'GENETIC ENGINEERING' IN EAST PAKISTAN(*)

According to a new book by Oxford University Press, Pakistan’s name has been  blackened by just one man: General AAK ‘Tiger’ Niazi.  He is believed to have pronounced the words that even Genghis Khan would have hesitated to use: that he would let loose his soldiers on the women of East Pakistan till the lineage/ethnicity of the Bengali race was changed.

This account has come from a true son of Pakistan, late Major-General (retd) Khadim Hussain Raja in his recently published book A Stranger in My Own Country: East Pakistan, 1969-1971 (OUP, 2012). The book is posthumously published probably because it was a hot potato in the times it was actually written. He was General Officer Commanding 14^th  Division in East Pakistan.

"Gul Hassan openly criticized Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s sons who, according to him, were letting their father down by amassing wealth by unfair means. Gul Hassan blurted out that 'I have told the old cock that this time we will impose Martial Law and take control ourselves but not protect Ayub and his henchmen'. The reference [old cock] was to General Yahya Khan, Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army"(p.8).

General Yahya Khan, who took over from Ayub was not what the doctor would have ordered for East Pakistan. The only leadership criterion was brutality riding on low IQ. The exception was General Yaqub Khan, the commander who insisted that General Yahya not postpone the session of the National Assembly elected after the 1970 election. The author writes: “All of a sudden, General Yaqub Khan was bundled off as a student on the Imperial Defence College course. This clumsy and unceremonious action was obviously taken to get him out of the way” (p.7).

Commander East Pakistan, General Tikka Khan, disagreed with Raja that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman be secretly dispatched to West Pakistan. He wanted to “publicly try Sheikh Mujib in Dhaka and hang him” (p.93).

Major-General Rahim Khan was the other officer Pakistan can’t  be proud of: “Rahim started to criticize the senior commanders in Dhaka, especially me, although I happened to be a friend of his. He was of the opinion that the Bengalis were timid people and should have been subdued long ago. The reader can judge for himself the ignorance and lack of understanding of the East Pakistan situation among the hawks in the armed forces” (p.97). Rahim ran away from East Pakistan when things became too hot.

We come to the climax: “[Enter] Commander East Pakistan General Niazi, wearing a pistol holster on his web belt. Niazi became abusive and started raving. Breaking into Urdu, he said: Main iss haramzadi qaum ki nasal badal doon ga. Yeh mujhe kiya samajhtey hain. (I will change this illegitimate-born race; what they think of me).  He threatened that he would let his soldiers loose on their womenfolk. There was pin drop silence at these remarks. The next morning, we were given the sad news. A Bengali officer Major Mushtaq went into a bathroom at the Command Headquarters and shot himself in the head” (p.98).

Niazi also asked Raja for phone numbers of his Bengali girlfriends: “Abhi tau mujhey Bengali girlfriends kay phone number day do” (p.99). Niazi surrendered to Indian General JFR Jacob in 1971. ‘Tiger’ Niazi handed over his personal pistol at the famous Race Course ceremony. Jacob examined the weapon: the lanyard was greasy and frayed, and the pistol was full of muck as if it hadn’t been cleaned in a long while.

(*) A page from The Express Tribune; www.tribune.com.pk/story/genetic-engineering-in-East-pakistan. Accessed Jul.27, 2013.

Review on INDIA: A TRAVELOGUE

Review letter, July 9, 2013, from Lakshmeshwar Dayal, Retd. ICS, now living in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Email at L.dayal@hotmail.com.

My dear Israr Hassan Saheb, Adab,

   I have read your Travelogue with great interest. I appreciate your account of conditions in India, as far as it goes.

   Travelling for three weeks from place to place in a vast country, one can stumble upon facts, but cannot go behind the facts and find their inter-connection to make a composite picture. India is struggling with the problem of poverty at the lowest levels compounded by rising population; its well-preserved democratic system slows down effective results with problems of this kind. Quite independently of this, however, India has moved far ahead, socially, politically, and economically, over past six decades since Independence. I would briefly enumerate some facts in this letter.

    There is nothing “baffling” about the “legacy” left in the subcontinent by the British. As they moved closer to granting independence, they made it a part of their long term strategy to create a soft state on the Northwest which would be pro-West, and dependent on Western superpowers, as an ally in this region to checkmark Soviet advance towards South Asia. Post- independent India which had had a long drawn conflict with the British, under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, well known as friendly to the Soviet Union could not be depended upon as an ally during the Cold War period. It was a clear design which Mountbatten imposed, upon the country, taking advantage of the political circumstances which prevailed here.

1.   Reviewing the situation over past 66 years, one cannot fail to notice the unbroken continuance of parliamentary democracy in India. It may be noticed India’s army, right since Independence, has been continuously in action meeting with incessant challenges of external defense as well as internal security, but has not attempted to enter into the arena of political authority. The democratic system having taken roots, such a possibility is ruled out. Beginning with its intervention in Kashmir in 1947, the army has continually been deployed, with three conflicts with Pakistan, simmering confrontation with Pakistani and Chinese troops on the Western, and North-Western and with the Chinese on North-Eastern borders, infiltration by terrorists and encounters with them in Kashmir, engagement with tribal insurgency in the North East, invasion by China in 1965 and 1971 War with East as well as West Pakistan. The balance between civil and military power has, however, never been tilted and the Indian army has maintained its professional character.  

