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| April 13, 2008 | Sunday | Rabi-us-Sani 6, 1429 |
Scrutiny of military outlay
Islamabad’s dream houses
OTHER VOICES - Indian Press
And now, the pro-PPP divide
The new generation of ‘red shirts’
WE are living in a world of linguistic confusion. Sher Afgan, according to one current definition, falls to the tiger rather than felling it. He is brought down by advocates of violence and not necessarily by the lawyers, including the leaders out on Lahore’s Fane Road and the learned men who are led to offer explanations on their behalf at press conferences.
AFTER 60 years, the fourth generation scion of the Indian National Congress party, Amir Haider Khan Hoti, took oath on April 1. His message, “peace, but not at the cost of people’s lives”, is in line with his forefather’s undisputed non-violent political background.
GOING by what US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said in an exclusive interview with Dawn, America seems to have reconciled itself to Pakistan’s talks-oriented strategy vis-à-vis the Taliban. In fact, Boucher said he found Pakistanis ‘across the spectrum’ in favour of a negotiated solution. Previous ‘deals’ did not work. The most celebrated deal with the militants on Sept 5, 2006, was almost a capitulation. We can ill afford to repeat this mistake because it gave the Taliban time to regroup in what became a virtual sanctuary for them. Their ability to spew death and destruction became evident after the Lal Masjid crackdown last July when they struck at targets even in high-security zones.
After taking the oath of office, Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani told the National Assembly on March 29 that his government would talk to the militants provided they laid down their arms. There is nothing to suggest that this offer has been accepted by the Taliban, though — ignoring minor incidents — there has been perhaps a welcome respite from suicide bombings. The issue for the government is the power of the militants. It has to be broken. The ‘reconcilable’ elements are afraid of the Taliban, both local and foreign. The Taliban’s activity, organisation and ideological indoctrination of the youth have served to undermine the maliks’ traditional position in tribal life. Often moderates are murdered, and those offering to mediate between the government and the Taliban are considered ‘US spies’ and beheaded. In an unprecedented violation of tribal customs, the Taliban bombed a peace jirga and a funeral procession. Yet, the powerless ‘reconcilable’ have been unable to challenge this crime against time-honoured tribal traditions.The government has to develop its own definition of reconcilable and irreconcilable. The Taliban cannot be wished away. The authorities must engage them, but they should not be allowed to dictate terms, some of which go into the domain of foreign policy. The democratic consensus in Pakistan is on a negotiated end to the militancy. The slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan has forcefully highlighted the fact that missiles and helicopter gunships alone cannot find a political solution. While an excessive use of force must be discouraged, military operations in Fata and Swat have made a difference to the situation and, even though bomb blasts and minor acts of terrorism continue, the militants are no more in a position to fight pitched battles.
Talks with right-minded tribal chiefs and militants must take place, and the government must abide by the terms of any deal, while insisting at the same time that the other side keep its part of the bargain. If the Taliban still do not behave and continue shedding innocent blood, they will be guilty at the bar of democratic consensus in Pakistan.
SINS of omission or commission are inevitable in the absence of transparency and accountability. Pakistan’s defence expenditure has never been subject to parliamentary scrutiny and is listed to this day as a single-line item in the annual budget. Just a figure — Rs275bn for 2007-08 — and nothing more. No light is shed on how this colossal sum is to be spent by the armed forces, nor is there any knowing what criteria are used in determining the defence requirements for any given year. That is not how it should work in a democracy and a healthy alternative can be found just across the border. In sharp contradistinction to Pakistan’s allocation by fiat, the Indian finance ministry presents some 80-pages of details vis-à-vis defence outlays in that country. As such the argument that divulging defence spending details could jeopardise Pakistan’s security is without much merit.
Seen against this backdrop, it comes as no surprise that a report by the auditor-general has unearthed serious financial irregularities in the accounts of various defence ministry departments. Presented before the National Assembly on Friday, the report offers a detailed breakdown of how and when defence ministry departments failed to follow due process in the payment or receipt of Rs26.822bn in fiscal 2005-06. The Military Land and Cantonments Department alone accounts for as much as 86 per cent of the irregularities, which is not surprising either given the armed forces’ vast interests in commercial and other real estate. Earlier, on Jan 27, 2007, the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee had taken serious notice of the defence ministry’s failure to pay compensation for land acquired for cantonments and its illegitimate use for commercial and agricultural purposes.
