general and spymaster Amiram Levin has likened
his country’s actions in the West Bank to apartheid, as well as the crimes of Nazi
Germany. Speaking to local radio, the senior ex-military man, referring to the occupied
West Bank, said there was “total apartheid” in the area, while adding that the
“processes” were reminiscent of the Nazis, and resembled war crimes.

Of course, Israeli brutality is not limited to the West Bank, and in fact stretches back over seven
decades to the establishment of the Zionist state in Mandatory Palestine. The people of Gaza, for
example, will tell you that they face the wrath of Tel Aviv every few years, reducing large parts of their
miserable coastal enclave to rubble. Moreover, while the Israeli military machine, as well as racist
militant settlers, have few qualms about murdering Palestinians, there is a long history behind this
violence. For example, during the Nakba, thousands of Palestinians were killed and hundreds of
thousands uprooted from their ancestral land by Zionist gangs. The massacre at the Arab village of
Deir Yassin, and many others like it, is a textbook case of ethnic cleansing. When such violence lies at
the root of the creation of Israel, is it any surprise that the two-state solution has been buried? Simply
put, extremists within Israel insist on denying the Palestinians their humanity. But hopefully brave
assertions such as that of the former general will help many within Israel realise the crimes that have
been committed in their name, as well as exposing the myth that Israel is the Middle East’s sole
democracy.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2023

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Frenzy of hate

THE paroxysm of violence in Faisalabad’s Jaranwala area on Wednesday chillingly

demonstrated to the Christian community, indeed to adherents of all minority faiths in
the country, that they are defenceless against the rage of the mob. That over 600 people
were booked on terrorism charges for their role in the rioting is a belated and anaemic
demonstration of the ‘writ of the state’. From all accounts, the state was nowhere to be
found when local mosques picked up on blasphemy allegations against two Christian
brothers living in the area and proceeded to incite the public. While the rioters
ransacked and torched five churches, and attacked several houses belonging to
Christians, the local police were silent bystanders. According to the victims, the
rampaging mob met no resistance from the cops, forcing many residents to flee their
homes in terror. The Punjab government had to call in the Rangers to quell the
violence, and some 3,000 police personnel were later deployed from various units.

That no one from the targeted community lost their life is the only note of comfort in this shameful
episode. With each such incident, there is an incremental loss of faith in the ability, and indeed the
will, of the state to protect the minorities of this country. Consider that the ultra-right elements that
relayed a hate-filled narrative on loudspeakers to whip up public sentiment against the Christians in
Jaranwala later accompanied the police to help ‘calm’ the situation, and also claimed they were
engaged in protecting the community. This is yet another instance of the state indulging regressive
pressure groups even when they openly intimidate people. For one, there can be no more sinister way
of demonstrating to the victims that they exist on the sufferance of the majority. Secondly, it is also
against the law in Punjab to use a sound system to voice “any sectarian or other utterances of
controversial nature likely to lead to public disorder”, and yet such incitement to communal violence
continues to occur. The political leadership has spoken out strongly against Wednesday’s
disturbances and the provincial caretaker government vowed to ‘restore’ all damaged churches and
homes. Yesterday, the Islamabad police formed a Minority Protection Unit with 70 personnel to
protect minority places of worship and communities. While this is a welcome move, it is but a band-
aid on a very deep-seated malaise.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2023

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Injustice kills hope

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives, and
economics at Lums.

WE have seen some tough times in Pakistan. Numerous martial laws, two wars, the
trauma of the war in East Pakistan, severe tensions with India, repeated post-nuclear
tests sanctions, the terror campaigns of various groups, and economic crises that seem
to keep getting worse provide a disturbing yet incomplete list.

But, and this might just be the effect of being in the moment, I do not think that I have ever seen and
felt people to be as despondent as they are right now. Economic conditions are tough but we have
seen tougher times before. Dollars are expensive and hard to get but the State Bank has not taken

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over dollar accounts as it did in the past. We still do not have rationing of food and clothing as we had
up to the 1970s. Imports have been restricted but not as much as in the past. So, where is the
despondency coming from?