2.   It has to be noticed that political parties, with conflicting goals and ideologies, have changed hands in governments in the States as well as at the Center following the peaceful constitutional process. Violence or clashes during elections are very rare. This shows the continuing strength of the political system. A significant enlargement of the democratic rights of the people was provided by the recent law on the Right of Information. Citizens are now entitled to demand full information concerning decisions and actions of Government. On failure to provide the information within the prescribed time, suitable punishment can be imposed on the guilty officials who omit or delay compliance with the demand. The law is intended to curb arbitrary actions and highhandedness on the part of authorities, including those who may have come to office through the electoral process.  

3.   Welfare of Muslims and other minorities is a high priority program in India and is treated as a Ministerial portfolio in State Governments as well as in the Central Government. In addition high level Minority Commissions have been set up consisting of leading personalities of the same communities to promote and monitor their educational and economic progress. Scholarships and other facilities are being made available to poorer students of these communities for their school and college education. To make higher education accessible to such students, Government of India has just decided to set up six special Universities in areas where there is a concentration of Muslims or other minority communities where 50% of the seats will be reserved for them. Muslims or Christians have not encountered any handicaps in their political or professional advancement. Muslims have occupied high positions such as President, Vice-President, Governor, Chief Justice, Ambassador and Vice Chancellor.

4.   We should not exaggerate the diversity of caste as the situation today is vastly different from how it appeared in the early decades of the past century. In the Hindu community, lower, backward, and untouchable castes as well as tribal had been victims of suppression and discrimination for ages, but over the last six decades history has gone into the reverse. The castes and groups which were so long denied opportunities of educational and occupational advancement now find this much easier, compare to the so called upper castes. This has been made possible by deliberate state policy, providing special funds to enable them to overcome their age-long backwardness combined with reservation for them in the services. High powered Commissions have been set up to monitor these programs.

5.   India, as of today, offers an open landscape for the self-fulfillment of every individual, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, language, and caste. Social outlook today is secular and inclusive rather than communal and divisive. At the highest echelons, persons from diverse groups, without discrimination of religion, community or gender are working together for a common national agenda. A Christian woman, a foreigner, is head of the ruling party (Sonia Gandhi), a Hindu is the President of the country (Pranab Mukherjee), a Muslim is Vice-President (Hamid Ansari), a Sikh is the Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh), a Muslim is Chief Justice of Supreme Court (Altamash Kabir), a woman of the untouchable caste is the Speaker of the Parliament (Meira Kumar) and a Christian is the country’s Defense Minister (A.K. Antony).

6.   There has been remarkable improvement in income levels since Independence, particularly over the past three decades, although this has had slow and limited effect on the large poorest section of the society. The economic growth is evidenced in the impressive rise in collection of individual and corporate Income Tax over the past 10 years. It increased by more than 615%, rising from about Rs 69 thousand crores in 2001-2 to about Rs 494 thousand crores in 2011-12. There has been similar rise in taxes received from other sectors. Wages in both government and corporate sectors have consequently recorded enormous rise. The highest functionary in Government (Secretary to Government) drew a salary of Rs 3,500 in 1980; today this stands at Rs 80,000. The salary of the lowest staff, the office peon, now is more than double of what the highest functionary was receiving in 1980.

7.   Increase in income levels did not benefit the very poor classes, because the development programs were for long oriented towards infra-structure and long term results. Rise in standard of living had to depend upon the “trickle-down” effect of these developments. In the meantime the poor would become poorer and whatever results would sprout on the ground were cut-down by rising population. The direction of policy went through a radical change in about three decades ago, when ‘poverty alleviation’ was adopted as the new strategy.  Schemes were launched, and multiplied over time, for improvement in employment, wages, housing, primary education, health care and, above all, supply of food grains at cheap rates. In addition to the on-going programs of providing cheap food grains to the poor, Government have now promulgated a law for “food security” under which 810 million people, 67% of the population, will be entitled to receive 5 Kg of food grains in a month at incredibly low prices. Rs 3 per Kg for rice and Rs 2 and Re 1 for wheat and coarse food grains. A program of direct intervention of such magnitude to overcome hunger and malnutrition has not been attempted in any other country.

8.   At the time of Independence only 40% of the population was above the Poverty Line.  Now more than 80% in the urban areas and 66% in the rural areas stand above the Poverty Line. The law has granted the Right to Education to every child between 6 and 14 years of age and primary education for them is free. Literacy level is now about 74%. There has been extraordinary expansion of network of hospitals and health centers all over the country. Life expectancy has, within past six decades, risen from 54 years to 70 years. Serious diseases like leprosy and malaria have been eradicated and over the past decade HIV cases have declined by as much as 57%. During the past 2 years no polio cases have been reported and it is hoped polio too has been eradicated.