On June 10, 2006, the opposition in the previous assembly had demanded that parliamentarians be provided details of the defence budget so they can know what they are approving. Much was also made of how the Charter of Democracy signed by the PPP and PML-N in May 2006 stated in clear terms that the “defence budget shall be placed before the parliament for debate and approval”. The charter also made the additional promises that military land “allotment rules, regulations and policies” would be subject to government review and scrutiny; that a “committee will be formed to cut waste and bloat in the armed forces and security agencies”; and that “military and judicial officers will be required to file annual assets and income declarations … to make them accountable to the public”. The signatories to the charter are now in power. The time has come to walk the talk.
WHETHER this time the federal ministry of housing can deliver on its promises is a big question. Without fail since the 1980s, this ministry had been unfolding some ambitious mass housing scheme or the other, nationally and for Islamabad in particular, every time a new government came into power. Thus, several national housing policies were formulated and several organisations established under the housing ministry to implement these schemes. The last government had also set up a Housing Advisory Board to advise on the implementation and monitoring of the national housing policy, and identify and resolve issues hampering construction activities. But the net result is dismal: a chronic shortage of housing units for the teeming millions.
It is not surprising, therefore, that scepticism should now plague the housing ministry’s latest schemes and promises. In Islamabad, the new schemes include the construction of 37,000 housing units for low-income employees, which is supposed to begin with the building of 1,000 flats in a couple of residential sectors for Grade 1 to 16 employees on ownership basis. Similar low-income flats had been constructed in the capital under previous governments, but these were hardly able to meet a fraction of the housing needs of the people, whose woes were compounded by spiralling rents. Given this poor record of the housing ministry in the past few decades, what guarantee is there that it will be able to do better this time?
What is also of concern is the recently mooted suggestion of putting the Capital Development Authority under the housing ministry. Given the unimpressive track record and low level of efficiency of this ministry in delivering dream homes to people, the idea of entrusting it with the entire development process of Islamabad is not a comforting thought. The housing ministry had better concentrate on its original mandate, improve its efficiency and ensure that the housing units built under its schemes are allotted to genuine low-income people in need of housing and do not end up in the hands of unscrupulous middlemen and the real-estate mafia.
Brute power won’t fly
The Indian Express
…. THAT an influential MP from Kerala could be ordered off a flight by the pilot, for holding up departure, is a thumping endorsement of citizens’ awareness in this country. Abdul Wahab … was told that he had no business delaying the flight and inconveniencing those who had paid for their tickets…. It is these individual acts of gumption that signal deep changes….
The pilot’s action is … symbolic of our upwardly mobile times — if you can’t take us there, at least get out of the way is exactly what Indian citizens are telling their VIPs. Just compare this to the days when the asymmetries governing our relationship with the state were so absolute that they didn’t even have to be uttered….
The consumer rights movement in India only took hold in the 1980s … it has finally become a full-blown … phenomenon. Our rights cannot be blatantly hijacked by money or power any more, because a healthy sense of outrage has now been inscribed into our minds…. [I]f the government and its representatives still carry around that sense of entitlement from a time that is decisively past, they can expect to be firmly told to leave it behind before they board India Soaring.... — (April 9)
Congress largesse in Karnataka
The Asian Age
ONE can be cynical only to an extent in assessing the Congress’ over-zealousness in promising many good things of life … to the aam aadmi in Karnataka in return for his vote in the May Assembly polls. The Congress … has a vested interest in recapturing Karnataka since an electoral victory will boost the Congress-UPA prospects in 2009….
Thus, appropriately motivated, the party has pledged a long list of amenities, facilities and concessions in its poll manifesto. Among these are 25 kg of rice at Rs2 per kg …; loans to farmers … at three per cent interest; health insurance coverage; a Rs1200 per month training stipend for unemployed youth; houses for 15 lakh families…. How will the Congress fund the poll-linked offers?
Mr S.M. Krishna says the party “has the political will and ability to mobilise the resources to implement the benefits”. The statement lends itself to many interpretations but the charitable will see in it only the sincerity of the party’s commitment to a pro-people agenda…. By being the first to offer a peep into the treasure chest, the Congress has scored a propaganda victory of sorts over its rivals. Can they match the Congress, gift for gift? — (April 12)
Given this new dawn of vocabulary usage, would it be wrong to say that in the political dictionary of the country, reconciliation stands for one party befriending all other parties? The party that would divide is the party that unites. It is not only a topsy-turvy, but also a changed world.