People seem to have lost hope in the future of the country and it is largely the last couple of years that
have been responsible for this loss of hope. Many people, especially in the middle class and amongst
the younger people, had a lot of hopes pinned on Imran Khan and his anticipated performance. Some
got disillusioned by the poor performance of the government and the rest lost hope when his
government lost the establishment’s support and was eventually done away with. The PDM’s poor
performance has also been a factor but a more important one seems to have been the coalition’s
active support for the ‘hybrid’ system. The way that PDM supported anti-people and anti-freedom
legislation, through parliament, will be talked about for some time to come.

The way the establishment has taken back power has made many lose hope about the future of the
country. Contracting space for freedom of speech, lack of tolerance, religious repression, suppression
of freedom of press, abduction of journalists, making people disappear, abducting people for a few
hours to a few days as a way of putting pressure on them, disrupting jobs and businesses of
opposition members, and the use of the law to register many cases against a person so that he/she
gets entangled in just dealing with courts and prison are but some examples.

From ‘zindabad’ to ‘zinda bhaag’ — what is the root of this

despondency?

The way the PTI has been put under pressure also shows this high-handedness and injustice. People
were forced to leave the party. They were arrested and kept in jail till they held a press conference to
denounce their party affiliation. They were then let out. Family members were arrested, threatened or
harassed to make people leave. Nothing erodes hope like injustice!

A friend’s cook was picked up as his number was identified as a result of geo-fencing. But the
gentleman lives in the area, so how could his number not have come up? He stayed in jail for 45 days
or so before being bailed out. The family had to spend a fair bit in engaging a lawyer and paying off
the police station and jail staff to ensure access to some basic comforts for the gentleman and he still

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has to fight a case. The gentleman was a PML-N voter/supporter. Now he and his family are livid and
want nothing to do with Pakistani politics.

Another gentleman, a doctor, was picked up because he was a relative of someone the police wanted
to put pressure on. He had his connections so he stayed in the thana for only two days. But he is now
planning to move abroad along with his family. He has absolutely no trust left in any local institution.

We have recently heard about the 10-year-old who was kept in the thana for 22 hours or so. His
‘crime’ was that he was walking around with a PTI flag. How many videos have we seen of police
harassing or beating PTI flag carriers on the streets?

We have also heard about the 13-/14-year-old boy who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the
May 9 incident. He was allegedly framed. But this child stayed in jail for more than a month. His
sisters have also been, again allegedly, harassed by the police. His father died after their home was
raided by the police to rearrest the child after he had just returned on bail. The police are denying any
wrongdoing, of course. But, unless there is a credible inquiry, what should we believe? Do we not
know our police? Nothing erodes hope like injustice!

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can
do that.” Remember this quote from Martin Luther King Jr as we move forward. These are dark times
and if it is thought that repression will lighten the darkness, it is not going to happen. If only the
establishment would understand.

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives,
and an associate professor of economics at Lums.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2023

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Understanding tribal conflict

The writer is a lawyer.

LAST week, the Women Action Forum (WAF) held an event in Karachi on the impact of
tribal conflict in Sindh. While Sindhi media regularly reports incidents of violence, the
mainstream press covers murders of prominent persons from time to time. The
murder of IBA professor Dr Ajmal Sawand in April 2023 in Kandhkot was widely
reported. According to the police, the murder was perpetrated by members of the
Sundrani clan, who had long-standing enmity with the Sawand tribe purportedly over a
matter of ‘honour’.

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Speakers at the WAF event talked about how women are often directly targeted in these conflicts.
They are kidnapped or even killed. Indirectly, women and children are gravely impacted when all
men in their family, often bread earners, become vulnerable to violence. Criminal practices such as
bride-swapping persist to resolve feuds between clans.