9.   Agricultural activity in Bihar was not adequate to absorb the landless labor that lived in abject poverty and year to year they had to migrate to Punjab and Haryana where they got employed. Over the last five years agricultural operations in Bihar have developed well and migration of labor has stopped. Land owners from Punjab have complained about shortage of agricultural labor as their migration from Bihar had stopped. Agricultural production in Bihar has risen during past 6 years from 17.32 million tons to 27.9 million tons.

10.      Construction of highways, trunk-roads and other roads during the last six decades has brought a sea-change in social and economic life of the people all over the country.  Special attention is being given in Bihar to communications and 3418 km of roads and 518 bridges were constructed in past five years.

11.      The corporate sector in India has recorded impressive progress particularly over past three decades resulting in substantial growth in trade and industry. India has also reached up to global standards in science and technology including space science. It has put up its own satellites and this month it sent its first Navigation Satellite, to monitor movements on land, sea and air, joining the small group of nations who have set up such satellites.

12.       It was not an easy task to overcome the consequences of 150 years of an exploitative alien rule and embark upon economic development on large scale in a democratic set up. The effort made over past six decades has however shown encouraging results. India has emerged as a strong, forward looking nation and a rising economic power in Asia. Its economic potential is considered strong enough to bring it up as a close second to China.

The country has been moving in the right direction, although the challenges are enormous.

Regards,     L. Dayal

July 9, 2013.

PAKISTAN: THE DAYS AFTER

 Introduction

 Pakistan represents one of the world's most troubling states in crisis. It is home to an array of terrorist groups (political, religious, sectarian, racial and ethnic) that pose threats to international security and, increasingly, to Pakistan itself. It possesses a nuclear arsenal of about ninety weapons that is rapidly growing, and in the wake of growing instability, could become vulnerable to militants. Bordering a conflict-ridden Afghanistan and poised on a seemingly war footing against India at times, what happens inside Pakistan's borders matters deeply to the region and the wider world. 

In days after tomorrow, let’s hope for good and prepare for the worst. Pakistan's parliament has elected Nawaz Sharif as prime minister, marking a historic transfer of power in a country that has undergone three military coups. Sharif received 244 votes in the 342-seat parliament, returning him to the prime minister's office. Sharif's government will face a host of problems, including faltering economic growth, worsening energy crisis, continued terrorism and bloodletting inside country, religious and sectarian violence, relations with India, USA, and Afghanistan. A country which has spent almost half of its existence under some sort of direct military rule, not without reasons, Sharif’s one of the challenges will be how to make his relations with Pakistan military on democratic footings. Home issues are more complex than external issues. Historically, several policy domains, including that of foreign policy towards the US and India, Kashmir and Afghanistan and budget allocations, etc. have been controlled by the Pakistani military.  The civil-military divide can be said to be the most fundamental fracture in Pakistan’s body politic. 

Power Crisis
      The new government faces all sorts of challenges, but its most immediate task is to bring an end to crippling power outages that are costing the nation billions of dollars in productivity.  “The biggest challenge isn’t taming the many militant groups that mount near daily attacks across the country. Our No.1 challenge is energy,” Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Pakistan’s new Minister for Water and Power, tells TIME, June 25, 2013. Like many other problems that afflict Pakistan, the energy crisis is a product of years of steady neglect in a country of scarce resources, a growing population, and poor management, a chain of corruption and street theft of power throughout the country. 

      While its electricity bills grew bigger and bigger due to use of pricy oil and gas for power generation, authorities failed to collect defaulted payments. One of the biggest issues confronting the country right now is a so-called circular debt of $5 billion. The importers of oil are owed money by the companies that generate the electricity, which in turn are owed money by the distribution companies, which are then owed cash by consumers who don’t pay up, from the government and the private sector. In recent years, defaulters have included the presidential palace, the Supreme Court, the top intelligence agency and the Sharif family’s steel business.[1] Another constant problem is power theft. It starts off small, with the manipulation of street meters. The government estimates that $2 billion is lost each year through graft in the energy sector.

Terrorism

 The top most challenge the legislators is facing and expected to face in future is home militancy by Taliban (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan) and other religious, ethnic and sectarian extremists whose violence have  killed  thousands in the past and  even now killing almost every day in more than one  or other urban cities of Pakistan. No inside developments in power outage, economic progress or foreign investments are possible so long this menace of terrorism persists.

Terrorism in Pakistan has become a major and highly destructive phenomenon in recent years. The annual death toll from terrorist attacks has risen from 164 in 2003 to 3318 in 2009, with a total of 35,000 Pakistanis killed between September 11, 2001 and May 2011.[2]

President Asif Ali Zardari, along with former Pakistan Army chief Pervez Musharraf, have admitted that terrorist outfits were "deliberately created and nurtured" by the past governments as a policy to achieve some short-term tactical objectives.  It is believed that almost all terrorist groups are having the blessings of one political party or the other.  Terrorists caught, sentenced and put to death-roll  are mysteriously released after few days on bail secretly. Nobody knows who, when, and why.

The trend of terrorism began with Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's controversial "Islamization" policies of the 1980s, under which conflicts were started against soviet involvement in Afghanistan. Zia's tenure as president saw Pakistan's involvement in the Soviet-Afghan War, a good time to cash the opportunity, which led to a greater influx of ideologically driven mujahideen to the tribal areas and increased availability of guns and drugs from the Golden Crescent.