The Pakistan People’s Party runs through the scheme called Pakistan, right from Khyber to Karachi, as they say. A bridge that perhaps connects just too many winding roads, and one that is easy to dismiss as an invention of expediency. One fact cannot be ignored though: a national consensus government was what every political party from those which were likely to win to those which eventually won was pushing for in the run-up to the Feb 18 polls. It appeared impossible before the election and seems incredible today. It does exist with all its manifold problems.
On Friday, the PML-N refused to be drawn into the parliamentary committee ‘labyrinth’ the PPP has been trying to create ‘to debate the restoration of the judges’.
PML-N leader and federal minister Khwaja Asif said that such a grouping of parliamentarians was not required since an inter-coalition party committee on the subject already existed and could take decisions with authority.
The same day, the nationalists observed a strike in Balochistan to protest the imprisonment of Nawab Akhtar Mengal — when the PPP’s chief minister in Balochistan Nawab Aslam Raisani’s call for redefining terrorism was still ringing in the air.
On Wednesday, the lawyers’ movement the PML-N has been championing literally rose from the ashes in Karachi, just hours after suffering a huge blow in Lahore courtesy the Sher Afgan episode.
Other equally important issues of the time, such as the case of the missing persons, pit the collective wisdom of the politicians against the establishment’s shield which such acts enjoy.
In Lahore, the verdict is a foregone conclusion. Not a day passes without some important Sharif lieutenant vowing to restore the judges to the pre-Nov 3 position. The ritual was repeated at its loudest when the newly-elected Punjab Assembly was finally allowed to meet on April 9. Each and every member of the PML-N who found an opportunity to address the people through the media reiterated the party line on the judiciary. The message is clear, there can be no compromise on the issue, even if there can be no consensus without compromise.
For reasons of illustration let us take up an instance of the extremely irreconcilable positions of today. Much has been set ablaze since then and too many salvos fired, but at one stage it appeared that the PML-N was not all that averse to developing some kind of a relationship with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
Pre-poll, when Mian Nawaz Sharif and Shabaz Sharif spoke in favour of a national-consensus government, they wouldn’t have meant a set-up minus the MQM, a large force in the country’s politics. Post-poll, according to Nawaz Sharif, his party had some ‘reservations’ about allying itself with the MQM. Reservations … a mild expression in a season where reconciliation emerged as such a strong word and even someone as central to the lawyers’ movement as Aitzaz Ahsan was heard telling Pakistanis that May 12, 2007, was best forgotten.
Barrister Ahsan was an exception and earned the wrath of all and sundry for his statement. The problem with the national consensus business is that the aggrieved parties are not ready to make up with the ones who had caused them the latest hurt. The PPP is ready to embrace anyone but Arbab Rahim and the PML-N leaders have no problem in accepting anyone from within the official Q-League except for their political tormentors of the last eight years, the Chaudhries of Gujrat, and the general who had dislodged them from power.
The general may accept anyone but the judge and the lawyers who he warns against spreading anarchy — a day after they lost so many of their colleagues to the fires set up by the easily unidentified people in Karachi.
Come to think of it, salvation for the politicians — especially the PPP since everyone else can conveniently blame it on Zardari — may lie in confronting the president, sooner rather than later. The symbolic value of his departure may camouflage lack of success on solving the issues, just as the restoration of an individual some-where may hide other flaws in the system.
Amir Haider Hoti has to work against heavy odds to prove that he is not a proverbial product of All Fools’ Day!
This, indeed, is a turning point in the history of the turbulent province named the North West Frontier Province after the arbitrary Durand Line was drawn by the British in 1893. During the oath-taking ceremony, as the chief minister mumbled this odd reminder of a colonial demarcation, it was a journey down memory lane.
According to Wali Khan, “When Jinnah came to Peshawar in March 1948, during a meeting between Jinnah and Ghaffar Khan, the former squarely demanded of the latter that he and his colleagues join the Muslim League. Ghaffar Khan took this matter to the party’s executive committee which clearly turned down the request.”
Jinnah’s March 1948 declaration, ‘Every Mussalman should come under the banner of the Muslim League, which is the custodian of Pakistan, and build up and make it a great state before we think of parties amongst ourselves which may be formed on sound healthy lines’ is seen by Dr Minhaj ul Hasan, chairman of the department of history at the University of Peshawar, as having cast the die for a single-party state.
