Not for God alone

THE peaceful end on Monday to a primary schoolchildren’s hostage-taking near Bannu must be noted with an equal sense of relief and concern. The militants’ negotiated safe passage secured through local tribesmen can only be condoned under the extremely excruciating situation that had obtained. It helped avoid a tragedy like the one in Beslan, Russia, where in 2004, Chechen rebels held hundreds of schoolchildren hostage before security forces took action, resulting in the death of 186 children among others. But let’s not forget that many of the dozens of children who lived through the six-hour-long ordeal near Bannu did not come out wholly unscathed. The emotional scars left on their minds may never heal; nor the trauma suffered by their parents forgotten. Sadly, no social infrastructure exists to provide emotional counselling to mitigate their suffering.

The taxing episode left one hostage-taker dead and a police constable injured in the security forces’ bid to secure the release of a kidnapped health officer before the militants took the schoolchildren hostage. This exposes the vulnerability faced by the residents of the troubled region where only the absence of an ongoing war has come to define peace. Sadly, again, not enough has been done to secure public health and educational facilities or the people using them. Girls’ schools and unaccompanied women face much harassment; teachers are threatened and parents warned not to send their daughters to school. Barbers are forbidden from shaving beards and music outlets shut down. The militants have a free run of the field, with the people left to fend for themselves; security personnel stationed there fare only marginally better. This calls for more than fire-fighting.

It is perhaps simplistic to assume that faith alone drives the growing militancy in the troubled Frontier countryside. Evidently an underground economy has developed in the region pumping the ‘militancy enterprise’, as it were, driven by those funding terrorism and benefiting from it. Taking, for instance, religion out of the equation, it may well be argued that organised banditry is flourishing under the lawlessness gripping the region. The absence of a well-defined strategy to get to the root of the problem makes it all the more difficult to curb it. So far we have only seen a piecemeal approach to the issue, focused on solving one crisis after the other which misses the bigger picture. The real reasons behind the removal of the erstwhile Frontier governor, Mr Ali Jan Aurakzai, who was blamed for failing to arrest the rising wave of what is loosely termed ‘extremism’ because of its religious overtones, perhaps need to be explored afresh. Longer-term combat as well as a logistic, economic and psychological warfare strategy have to be in place to plug all potential loopholes in the ways and means applied to fighting terrorism.

Why turn to outsiders?

THERE is one trait common to all Pakistani governments and the opposition: both have no qualms of conscience when degrading themselves by seeking foreign help to sort out domestic problems. This government is no exception. It involved Saudi Arabia first in arranging the Sharifs’ exile and later when they returned. The British-American involvement in President Pervez Musharraf’s meeting with Benazir Bhutto in Dubai and the Pakistani icon’s return home as part of a search for a ‘moderate’ regime is too well known to be recounted. This tendency goes back into history. For instance, in the wake of the 1971 trauma, the opposition went from embassy to embassy in Islamabad to ‘point out’ the denial of democratic freedoms by the Bhutto government. During the Ziaul Haq days, and during the political era (1988-1999), opposition leaders went to the US to plead for an aid cut-off as pressure for the government of the day to liberalise.

What is happening today is not much different from the past, for among other places where Imran Khan and others have gone to plead their case against the Musharraf government is Capitol Hill. What the PTI chief seems to have forgotten is that it is the struggle within the country that ultimately succeeds. Foreign governments may exploit the situation to their advantage, but the initiative has to come from within Pakistan. The world has taken note of the on-going movement for the rule of law and democracy because of the epic struggle carried out by the legal community and the media. If the lawyers had not protested the way they did, if the judges had not refused to be cowed, and if the media had taken the Nov 3 emergency and the curbs meekly no foreign government would have helped.

Since he is a politician, Imran Khan ought to know that the credit for the present stir goes to the lawyers and journalists, and the political parties merely tried — unsuccessfully perhaps — to jump on the bandwagon. Again today, the place for continuing the struggle for freedom and for fair and transparent elections is Pakistan and not Capitol Hill. Unfortunately, Imran Khan wants the general election to be postponed. In this he is in Mian Nawaz Sharif’s awkward company, whose party wants to have the election postponed but is at the same time taking part in it.

An unnecessary outburst

AS the army chief and the country’s self-styled chief executive, General Pervez Musharraf may have lacked legitimacy, but he rarely lacked charm and aplomb when appearing before the media. Over the years, particularly as the military ruler, he was seen as handling the toughest of questions with great panache, and on many occasions, with a smile. It was perhaps because of this that here and more so abroad the media often seemed to forget that he was a military ruler. But of late his personality seems to have undergone a transformation. He has taken to snapping at journalists at news conferences and is irritable and ready to explode at the slightest perceived provocation. But, as if this were not enough, the way he asked a gathering of his supporters to teach a lesson (do, teen tika do) to this newspaper’s London correspondent because he had asked him a tough question was a bit too much. The president, it appears, has journeyed from the sublime to the ridiculous.

One runs into a dead-end in explaining how one question can trigger such anger, and can only speculate about the reasons. The first and foremost appears to be the widening gulf between how the president assesses his performance in office and how others see it, particularly in terms of his handling of militancy in the country. Although his advisers may tell him he may have weathered the storm over the judiciary, he may be unsure what the next parliament’s view on the issue will be. A greater issue could be how pressure is increasing on him to hold free and fair elections, even from allies who have stood solidly behind him through thick and thin over the past several years. For one who described his uniform as his second skin, retiring as the all-powerful army chief may have left him feeling vulnerable. But, regardless of the cause, one would advise the president to keep his cool, his composure. For such outbursts do not inspire confidence in his ability to steer the country out of the troubled waters it finds itself in today.

OTHER VOICES - European Press

Shocking apathy on water shortage

‘NO more water cuts,’ read a front-page banner headline in the Cyprus Mail a few years ago. This was…a boast by a government minister who genuinely believed that the problem of water shortages had been tackled…the government had decided to build two additional desalination plants which would have covered all our water needs for the foreseeable future.

A new government came to power in 2003 and decided to scrap its predecessor’s plans for the two new desalination plants in order to save money. … so oblivious was it to the possibility of drought that it decided to give licences for the creation of 14 golf courses.

On Thursday, it was reported that millions of cubic metres of water were being lost every year because of the antiquated water supply network…

Some slapdash measures were put together towards the end of last year…An advertising campaign urging people to save water was also launched…The government also decided to go ahead with the construction of two more desalination plants, which will not be ready for another three years… There is a possibility that cuts would be avoided, if the rainfall in February and March reached the average levels. — (Jan 27)

Frying tonight…

IF one could choose any three companies to pioneer vocational qualifications, Network Rail, Flybe and McDonald’s would probably not be at the top of most people’s wish list. Many an eyebrow will have been raised…at the prospect of diplomas being handed out for those who can squeeze the most passengers on to a plane, schedule the most irritating engineering works and sell the most unhealthy meals. And naturally quips about ‘McQualifications’ are far too tempting.

But all of that misses the point. The real point is the long-standing skills gap in our economy. Too few youngsters are leaving education without the qualifications they need to lead productive and rewarding lives. Vocational qualifications are the only alternative. Yet what is the point of a vocational qualification if businesses play no role in at least making clear what they want or need from their future employees?

It makes perfect sense to invite the commercial sector to take a hand in training….And certain standards must be maintained to ensure that these qualifications are genuinely worth something to those who take them.

Most important of all, this has to be part of a serious and effective drive to increase the levels and quality of vocational training in this country.

— (Jan 29)