The state and its Inter-Services Intelligence, in alliance with the CIA, encouraged the "mujahideen" to fight a proxy war against Soviet forces present in Afghanistan. Most of the mujahideen were never disarmed after the soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and some of these groups were later activated at the behest of Pakistan in the form of  Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and others like the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for their insurgencies in Indian held Kashmir. The same groups are now taking on the state itself, making the biggest threat to Pakistan and the citizens of Pakistan through the politically motivated killing of civilians and security forces.

Terrorism in Pakistan originated with ISI supporting terrorists in Indian Kashmir, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and the subsequent civil war that is continuing since the last decade. The conflict brought numerous fighters from all over the world to South Asia in the name of jihad. The mujahideen fighters were trained by Pakistan's military, American CIA and other western intelligence agencies carried out insurgent activities inside Afghanistan even after the war officially ended.

      At the end of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, between 1990 and 1996, the Pakistani establishment continued to organize, support and nurture mujahideen groups on the premise that they could be used for proxy warfare in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and in support of the doctrine of "strategic depth" in Afghanistan through the use of the Taliban.

      The post-9/11 War on Terrorism in Pakistan has had two principal elements: the government's battle with jihadi groups banned after the attacks in New York, and the U.S. pursuit of Al-Qaeda, usually in co-operation with Pakistani forces.      In 2004, the Pakistani army launched a pursuit of Al-Qaeda members in the mountainous area of Waziristan on the Afghan border, although skeptics question the sincerity of this pursuit. Clashes there erupted into a low-level conflict with Islamic militants and local tribesmen, sparking the Waziristan War. A short-lived truce known as the Waziristan accord was brokered in September 2006, which indicated Pakistan's reluctance to fight Islamic militia.

Pakistan Taliban

      How the movement of Afghan Taliban extended in Pakistan Taliban goes in the past when the United States uprooted the Taliban Regime in Afghanistan, hunting Taliban thru. drone strikes inside Pakistan, and when NATO got permission of Pak. Govt. for its containers supply to Afghanistan passing thru. Pakistan.

       The transition from being Taliban supporters and sympathizers to becoming a mainstream Taliban force in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) initiated when many small militant groups operating independently inside Pakistan started networking with one another. This sequence of developments occurred while Pakistani forces were spending the majority of their resources finding "foreigners" in the area linked to al-Qa`ida and Taliban. Soon, many other local extremist groups, which were banned in Pakistan, started joining the Taliban ranks in FATA — some as followers while others as partners.

      One cannot understand the deep depth of terrorism in Pakistan without knowing the episode of Lal Masjid. It contributed in the rise of Pakistan Taliban and strengthened the hands of al-Qaeda within Pakistan. The Lal Masjid was founded by Maulana Qari Abdullah in 1965. It was frequented by leaders of the Pakistani military and government.  Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, then the Army Chief of Staff who later became president in 1977, was a close associate of Qari Abdullah.[3]  The mosque is located near the headquarters of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and several staff members

were visiting the mosque for prayers.[4]   After Qari Abdullah was assassinated at the mosque in 1998, his two sons, Maulana Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid Ghazi, assumed responsibility for the entire complex situated in Islamabad, inclusive of the mosque and the madrasah Jamia Hafsa, the largest madrasah for women in Pakistan.[5]  The brothers admitted to having regular communication with many of the wanted leaders of al-Qaeda, including Osama bin Laden.[6]  Following the 9/11 attacks on the United States, President Pervez Musharraf announced his support for the U.S.-led War on Terror. This declaration sparked conflict with the Lal Masjid, whose leadership was openly pro-Taliban.[7]  Maulana Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid Ghazi denied having any links to banned terrorist organizations but were vehemently opposed to the War on Terror and the conflict in Afghanistan. They openly condemned Musharraf and opposed Pakistani security forces.[8]  The mosque became a source for speeches calling for Jihad and assassination of Musharraf.  This organization supported the imposition of Shari’a in Pakistan and openly called for the overthrow of the Pakistani government.  Lal Masjid militants set fire to the Ministry of Environment building and attacked the Army Rangers who guarded it, the military responded and put siege of the Lal Masjid complex. The complex was besieged from July 3 to July 11, 2007, while negotiations were attempted between the militants and the state's Shujaat Hussain and Ijaz-ul-Haq. Once negotiations failed, the complex was stormed and captured by the Pakistan Army's Special Service Group. The conflict resulted in 154 deaths, and 50 militants were captured. The assault resulted in pro-Taliban rebels along the Afghanistan border nullifying a 10-month-old peace agreement with the Pakistani Government.[9]  This event triggered the Third Waziristan War, which marked another surge in militancy and violence in Pakistan and has resulted in more than 3,000 casualties.[10]