To tackle tribal violence, we must first understand it. Journalist Riaz Sohail, speaking at the WAF
event, shared insights from the field that complicate the conventional understanding of the nature of
tribal violence.

Clans in Sindh that identify themselves today as tribes are not necessarily historical groups. Many of
them are modern associations and should be likened to criminal gangs. Self-appointed ‘sardars’ or
tribal chiefs claim to lead these groups, but these sardars are not necessarily persons with any
generational claim to the title. In this sense, many of the so-called tribes in Sindh today may not be
very different from criminal gangs in urban areas or from the Italian mafia families popularised in
many Hollywood films. In Sindh, it often suits such clans to adopt the label of ‘tribe’ as this gives
them greater power in the eyes of the media and public, and allows them to wield more influence with
the state.

Far from challenging the ‘writ’ of the Pakistani state, tribalism

serves to entrench it even further.

The result of such characterisation is often mass criminalisation. FIRs in crimes that are deemed
tribal will sometimes name dozens of men as accused persons simply because of their perceived tribal
affiliation, even though many of them have nothing to do with the crime. This leads to the arrest of
innocent men who spend many months in pre-trial or under-trial detention.

Other speakers at the event including Anis Haroon and Anita Pinjani discussed the causes of tribal
conflict. Tribes and their sardars gain strength with the breakdown of state institutions that are
meant to prevent and punish crimes. The failure of the judiciary to resolve civil disputes and protect
property rights means that people often turn to jirgas for justice, further entrenching the tribal
system. The lack of meaningful education and employment opportunities also makes people cling to
tribal sardars.

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While tribal sardars are non-state actors filling in the gap left by a weak state, the relationship
between the tribe and state actors is not necessarily antagonistic. To the contrary, many tribal leaders
develop strong relationships with government officers, including law enforcement. Many even hold
elected offices and become part of the government.

In fact, tribalism, far from challenging the ‘writ’ of the Pakistani state as it exists, serves to entrench it
even further. It becomes far easier for an extractive state to control resources and subjugate a
population that is divided and embroiled in internal conflicts. The people of Sindh divide so that the
military, industrial and landed elite continue to rule.

It is by no means a recent trend for the state to use tribalism to strengthen itself. British colonisers
recognised early on in their rule that a population can be subjugated more effectively through tribes
rather than the rule of law. The (former) Federally Administered Tribal Areas are a grim example of
this, where colonisers institutionalised tribal authority, legitimised jirga justice, denied due process to
inhabitants and appointed political agents through which they asserted their extractive rule. Far from
being lawless, the tribal areas were ruled by a law of the most draconian kind.

Speakers at the WAF event talked about how to overcome tribal conflict. Shehnaz Wazir Ali and Riaz
Shaikh of Szabist emphasised the role of education in empowering the people of Sindh to end
tribalism. They noted, however, that the education offered today is censored and distorted to fit
political and cultural narratives, and so does not have a liberating potential.

We can draw lessons from movements and leaders in our history who have addressed tribalism
through struggles for social reform. Unfortunately, these examples have been purged from the history
books taught in our schools and colleges. The Khudai Khidmatgar Movement from the early 20th
century led by Abdul Ghaffar Khan and other enlightened Pakhtuns aimed to eliminate tribalism
through progressive education that instils values of equality among social groups and genders. Abdul
Ghaffar Khan recognised that tribalism was a tool of the powerful to keep the weak ignorant and
promote petty interests of a local elite that enslaved itself to colonial masters.

The Khudai Khidmatgar Movement started as a social reform struggle and not as a freedom or a
secessionist movement. The colonisers were nonetheless gravely threatened by it because tribal
conflict was a source of their power; thus began brutal reprisals against a peaceful non-violent
movement.

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Movements that work towards unity, social justice and gender equality can ultimately end tribal
conflict. But such movements will face resistance from those who promote the worst kind of
lawlessness in the name of security and national interest.

The writer is a lawyer.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2023

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Public service

The writer is an educationist with an interest in religion.

