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| August 19, 2007 | Sunday | Sha’aban 5, 1428 |
Why this procrastination?
The proxy phenomenon
Jirga: an exercise in futility?
TO say that the situation in Afghanistan is grave would be an understatement. Every passing day sees the US becoming mired ever deeper in Afghanistan à la Iraq, because of its faulty strategy. In its desperation, it is looking for supporting planks and is leaning more and more on Pakistan. Thus the mantra of “do more”.
WITH Fatah and Hamas having adopted what look like irreconcilable positions, Palestinian unity has become a distant dream. The catalogue of blunders since the June slaughter when Hamas routed Fatah fighters and took control of Gaza is frightful. Mr Mahmoud Abbas sacked Mr Ismail Haniye as prime minister and appointed a neutral person, Mr Salam Fayyad, in his place. Since the Palestinian Legislative Council had a Hamas majority, Mr Abbas issued a decree that said the prime minister need not take a vote of confidence from parliament. In turn, Mr Haniye has refused to recognise the Fayyad government. President Abbas now demands that Hamas “return” Gaza to “the legitimate authority”. He refuses to realise that the Fayyad government cannot be considered the legitimate authority because the parliamentary majority is not with him. Besides, by appealing to Hamas for the “return” of Gaza, President Abbas has effectively conceded that he has no de facto control over the strip. He has now threatened to call an early election and seems determined to manipulate it, since he has issued a decree that virtually bars Hamas from taking part in the elections. According to the decree, all candidates must file a declaration pledging “respect for the PLO programme”. Since the PLO has recognised Israel’s right to exist, signing such a declaration will amount to a repudiation of the Hamas charter, which does not recognise Israel. Another decree says that half of the MPs will be elected on the basis of “party lists” and not by a single-constituency vote. This too goes against Hamas, since the Islamist party had swept the polls last year on a constituency basis.
The president has refused to talk to Hamas, while insisting that Gaza be brought under his control. Hamas says the presidential decrees are illegal and that no election would be possible, at least in Gaza, without Hamas’s approval. Hamas and Fatah must now ask themselves, rather than each other, in what way they have advanced the cause of Palestinian independence. Last June’s shootout that killed 100 people is not the only tragedy in the Palestinian people’s history since the Balfour declaration handed over Palestine to the Jews, and European settlers started arriving in the holy land. The real tragedy this time is a kind of Palestinian disunity never witnessed before. If Israel, America and the European Union, notwithstanding their commitment to democracy, decided from day one to sabotage the elected Hamas government, one can understand it. But that Fatah led by Yasser Arafat’s right-hand man should have acted so recklessly is indeed astonishing.
The blame, of course, must be shared by both sides. While Fatah never reconciled itself to the loss of its traditional hold over Palestinian politics, Hamas failed to exercise the restraint expected of a party which was in absolute majority. Between them they have sabotaged the Palestinian cause in a way that no Israeli leader has done. By mutual slaughter and the subsequent political acrimony, Fatah and Hamas have put the Palestinian cause on hold for years. The US-led peace process never had much chance of making progress and ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. The collapse of a common Palestinian front has now given Israel a chance to blame the lack of progress in the peace talks on the Palestinians. The two Palestinian factions have no choice but to resolve their differences.
IT IS incomprehensible why the government is endlessly delaying the enactment of the Transplantation of Human Organs And Tissues Ordinance, 2007, into law. Instead of promulgating it as an ordinance, the draft was tabled in the National Assembly on Friday when the current session of parliament was prorogued. That means the matter can only be taken up when the Assembly meets next — probably in September. There are fears that, in what could prove to be the last session of the Assembly before elections, the matter could be overshadowed by other concerns. Thus, while the discussion of such an important bill in parliament is necessary, it may be a long time before it is legislated, especially in view of the fact that this is the fifth time that the bill has been introduced in the Assembly in the past 15 years. Even as a stop-gap arrangement, a presidential ordinance would give immediate legal cover to action against unscrupulous doctors, middlemen and hospital owners who are involved in kidney sales, and parliament would still be in a position to debate and fine-tune it before its final passage into law.
Unfortunately, the whole exercise has been full of delays and loopholes. Had it not been for the pressure exerted by civil society, the draft today would still have contained clauses that, instead of curbing kidney sales, would have actually sanctioned them. In its present form, it meets the demands of doctors and others who have been pressing for legislation to outlaw such sales, and it is imperative that it be promulgated without further delay. It is also necessary to detect and unmask the elements who are behind this constant procrastination, for it is not possible that government lethargy and indifference alone have been behind the delay. This is borne out by the fact that kidney sales in the country constitute a multimillion rupee business, and renal patients in countries with strict transplant laws are increasingly turning to hospitals in Pakistan (reportedly a number of them are run by ex-army men) that perform dubious kidney operations. A law is essential if this abhorrent practice is to be stopped.