      Pakistani intelligence officials said they found letters from Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second in command of al-Qaeda, after taking control of Lal Masjid.[11]  The letter directed the brothers and militants to conduct an armed revolt. Government sources believe that as many as 18 foreign fighters from Uzbekistan, Egypt, and Afghanistan had arrived weeks before the final confrontation.  Al-Zawahiri, issued a videotape on July 11, 2007, calling Pakistanis to join jihad in revenge for the attack by the Pakistan's Army on the mosque.[12]  Al-Zawahri's four-minute address was titled The Aggression against Lal Masjid and dedicated solely to the clash between the Lal Masjid militants and the Pakistan Army. The video was released by al-Qaeda's media wing, as-Sahab and was subtitled in English.[13]

      During this process, the Pakistani Taliban never really merged into the organizational structure of the Afghan Taliban under Mullah Omar; instead, they developed a distinct identity. From their perspective, they intelligently created a space for themselves in Pakistan by engaging in military attacks while at other times cutting deals with the Pakistani government to establish their autonomy in the area. They were accepted as a legitimate voice in at least two FATA agencies — South Waziristan and North Waziristan. During this process, the Pakistani Taliban effectively established themselves as an alternative leadership to the traditional tribal elders. By the time the Pakistani government realized the changing dynamics and tried to revive the tribal jirga institution, it was too late. The Taliban had killed approximately 200 of the tribal elders under charges of being Pakistani and American spies. They killed Benazir Bhutto in Dec. 2007 in the Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, when she came back to Pakistan to contest the forthcoming elections and they have vowed to kill Musharraf.

By 1998, Pakistani Taliban groups were banning TV and videos in towns along the Pashtun belt, imposing Shari’a punishments such as stoning and amputation in defiance of the legal system, killing Pakistani Shia and forcing people, particularly women to adapt to the Taliban dress code and way of life. Pakistani leaders, then, appeared to be oblivious of the challenges and Sunni fundamentalists continued to support the Taliban.

The Taliban and their supporters present the Muslim world and the West with a new style of Islamic extremism, which rejects all accommodation with Muslim moderation and the West. They rejected any talk or understanding with the present government of Nawaz Sharif after their leader, Waliur Rehman,  was killed in drone strike on 29 May 2013.  Despite Mr. Sharif’s repeated calls to Americans to stop drone strikes in Pakistan territories, the strikes continue chasing and killing al-Qaeda and Taliban perpetrators.  Civilian casualties are one of the common features of such strikes, because al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders usually pick their hideouts in civilian population.  Pakistan Taliban retaliates against drone strikes by killing soft civilian and non-civilian targets in populated cities of Pakistan. The bloody triangle of America, Pakistan and Taliban seems insoluble so long drone strikes continue and so long the home-grown Taliban and al-Qaida members are dagger-drawn with the United States within the boundary of Pakistan.  The situation might change after the United States completely withdraw from Afghanistan next year.

Drone Strikes

Dealing with the United States could be in some ways a trickier matter. While officially a U.S.-ally in the fight against terrorists, Pakistanis have long been at odds with the U.S. on some of its tactics, especially drone strikes on Pakistani soil. The most recent drone strike came Wednesday, May 29, 2013 and the Pakistani Taliban militant group said it killed their deputy leader, Waliur Rehman.  Cessation of drone attacks on Pakistan soil will not be an easy task for Nawaz Sharif so long Pakistan remains committed with the United States on War on Terror and so long the in-house al-Qaeda and Taliban are committed to fight against the United States and NATO. The United States and Al-Qaeda are deadly enemy to each other; America after 9/11 and Taliban and al-Qaeda, after ousting them from their regime of Afghanistan. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the breeding grounds of Al-Qaida and Taliban.  After unprecedented 9/11 attacks within American soil, the US administration thinks that their country is insecure so long Al-Qaeda and Taliban hide in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  There might be some adjustment between the US and Pakistan on this issue. But there is remote chance that Pakistan can get rid of Drone strikes totally.  If Pakistan declares it is no more a partner in the Fight for Terrorism, not only it will lose all the asheerbad (privileges) of the United States and its allies, but it will have enhanced possibility of attack on its nuclear installation.

A brief of what went between Pakistan and the United States on the second day of 9/11 will show the intensity of the endangered relation between Pakistan and the United States. A day after Sept. 11, Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage summoned Gen. Mehmood Ahmad, director General of  Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)  to his office and informed him that President Bush was going to make a TV address delivering a blunt message to the world, “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.”  Armitage asked Mehmood, “where would Pakistan stand?” Mehmood replied without hesitation that “we have always been with you.” [14]  Gen. Mehmood was then in Washington, a few days before 9/11 as a guest of CIA director George Tenet for talks with US lawmakers.

 On Sept. 13, Armitage,  handed a one-page list of seven US demands to Gen. Mehmood and said the demands were non-negotiable. Mehmood promptly replied that Pakistan would do whatever the Americans asked of it. Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke to Musharraf on telephone, telling him that he expected an early reply on the US demands. The same day a cabinet meeting in Washington concluded that if Pakistan denies “it would be at risk of attack.”  One of the stipulations of the US demands asked Pakistan “to stop al-Qaeda operatives on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and intercept all arms shipments through Pakistan while ending all logistical support for bin Laden”.[15]  

Today we know that not only al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives are vigilant in safe refuge of Waziristan, Wana and many other sporadic places in FATA, but Osama bin Laden had been living secretly in Abbottabad within close proximity of Pakistan military establishment for the last ten years. In the circumstances now prevailing, it seems Pakistan has no option in safeguarding its safety and sovereignty from drone attacks.

