Local poll pointers

THE first phase of local body elections has been successfully completed, and there are lessons to be learnt for the second and last phase in a week’s time and for the future. A clear picture of the position of the various contending groups (read parties) in the 53 districts where polling was held on Thursday has yet to emerge, but the immediate reaction will be that the exercise, overall, was not disrupted to the extent feared. Eleven people were killed at various places — seven in Punjab — but there was great relief in Karachi, the most hotly contested arena, which remained trouble-free except for minor and sporadic incidents. A great deal of hype had been built about possible violence in the metropolis and, given the acrimony between the Jamaat-i-Islami and the MQM, there was widespread public concern about this. The Jamaat had been particularly vocal on this score although it may now rue the fact that the fears raised by it may have kept many people away from the booths. But the spectre of violence in Karachi allowed the authorities to later claim credit for maintaining the peace. Anyhow, one positive, although perhaps not very durable, development on Thursday night was the visit of the MQM deputy convener to the JI’s Karachi headquarters as a gesture of goodwill. The country’s biggest city needs to finally get over its bitter political, ethnic and sectarian divisions and prevent the criminalization of politics.

Elections elsewhere in Sindh and in Punjab were far less orderly; in the NWFP and Balochistan also there were clashes and the use of firearms. Women were forcibly stopped from voting in over a dozen Peshawar union councils — evidence, if any is needed, of the antediluvian attitudes being deliberately fostered in that region. What took place before the election is even more disturbing, if allegations about pre-poll rigging are to be believed. The opposition has cited several instances, and it would be a pity if such episodes recur during the coming seven days. The Election Commission should not come to the conclusion that once the elections have been completed, the complaints registered with it needn’t be taken seriously. All cases regarding irregularities before and during polling should be thoroughly investigated and the process should satisfy the complainant parties. In elections held on such a large scale in politically retarded and feudal dominated societies like ours, it is impossible to entirely prevent vote fraud, ballot stuffing and intimidation. But the government should at least stop its own gerrymandering and administrative interference and ensure independent inquiries.

There are wider questions brought again to the fore. The pretence that the local elections under the new system are non-political, in the sense that political parties are not officially permitted to participate, has been again graphically exposed. It would be futile to persist in the folly, and as has been suggested a number of times before, the entire system should be scrutinized now that we have had time to work it for four years. The relationship between provincial and city and district governments needs to be reviewed in the light of experience. The voting procedure proved cumbersome for many people, and should be streamlined. Above all, it needs to be understood that genuine political progress will not be possible unless power is fully devolved to the people on a national level under a democratic parliamentary system. Any idea that local bodies should be seen as an institution to be manipulated must be given up.

Shootout in Madina

DEATHS of top Al Qaeda leaders in shootouts with Saudi security forces hit world headlines from time to time, but somehow the militants remain a force in the kingdom. Saleh al Awfi, a top Al Qaeda leader, and another militant were hiding in a residential area in Madina when they were surprised and killed in a shootout on Thursday. Among other top Al Qaeda men killed in Saudi Arabia over the years are Abdul Majeed al-Manea, killed in a gun battle in Riyadh on Oct 12, 2003, Abdul Karim al-Mejjati and Hamoud al-Oteibi on April 5 this year, and Abdul Rahman al-Yazji, one of the top 26 militants, a day later. Along with Al Awfi, three other militants were killed in a series of raids in Madina and Riyadh. That the battles should take place not in some remote corner of the kingdom but in the capital city and Madina goes to show Al Qaeda’s wide network. Last week, Australia and Britain passed on information to Riyadh, and Washington closed its missions in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhahran for security reasons. Saudi authorities did not approve of the closures, but apparently the western governments were better informed, for the Awfi affair followed.

There is no doubt that Saudi Arabia no longer sees the kind of terrorist strikes that occurred on May 12, 2003, killing 35 people and wounding 200 when terrorists bombed housing compounds in Riyadh; on Nov 9 of the same year when a Riyadh housing complex was blown up, killing 18 people; and the Dec 6 raid on the US consulate in Jeddah, in which five Saudis were killed. Since then, the situation has improved, but the kingdom has a long way to go before it can claim that the threat from Al Qaeda has been neutralized. Unemployment helps Al Qaeda, for joblessness has been estimated at 20 per cent. With soaring oil prices — last year Riyadh had a $26bn surplus budget — the Saudi government should be able to tackle unemployment among the youth by creating more jobs. At the same time, like most Arab governments, Riyadh too is under pressure from Washington for widening popular participation in governance. Terrorism and economic and political reforms are, thus, a major challenge for King Abdullah now that he is on the throne.

Torture as punishment

THE government says it is going to reform the madressahs because it views some of these religious institutions as breeding grounds for terrorists. But it has yet to demonstrate enough concern for the plight of young students who often suffer brutal torture at the hands of some depraved staff members. The latest incident relates to the torture and sexual abuse of boys at a madressah at Dijkot, at some distance from Faisalabad. The madressah’s head and teachers have been arrested by the police who acted on the complaint of a visiting parent whose children were among the torture victims. The disclosures are horrifying. Madressah students, aged between four and 12, said that many were kept in chains, subjected to sexual assaults and burnt with hot iron rods. Time and again, newspapers have published similar reports, exposing the brutal, even fiendish mode of punishment that religious teachers routinely administer to their students on the slightest pretext, without the faintest regard for the mental and psychological damage that such punishment causes to the young victims.

It is strange that the government should not have even recognized the link between this process of brutalization (accompanied by ideological brainwashing) and the making of the terrorist who operates both at home and abroad. It is time the authorities took the proposed reforms more seriously. Apart from registration of madressahs, it is far more important to investigate how these schools actually operate, and what sort of education is given to the students and what sort of punishment system they practise and to what effect. Madressahs must be purged of the evil of savage punishment practices in order to make them more civilized and humane places of learning.