ONE major factor contributing to the rot in the education sector is the failure of the teachers to do their job with dedication and integrity. This is to be attributed to the lack of good training and personal motivation. Also contributing to this mess is the corruption that has crept into the education sector, and many teachers have proved to be the main culprits. Ghost schools and ghost teachers are not new phenomena. Teachers are now resorting to ingenious techniques to avoid detection of their fraudulent ways. One of them is for teachers to hire proxies who are tipped a nominal amount while the person supposedly employed pockets the salary while taking up employment elsewhere. As could have been expected, the proxies who hold the fort are not teachers at all. The examination results — at least in Chitral in this case — prove beyond doubt that they are not qualified for teaching.
The prevalence of the proxy phenomenon testifies to the collapse of the monitoring and inspection system of the education department. Had the school inspectors been doing their job efficiently and honestly, it is unlikely that the absenteeism of teachers and their substitution by proxies on such a big scale would have gone unnoticed. It is time the policymakers addressed the issue of school inspection which is the lynchpin of a smoothly operating school system. Besides ensuring that teachers are not absent from school, measures should also be taken to provide them in-service training on a regular basis to improve their pedagogy skills and their knowledge. It would also help if steps are taken to motivate the teachers to put in their best in teaching children because their job is vital for producing an educated generation of youth. It is unfortunate that this has not been acknowledged generally.
Meanwhile, Kabul, the proverbial capital of intrigues, is bustling with renewed activities. People are talking about a new great game related to the oil and gas reserves of the Central Asian Republics and trade opportunities that mask the ambitions of the US and the new emerging superpowers. It is in the backdrop of this environment that Pakistan is getting sucked into the situation in the name of the peace jirga.
This writer participated in the Pak Afghan Joint Peace Jirga in Kabul held from Aug 9 to Aug 12, 2007 with the aim of being useful, despite many people questioning the wisdom of such a jirga. Will the latter be able to achieve results or will it lead to Pakistan getting further sucked into a situation from which extrication would be difficult.
In its 60 years, Pakistan has suffered for 30 mainly because of the fallout from the situation inside Afghanistan. In this peace jirga, one saw the same old players with suspect loyalties and ambitions occupying front seats in new roles. They are the same Ustad Rabbani, Ustad Rasool Sayaf, Pir Sayyed Ahmad Gillani, Ismail Khan Toran, Rasheed Dostum and Pir Sayyed Mujadadi. Of course, the late Ahmad Shah Masud has been succeeded by Ameen Faheem and Younas Qanooni.
The main spokesman Abdullah Abdullah was co-chairing the jirga with Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao from Pakistan’s side. All the main Afghan speakers, well-prepared unlike their Pakistani counterparts, carried venom in their hearts against Pakistan — in spite of the lip service paid to long historical linkages and the hospitality of the Pakistani people towards five million Afghan refugees.Afghanistan’s hostile attitude towards Pakistan since its inception is not a new phenomenon. The attacks on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul and its consulates in Jalalabad on the slight pretext are well known and common.
Thus those who understand Pakistan-Afghan relations are justified in wondering as to who conceived this novel idea of the peace jirga and for what purpose. The men behind this are those who authored and brokered the infamous North Waziristan agreement.In an effort to sell the North Waziristan agreement, the role of the peace jirgas was overstated, and George Bush was prompt in observing that if these could resolve issues, why not have them between Pakistan and Afghanistan. We had to agree.
Pakistan realised the disastrous effects of the North Waziristan agreement after 10 months, after considerable damage to its writ and the resultant spread of the menace of Talibanisation to settled areas, right up to Islamabad.
Let us hope that our journey to this jirga does not land us into further trouble.
Talibanisation is an ideology and US operations in Afghanistan, instead of dealing with the threat posed by this ideology, are focused solely on getting hold of Osama Bin Laden, Ayman-al-Zawahiri, Mulla Omar etc. The stabilisation of society in Afghanistan does not seem to be high on their list of priorities. Thus the common man in Afghanistan, particularly in the Pashtun-dominated southern and eastern provinces, faces lack of security and the absence of service delivery.
The rank and file of the Taliban in Afghanistan is not only swelling but the effects of this phenomenon are spreading towards the adjoining tribal areas of Pakistan.