Sectarian Violence

One of the onerous tasks before this and its successor’s regime is how to tackle the sectarian violence.  This menace was spread by Ziaul Haq, Nawaz Sharif’s mentor, who gave Pakistan a Blasphemy Law and a Shari’a Court  and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, an irreligious man, who became a champion of Muslim and Islam by constitutionally declaring Ahmedis as non-Muslim. This menace was embedded in Pakistan since its creation.  It can be subsided by legal and security measures of the law makers, but cannot be totally eradicated. Pakistan has to live with this violence so long its Constitution is not amended from Islamic Republic of Pakistan to Democratic Republic of Pakistan.  Declaring Pakistan to be a democratic republic will not alter the characteristics of Pakistan nation which is inherently Islamic and Muslim. Secular Pakistan will stop the opportunists, like Zia and Bhutto, to use their dogma and doctrines in the state affairs and getting their personal agenda fulfilled.

 Shi'a in Pakistan makes up 6% of the total Muslim population, while the remaining 94% are Sunnis.  In the last three decades, as many as 9,000 people are estimated to have killed in sectarian fighting only in Pakistan. Among those blamed for the sectarian violence in the country are mainly Sunni militants such as Sipah Sahaba, Jaish-e-Muhammadi, Jamaat-e-Islami,  al Qaeda and its affiliated Pakistani Taliban and Punjabi Taliban . However, predominant Sunni terrorist groups are often blamed for frequent attacks on minority Shias, Ahmadis, and Christians on their religious gatherings resulting in reprisal attacks by them.  

Salmaan Taseer (1944-2011) , the Governor of Punjab, was gunned down by his own bodyguard on Jan. 4, 2011 in Islamabad, only because of his opposition of Pakistan Blasphemy Law.[16] Also the many bomb blasts in the sectarian mosques and mausoleums in Pakistan are expression of sunni’s hate against shi’a and vice versa.  Christians and other minorities are also victims of sectarian hate.

In the 1990s and 2000s, sporadic violence resulted from disputes over control of Pakistani mosques between Barelwi and Deobandi.[17]  In May 2001, sectarian riots broke out after Barelvi leader, Saleem Qadri, was assassinated by the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a Deoband-affiliated terrorist group.[18]   In April 2006 in Karachi, a bomb attack on a Barelvi gathering to celebrate the Mawlud (Prophet’s  birthday) killed at least 57 people.[19]  On February 27, 2010, Barelvis celebrating Mawlud in Faisalabad and Dera Ismail Khan were attacked by militants believed to be affiliated with the Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba, again sparking tensions among the rival sects.[20]

The blasphemy laws have been used in many unscrupulous ways to harass minority communities such as the Ahmadis and shias who are subject to onerous sentences and restrictions under the law. 

In addition to it, an exhaustive list of violations in Pakistan, apart from Blasphemy, relates to Universal Human Rights, child abuses, intolerance and persecution of minorities, woman’s persecution under Hudood Ordinance, and ethnic, sectarian, civil and religious blood-lettings and killings throughout Pakistan.

Economy in Crisis

Due to inflation and economic crisis worldwide during 2008 onward, Pakistan's economy reached a state of Balance of Payment crisis. "The International Monetary Fund bailed out Pakistan in November 2008 to avert a balance of payments crisis and in July last year increased the loan to $11.3 billion from an initial $7.6 billion."[21]

Since the beginning of 2008, Pakistan's economic outlook has taken stagnation. Security concerns stemming from the nation's role in the War on Terror have created great instability and led to a decline in FDI.  Concurrently, the insurgency has forced massive capital flight from Pakistan to the Gulf. Combined with high global commodity prices, the dual impact has shocked Pakistan's economy, with gaping trade deficits, high inflation and a crash in the value of the Rupee, which has fallen from 60–1 USD to about 100-1 USD in a few months.

On April 12, 2013, reserves of the State Bank stood at $6.64bn, and these were much lower than the reserves held by the central bank in 2001-2002. The downfall in 2002 was due to the sanctions imposed on Pakistan for its nuclear test.  Today the reserves are depleting fast and the burden of IMF repayments is too large as against the size of the reserves. 

There is recognition amongst economists that the economy has not been managed well under the PPP government. Much of the criticism that has appeared in the press over the last few years is warranted. The absence of an economic plan or vision is the highlight of the economic team in Islamabad. The fact that the team has changed so many times in less than four years is also an indication of the confusion amongst political leaders and the lack of priority given to the economic problems faced by Pakistanis. The failure of PPP government and its economic team to address economic issues has been much documented in the media and there is little disagreement over this claim.[22] 

However, Pakistan economy is not in a crisis, nor on the verge of collapse. It has serious problems and its crisis is a much deeper affliction. Greece’s economy is in a crisis, Britain’s or America’s is not. The latter two are struggling with high and growing unemployment, low growth, high debt — just like Pakistan, but of course at a different level and of a much different  nature — but this is not a crisis. Those who have been hammering the ‘collapse and crisis’ mantra are not wrong in citing many of the statistics they do. The fiscal deficit is high and growing, inflation seems to be stuck at around 14 per cent, investment is low, poverty has grown over the last five years, and so on. Clearly, these indicators reveal an economy which is performing poorly.

