Groping in the dark

ONE must take with a pinch of salt the US defence secretary’s claim that the military campaign in Afghanistan is making “measurable progress.” Talking to newsmen in Washington, Donald Rumsfeld referred to a three-phase operation against the Taliban, the first focused on the Taliban’s air defences, the second on their broader military infrastructure, and the third on the Taliban forces facing the Northern Alliance. The plan was conceived this way, he said, because America did not have any ground troops in Afghanistan, “and we do have now some.” Yet, going by the situation on the ground, it appears difficult to accept Secretary Rumsfeld’s claim that the campaign is making “measurable progress”.

Today, the US completes its fourth week of incessant air strikes against Afghanistan. While it is true that the Pentagon has not yet unleashed all the offensive power at its command, its bombing has, nevertheless, been very heavy and lethal. Considerable damage has been done to the Taliban’s command and control systems — such as they have — and their military capability must have been badly mauled. Nevertheless, their infantry is intact, and there is no indication yet that the Taliban in any way feel shaken or demoralized. In fact, by resisting the American onslaughts and by beating back several Northern Alliance attacks, they have thrown into doubt many of the possibilities and outcomes which the US-led allies had taken for granted.

When the aerial strikes began on Oct 7, it was assumed that it would be too much for the Taliban to stand the superpower’s air strikes; that either they would sue for peace or there would be defections in their ranks — if not in days then in weeks. In the latter case, a non-Taliban Pakhtoon leadership would be in place which would fill the vacuum once the military campaign was over. However, nothing of the sort has happened. The Taliban leadership has not panicked, and there is not even the remotest of indications that large-scale defections are about to weaken their ranks.

One wonders whether the original aim of the war has been allowed to be blurred. The aim of the war was to capture Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept 11 bombing, destroy his al-Qaeda network, and punish the Taliban for harbouring terrorists. It seems punishing the Taliban by bombing has overshadowed the other two aims. It is another matter, though, that the aerial strikes have served less to punish the Taliban and more to cause heavy civilian casualties. In a way, the continued bombing has helped the Taliban, because large sections of opinion in the world, including the West, are calling for a halt to the bombing. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, too, has pleaded for an end to the bombing so that relief goods could reach the Afghan people.

The truth is that the intensity of air strikes has not been matched by any initiative on the political front. Last month’s moot at Peshawar bore no fruit, and the proposed assembly of various Afghan factions in Turkey has been delayed. Also, for some reason, the move to present Zahir Shah as a unifying force has failed to attract much attention. This makes the continuation of the air strikes an end in itself. No sane mind would accept this. It is time the American strategists focused on the war aims rather than on a continuation of air strikes with their concomitant collateral damage. The Taliban are firmly in control, and the Pentagon and the state department seem to be groping in the dark to discover a focused strategy for achieving the war aims against a country already in ruins.

Disruptions of a lifeline

THE people of the Northern Areas were reminded this week of how dependent they have become on the Karakorum Highway and how vulnerable they are to any disruptions in the smooth flow of traffic along this road. For six days, groups of armed militants had blockaded this vital highway to protest against the government’s backing of the US-led anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan. As a result, the Northern Areas were virtually cut off from the rest of the country. While most of the protesters were eventually persuaded to lift the blockade, following the intervention of a highly respected cleric, certain elements near Chilas refused to obey till the maulana visited them personally. Meanwhile, traffic to and from Gilgit remained at a standstill. News that the road may reopen shortly, if only to allow people to reach the annual religious congregation at Raiwind, was greeted with great relief. During the blockade, there were fears of serious food and fuel shortages in Gilgit, Baltistan and the adjoining areas. A number of seriously ill patients were unable to receive specialist care in Islamabad or Abbottabad and one ten-year-old boy is reported to have died as a result. Many visitors to the area had also been stranded and many locals who were in other parts of the country were unable to return home.

A convoy of trucks from China carrying relief supplies for Afghan refugees was among numerous vehicles unable to proceed south during the blockade. The Karakorum Highway is a lifeline for this remote part of the country. The only practical alternative route is via the infrequent and unreliable PIA flights. Because only tiny Fokkers can ply on the Gilgit-Islamabad route, and the flights are often cancelled owing to bad weather, the pressure on seats is extremely high. The people of the Northern Areas have been lobbying the government to expand the Gilgit airport so that larger planes can land there. Another demand is to start work on the alternative route through the Kaghan Valley. Locals as well as tourists point out that the road has become increasingly vulnerable to disruption by religious extremists, specially at the point at which it passes through Kohistan. The government must take notice of these complaints and act to ease the growing sense of insecurity and isolation among the people of the Northern Areas.

Water blues yet again

DESPITE repeated requests from agonized citizens, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board is all set to shut down water supply to the metropolis’ vast residential and industrial areas for as long as 36 hours at a stretch. The closure was to go into effect at midnight on Saturday and water supply will not be restored until Monday afternoon. Vast areas stretching from Bin Qasim to the Jinnah Terminal will be affected by this long closure, which is being undertaken to plug leakages in the 54-inch Pipri Main water supply line. That this long closure is coming at a time when the water supply in the city had already been badly affected by nearly a week-long power failure earlier on, is making the residents feel miserable and helpless.

Plagued by chronic mismanagement, and inefficiency, and rusty old water pipelines, hundreds of manually operated valve sites and faulty old pumping stations, the KWSB is an epitome of a public sector organization gone haywire. True, like some other utilities in the public sector, it also needs a complete overhaul, and that means large funds being made available to it for the purpose. In the meantime, a piecemeal repair approach is all that the KWSB is stuck with. The least it can do is to carry out such necessary repair work that does not entail water closures over extended periods of time. Water is the most basic of public amenities and it makes no sense to shut it down for such long periods and so frequently.