Owing to the Pakistani government’s inconsistent tribal policy that changes with the appointment of each new governor, the menace is spreading to the settled areas of Pakistan on hand and to the crossing of some Taliban into Afghanistan on the other, thus giving enough reason to Kabul to blame Pakistan for all its troubles.
Was the Pak Afghan Joint Peace Jirga beneficial to Pakistan? For an answer, it is imperative that the dynamics of the jirga system be clearly understood. The jirga is a formal forum to resolve issues in Pashtun tradition but it has certain prerequisites. First is the precise definition of the issue or issues that can be equated with terms of reference for the jirga.
Second is the nomination of the parties involved in the conflict and their willingness to submit to the jirga. This is known as “wak” or “ikhtiar”. These aspects were missing in this jirga.
The present issue is between Al Qaeda and the Taliban on the one side and the Afghan government and Nato forces on the other. Since neither side is willing to negotiate, one is at a loss to understand as to how a peace jirga between the people of the NWFP and Balochistan and the people of Afghanistan can resolve the issue, especially when the main contenders are not represented.
Whether non-state actors should be represented is an altogether different question. There are those who contend that this jirga would at least bring the two people together to get to know each other more. Do the people of the NWFP and Balochistan and the Afghans require further introduction?
Some nationalist elements in Balochistan and the NWFP and on the Afghan side question the validity of the Durand Line, the international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The government should be aware that such frequent meetings could give impetus to this dormant issue.
There are those who think that the new game is to “pretend” that there are issues between Afghanistan and Pakistan that need to be resolved. Such issues would subsequently be used as a pretext to involve Pakistan in the war in Afghanistan, thus paving the way for joint operations involving Pakistani territory.
All such theories need to be given due consideration by Pakistan before the government haphazardly peruses processes which have not been thought through.
As already mentioned, the Afghan side had prepared very well for this jirga, with the aim of putting the whole blame on Pakistan for the present situation in Afghanistan. They wanted the delegates from Pakistan to believe that all Taliban under Mulla Omar are Pakistanis or have been trained by Pakistan and are being financed and directed by it.
The speakers had been well selected and had prepared with proper speeches. On the Pakistan side, such preparations were hardly visible. The participants consisted of three main strands: nationalist parties like the ANP and Pashtun Khwa Milli Awami Party with their own ideologies, traders who wanted to establish/refresh links with their counterparts in Afghanistan, and simple tribesmen who did not know what to do and what to say.
It was said that the Afghan delegates had more than 60 meetings to prepare for this jirga. On Pakistan’s side, there were hardly any preparations. Everyone was on his own, creating an embarrassing situation for the Pakistani delegation despite some last-minute efforts by Mr Sherpao to bring some sanity to the proceedings.
To quote just one example, the Afghan side was so consistent in its efforts that Abdullah Abdullah, known for his anti-Pakistan stance, was monitoring the progress of each subcommittee personally.
The attorney-general of Afghanistan, with a full team of lawyers, was the member of the first committee which was to deal with the main issue of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs. This equated to allegations against Pakistan and the propaganda which the Afghan government carries out against it.
The proceedings of this committee started from 8am on Aug 11 and continued until 4am on Aug 12. The Pakistan side had no qualified person to draft the recommendations. The result was a diluted version of the recommendations which assumed the form of a trade agreement. These recommendations were never placed before the committee and were announced in the morning in a hurry.
The jirga also witnessed some ugly moments. At one point, the tribal leaders wanted to walk out and address a press conference on the plea that if the Pakistani delegation accepted the whole blame for the situation in Afghanistan, they would be the ones that would have to take action.
In fact, they would be required to stop cross-border incursions and that would mean the complete consent of their tribes which would be a tall order, particularly when they had not discussed the issue with them beforehand.
On another occasion, Hazrat Pir Sayyed Mujadadi, not satisfied with the venom that he had spewed against Pakistan from the rostrum in the main jirga hall, while leading the Friday prayers started talking against Pakistan in the khutba.
Some of the tribal elders from Pakistan stood up and refused to offer prayers behind him and forced him down from the pulpit.
In spite of all this, one must accept that the way the Afghan government and the people treated the guests from Pakistan was really praiseworthy. They had put in much effort to arrange accommodation, transportation and food, and their movements appeared to have been well coordinated and they remained very courteous in spite of provocations.
The British, after three costly wars, learnt that the best way to deal with Afghanistan was to leave it to its own fate and concentrate on controlling the borders between Afghanistan and the territories now representing Pakistan. This is the lesson available to the rulers of Pakistan. One wishes they would understand this plain logic. But then a wish is not a fish that one can fry and enjoy.
The writer is former secretary, home & tribal affairs, NWFP, and secretary Fata (Security).