Pakistan had requested for $7.3 billion support load from the IMF and an application is with the IMF board. They have agreed to grant the loan amounting to $5.3bn. “We have also requested that the first year’s tranche may amount to $3bn so that Pakistan may be able to repay the installment of previous IMF dues without any serious implication on economy,” Mr. Dar, the Finance Minister, said.[23]   “Our government is taking steps to further the cause of microfinance in Pakistan,” he said, adding, “in this budget (2013-14) we have announced Rs.3bn program for microfinance that would be based on Qarz-i-Hasana and at least 50pc loans would be provided to women.”[24]

Pakistan’s state bank currently has about $9 billion in foreign exchange, enough to cover about two months’ worth of imports, if cash deposits in private dollar accounts are not counted. Pakistan owes the IMF just over $6.2 billion out of an $11 billion loan package in 2008. Pakistan is due to repay $1.6 billion in the first six months of 2013, a schedule that will strain reserves and may accelerate the slide of the rupee currency.

The Pakistan government has failed to enact the reforms needed to boost reserves and qualify for a new IMF program. The IMF wants Pakistan to broaden its narrow tax base and slash subsidies that benefit the wealthy. The IMF said further funding was contingent on a consensus being reached by political parties on comprehensive, permanent financial reforms and firm implementation of them. Growth is hindered by chronic power cuts that have been hurting key industries like textiles and cottage industries. Mismanagement of the power sector costs an estimated $1.5 billion every year, according to the Pakistan Planning Commission. The IMF said it wants Pakistan to reduce its fiscal deficit by closing tax loopholes and cutting expenditure like energy subsidies.[25]

Launching the Economic Survey of 2012-13 on Tuesday, June 11, the Minister hinted at a difficult road ahead, including a gradual increase in electricity to bridge a gap between cost and its billing and promised to eradicate Rs500 billion circular debt before June 30 or in two months at worst. “Unless we do it, reduction in load-shedding is not possible,” he said.[26]

He said the revival of the economy was the top priority of the new government and the next year’s growth target had been set at 4.4 per cent. “We will be more aggressive to restore investment in the infrastructure sector and hence the development programs had been pitched at Rs1.155 trillion for the next year.”[27]

He said the government would try to put as little burden on people as possible, but there is a need to cover Rs2 trillion deficits. He said the fiscal deficit would be brought down to 4.5pc of GDP in the next three years from 8.5pc this year, The government expenses would also be curtailed by 30pc to take the country forward, he added.

He said the energy sector was causing GDP loss of about 2pc which was not allowing the industry and commercial activities to flourish. The prime minister himself would be heading a cabinet committee on energy to end non-recovery of bills for gradual reduction in load shedding.

 Pakistan Military

      Pakistan military is one of the home challenges for Pakistan government.  Military intervention started as early as 1958, when Ayub  Khan announced martial law and suspended the parliament and the constitution. According to a popular Pakistani joke, "all countries have armies, but here, an army has a country."[28] Indeed, even when civilian governments have nominally been in charge in Pakistan, there has never been much doubt about who actually makes decisions there. In addition to holding political power at the plea of national security, the Pakistani army controls vast commercial and industrial interests and owns massive rural and urban properties.[29]

      The question of why the warrior class was never tamed by civilian rule points back to the founding of the Pakistani state. As the respected Pakistani scholar Eqbal Ahmad has emphasized, the civilian system of power was never regarded by Pakistan's citizens as just, appropriate, or authoritative.  Some seven years before the first military takeover in 1958, the political process had slipped off the rails.  After the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan in Oct. 1951 a succession of unelected civil bureaucrats assumed elective office.  Pakistan’s third governor-general, Ghulam Mohammad, was a hardened bureaucrat who had no appetite for democratic practices. In Apri 1953 Ghulam Mohammad in close concert with the military and bureaucratic establishment dismissed the Bengali prime minister, Khawaja Nazimuddin, who enjoyed the confidence of a majority in parliament and allotted the ministry to Mohammad Ali Bogra.  In Oct. 1954, Ghulam Mohammad dismissed the first constituent assembly when it tried curbing some of his powers and brought in a so-called ‘cabinet of talents’ remarkable only for its utterly unrepresentative character.

  The sorry state of Affairs and seeing an utterly explosive public, Gen. Mohammad Ayub Khan, declared Martial Law in 1958.  He handed his power to Yahya Khan, who held the first national elections in 1971.  Awami League of East Pakistan, under the leadership of Sheikh Mujeebur Rahman, came out winner of the Election, winning majority seats of the parliament.  Yahya Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto denied to hand over the succession of power to Awami League which, consequently, resulted in the dismemberment of united Pakistan and creation of a separate, sovereign state of Bangladesh in December, 1971.