THERE is a famous saying attributed to the second rightly guided Caliph Hazrat Umar
which says that if a dog dies hungry on the banks of the Euphrates, Umar would be
responsible for dereliction of duty.

The above saying indicates the sense of responsibility of the head of state. Indeed, the safety, security
and protection of all citizens is the prime responsibility of the state. Besides, the state is also
supposed to do everything possible for the well-being of citizens living under its protection. This is
done with the help of state employees (public servants). The state can be effective if public servants,
also known as the bureaucracy, perform to the best of their ability.

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Unfortunately, the historical record of Muslim lands presents a very gloomy picture in this
connection. With the exception of a few, the majority of public servants, including the rulers, have
remained callous and insensitive to their responsibilities towards the people. For example, Muslims
ruled the Indian subcontinent for nearly 1,000 years. They built many palaces and fortresses all over
their jurisdiction and patronised art and culture but mostly ignored their primary responsibility —
public welfare. They spent lavishly on their self-aggrandizement and rarely paid attention to public
welfare.

An example of such self-aggrandizement pertains to Mughal Emperor Mohammad Shah Rangeela

who ruled for about 29 years from 1719 to 1748. During his reign, the Iranian commander Nader
Shah invaded India but the emperor seemed least concerned about public security. His advisers kept
him updated but he did not bat an eyelid while the Iranian army was fast approaching. As the
anecdote goes, he used to say ‘hanooz Dilli dur ast’ (Delhi is still far away.) His army and bureaucracy
were in complete disarray. As a result, Nader Shah’s invasion was followed by the looting and plunder
of Delhi. Nader Shah took away immense riches, including the Koh-i-Noor and the Peacock Throne.

The job of public servants is a sacred trust.

The public servants who are employed by the state to run day-to-day affairs of government carry
heavy responsibilities. Their job is a sacred trust, which does not allow them to be careless. Being
custodians of the state, they are socially, morally and religiously duty-bound to ensure public safety
and welfare. Sometimes, they have to work under acute pressure in a charged and polarised political
environment but have to maintain professional discipline, integrity, sincerity and independence while
discharging their official duties.

Pakistan is an Islamic republic and serving Pakistan is akin to fulfilling the Divine trust (amanat).
Allah says “O’ you who believe! Betray not Allah and His Messenger, nor betray knowingly your trusts
(8:27)”. In Islam, every individual is answerable to Allah, therefore public servants need to keep this
admonition in mind.

Pakistan has inherited the erstwhile British system of civil service. Though periodic changes have
been made in the system, it needs total restructuring to meet the demands of public service. In 2006,
the government constituted a National Commission on Government Reforms, tasked with producing

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an analysis and recommendations on how the government, its institutions and infrastructure could
become more effective to meet the social, economic and political challenges that Pakistan faces. The
report, produced after lengthy deliberations, is comprehensive and covers many aspects such as the
restructuring of government at the federal and provincial levels, strengthening of district
governments, re­­organisation of civil services, revamping of human resource management policies
and practices, etc.

The government should ensure merit in recruitment, training, postings, promotions and transfers.
Over the last few decades, new knowledge regarding office automation, e-filing and other best
practices has come to light and new ways of service delivery have been introduced. In order to serve
the people better, public servants have to update their knowledge, evaluate their work and refresh
their zeal and commitment periodically to improve governance and service delivery.

Many believe that the bureaucracy in Pakistan is bloated, corrupt and inefficient. These inadequacies
need to be addressed. Bureaucrats should be equipped with tools to resist temptation in an
environment where political loyalty is privileged over competence. They are expected to do the right
thing — even when it’s not easy. They should uphold the highest professional and ethical standards
and understand the high expectations the public has from them.