 Despite Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s declaration of Independence in 1947, the idea of Pakistan was unclear from the start. It had no Constitution and parliament until 1956. No national elections were held before 1971.  No constitutional government completed its term, except the last one of PPP (2008-2013).  Lacking any clear basis for legitimacy or direction, the state quickly aligned with the powerful landed class: the army leadership and the economic elites. Corrupt bureaucracy joined hands with forces to claim authority in a nation without definition or cohesion. In subsequent years, the government maintained the feudal structure of society and entered into a manifestly exploitative relationship with Pakistan's unprivileged eastern wing (which became Bangladesh in 1971 after a short bloody war).  Even now, bonded labor is common in the four provinces of remaining Pakistan, and many peasants live in conditions close to slavery. Politicians, with the exception of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, have made no attempt at reform, ignoring the hearts and minds of the masses cultivating army and feudal elites favor and pursuing quick financial gains.

The result has been ideological confusion, civilian helplessness, and an environment, eminently hospitable to greedy and corrupt politicians. Indeed, no elected government, excepting the PPP coalition from 2008-13, completed its term in Pakistan's 61-year history. Pakistani generals express contempt for the civilian order and steadfastly hold that "what is good for the army is good for Pakistan" and Pakistani society is thoroughly militarized.  It is even a criminal offense to "criticize the armed forces of Pakistan or to bring them into disaffection."[30]  When Nawaz Sharif, after escalating the tug of war with the Armed Forces decided  in 1999 to oust the then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of Army Staff , he was deposed by General Pervez Musharraf, and martial law was declared throughout the country.[31]

 “Pakistan military is the only component of the wider "establishment" that runs Pakistan. This ‘establishment’ apparently consists of an oligarchy comprised of  "an informal political system that ties together the senior ranks of the military, the civil service, key members of the judiciary, the bureaucracy,  and landed elites."[32]  Members of this oligarchy have a common set of beliefs: that India must be countered at every turn; that nuclear weapons have endowed Pakistan with security and status; that the fight for Kashmir is unfinished business; that large-scale social reforms such as land redistribution are unacceptable; that the uneducated and illiterate masses deserve no respect; that vociferous Muslim nationalism is not desirable; and that Washington is to be despised but fully taken advantage of.  Underlying these "core principles," one might add a willingness to serve power at any cost.[33]

Whatever the cost Pakistan paid to Pakistan Army it is not out rightly unjustified.  No one can deny in view of the inefficiencies, dishonesty, undemocratic practices and the loot of politicians and their civil administrations from the very outset of Pakistan that the military has proved to be the spine of Pakistan.  No democracy can run and work in such a society of poor literacy with a system of feudalism and corrupt politicians and bureaucracy. Had Pakistan forces not taken the charge of the hopeless situations in times of emergency, we should have been in more devastating situation today. The prime job of  Pakistan military today, I think, is to strengthen the civil government of Nawaz Sharif within the limits of Pakistan constitution, instead of taking benefits of the hopeless situation, as happened in the past. Healthy survival of each is contingent upon the cooperation and safeguard of the other.

ISRAR HASAN

10^th July 2013  

                                                                                                                     

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[1] TIME, June 25, 2013.

[2] Pakistan: A Failed State or A Clever Gambler, BBC News, Islamabad, 6 May, 2011.

[3] Syed Shoaib Hasan’s  "Profile: Islaabad's Red Mosque". BBC news. Retrieved 2008-05-21.

 [4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9].  "Scores killed in Pakistan attacks". BBC News. 2007-07-19. Retrieved 2008-05-13.

[10]. "Militants burn down girls' school in northwest Pakistan".M&C News.2008-05-04.Retrieved 2008-05-13.

[11]. Dean Nelson (2007-07-15). "Bin Laden’s deputy behind the Red Mosque bloodbath". London: The    Times. Retrieved 2008-05-11.

 [12]. "Al-Qaida: Wage Holy War Against Pakistan". ABC News. 2007-07-12. Retrieved 2008-05-11.

[13] . Ibid.

[14] Ahmed Rashid’s “Descent into Chaos” Penguin Books Ltd., London, 2008; p/27.

[15] Ibid. p.28.

[16] The Islamic Republic of Pakistan uses its Penal Code to prohibit and punish blasphemy against Islam. The Criminal Code forbids defiling the Quran, defaming Prophet Muhammad, and forbids damaging or defiling a place of worship or a sacred object and  provides penalties for blasphemy ranging from a fine to death.

[17] Bomb carnage at Karachi prayers, BBC Online, 11 April 2006

[18] Ibid.

[19] Special Coverage of Nishtar Park bombing, Jang Group Online

[20] The widening split, Express Tribune, April 26, 201

[21] Dawn.com; and IMF

[22] Dawn.com; July 8, 2013.

[23] Dawn.com; July 9, 2013; retrieved July 10^, 2013.

[24] Ibid.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Dawn.com; June 11, 2013.

[27] Ibid

[28] The Idea of Pakistan. By Stephen P. Cohen. Brookings Institution Press, 2004.

[29] For detail description on this topic see “Who owns Pakistan” by Shahidur Rahman.

[30] Ibid, S.P.Cohen.

[31] Sethi, Najam, “Nawaz Sharif: A Man between Enemies”, News Intelligence.

[32] Ibid. S.P.Cohen

[33] Ibid.