The writer is an educationist with an interest in religion.

valianiamin@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2023

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Oh Jaranwala

The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

“Agar ye khita mazhab ke naam par taqseem hua to nafrat ki iss aag ko bhujate
bhujate aanay wali naslon ki kamar toot jaegi.” (If this land is divided in the name of
faith, a tidal wave of hate so enormous will erupt that generations will be engulfed by
it.) — Bhagat Singh

WHAT can one say that hasn’t already been said? Punjabi Christians have suffered so many horrors
in the land of the pure that one has lost count. Mere condemnations of Wednesday’s mob violence in
Jaranwala are insufficient, the ones issued by officialdom past and present downright pathetic. More
galling is the belated urgency with which the state apparatus apprehended hundreds of ‘culprits’ and

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promised to provide ‘security’ to those still at risk. Everyone who has seen the visuals can testify that
law enforcement stood idle and watched as the violence played out.

It could have happened anywhere and it would be no less disturbing. But for this to happen in
Jaranwala is cruelly ironic. This is the same Jaranwala that was a hub of Indian nationalism in the
early 20th century, the same Jaranwala that birthed Bhagat Singh. No reading of the subcontinent’s
modern history — and that of British colonialism in particular — is complete without mentioning the
crucial role played by the Sikh peasantry in western Punjab’s canal colonies. It was the Sikh peasantry
that radicalised an entire generation of Punjabis in particular, and Indians more generally. They
mobilised at home and in the diaspora, birthing organisations like the Ghadar Party and winning
international support for the Indian freedom movement.

One can be critical of the methods of figures like Bhagat Singh, and the latter’s espousal of
revolutionary violence especially so. But where Jinnah, Iqbal, Gandhi and Nehru are given pride of
place in nationalist histories, Bhagat Singh, Subhas Chandra Bose and many others deserve more
than a footnote.

The spread of hateful, right-wing politics will ultimately engulf

us all.

Jaranwala is a tragedy first and foremost for the many Christian women, children and men who lived
through the terror of hateful lynch mobs attacking their places of worship; many saved themselves by
hiding in bushes and farmlands. But seen through a historical lens, the tragedy has been borne out by
hundreds of millions across the subcontinent for 76 years.

Jaranwala was home to Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, etc, for decades. Even after partition and
the outflux of Sikh and Hindu populations, Jaranwala remained a hub of leftist peasant organisers,
boasting a largely secular societal consciousness. Church burnings would have been unthinkable.

We know what the Zia era represented and how it sowed the seeds of hate that have wreaked havoc in
Pakistan’s diverse ethnic-national heartlands. But 40 years is a long time, and the question is: when
will we hold to account master strategists that continue to patronise religious militant groups like the
TTP, TLP and many more?

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The state’s refusal to budge from an insular official narrative equating nationhood with religion is the
root cause of the misery faced by Christians and many more communities cast outside the pale of
Sunni Islam. But the rot does not stop here. Narendra Modi has been in power for almost a decade
and has eroded the relatively secular foundations of the Indian polity in ways that seemed
unimaginable a generation ago. The scenes witnessed in Jaranwala are now an almost everyday
occurrence in India, particularly although not exclusively against Muslims.

I am not trying to undertake an exercise in false equivalence. I wish only to note that the spread of
hateful, right-wing politics will ultimately swallow us all up until and unless our youthful populations
are mobilised around political principles that motivated historical figures like Bhagat Singh.

This is the crux of the matter. The median age of Pakistan’s 240 million people is 23. While the
instigators of incidents like Jaranwala — both the clerics who incite and lead the mob and the
spymasters who sit in smoky rooms designing the next hate project — are often much older, the foot
soldiers are all youth. In a society which offers very little hope for a dignified and prosperous life, it is
working class and lumpen young people who are most easily drawn towards hate.

It is also worth bearing in mind that most of the Christians affected by the violence in Jaranwala hail
from working-class backgrounds, many of them sanitary workers and other menial-wage labourers.
In our cities, a majority of Christians live in katchi abadis. To genuinely stand with Punjabi Christians
is to engage with class politics. This is what individuals like Bhagat Sindh would have done and it is
only in finding such common ground that a genuinely transformative vision can gain mass roots and
defeat the politics of hate.

The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2023

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