Mukulika Banerjee recalls how on Aug 21, 1947, a week after gaining independence, Governor Ambrose Dundas dismissed Dr (Jabbar) Khan Sahib’s ministry, on orders from Governor General Jinnah. Ghaffar (Bacha) Khan took the formal oath of allegiance to Pakistan and vowed he would not seek to hurt the new state. He sought to lobby Jinnah to grant a significant level of autonomy to the Pashtuns, but was persistently rebuffed.
On June 1948, the Khudai Khidmatgar was banned by the new Muslim League provincial government and its leaders imprisoned, branded as “friends of Gandhi and Nehru and traitors to Pakistan”. The KKs watched with disbelief as the Muslim League, regarded by most of them as the tools of the British, thrived, thanks to the independence of the country which the KK believed had been won largely through the blood and toil of its activists. The KKs expressed their remorse by reciting a bitter tappa (couplet): “The stick that used to beat us now has a flag on it!”
It is indeed a historic occasion for the new generation of ‘red shirts’ of a bygone period to rejoice in a much anticipated victory which they felt was unjustly snatched from them on the eve of independence. Amir Haider Khan Hoti is the paternal grandson of Amir Mohammad Khan, the provincial president of the Indian National Congress. Belonging to, but unlike his feudal Lakhkar Khel Hoti clan (traditionally conservative and pro-establishment), he was a trusted ally of Bacha Khan.
A mesmerising public speaker, he like his fellow nationalist leaders, was jailed and his properties seized by the Qayyum Khan ministry which initiated what is seen by ANP loyalists as a witch hunt of all Congress leaders who were either jailed or forced into exile. The childhood of Azam Khan Hoti, Amir Haider’s father, too, was spent in unhappy solitude as the family suffered indignities. He died of a heart attack after serving many years in Pakistani jails.
His maternal great-grandfather was the legendary Bacha Khan. Jinnah and Bacha Khan were working at cross purposes. The KK and the Congress demanded a secular and undivided India and they regarded the Muslim League as advancing the British policy of ‘divide and rule’. The Muslim League based its ideology on ‘Islam is in danger’, particularly in the NWFP, where the majority of the Pashtuns voted for Congress till independence. This ‘anomaly’ went counter to the Muslim League’s politics based on ‘religious exclusivity and separate electorates’ and made their stand sound all the more incongruous.
The Muslim League never forgave Bacha Khan for this decision, and for his role in going against the division of India along religious lines. Hence, after Pakistan was created even though he accepted and swore allegiance to the new state, he was considered a pariah by the Muslim League. Being in charge, they could ‘rewrite history and create it’ as they liked. The dissolution of the Congress ministry in 1947 by Jinnah is considered the first undemocratic act by the federal government of Pakistan.
Mukulika Banerjee reflects in The Pathan Unarmed, “The dream for peace was dashed as KKs began to see how badly they were being treated in the new state. After Jinnah’s rejection of any autonomy for the Pathans, the KK resumed its agitation and non-violent protest. The response of the new state was equally if not more vicious than the British. Many prominent KK activists ended up in prisons and had their lands confiscated, and many families were reduced to poverty, their children were denied education, because their fathers were in jail for much of the time after independence.“The KKs had seen a half-century of life, with all its pettiness, problems, and conflicts, and had much opportunity for reflection upon it. Recollections of the past are certainly influenced by the changing responses to the world, which arise as an individual passes through his own life cycle, and this is one reason why the elicitation of life histories can be so illuminating and intriguing. It is not so surprising, therefore, they should choose to emphasise so much as the moral guidance which they had received from Badshah Khan, a guidance which seems to have influenced their approach to everyday life after the British left.
“An old man’s impassioned defence of non-violence and unity becomes highly resonant and understandable when one leaves his hutment and encounters grandchildren playing casually with automatic weapons. Similarly, the emphasis on the KKs’ frugality seems to be directed both at venal and corrupt politicians and at a younger generation, who they fear is being seduced by foreign goods and a nascent consumerism.”
When the pragmatic Amir Haider Khan Hoti pledged happiness for his province, it reflected the idealism of his ancestors who sacrificed power for the sake of principles. Similarly, when he promises ‘peace’ as the cornerstone of his policy, one cannot disagree. Given modern-day politics where stiff-necked politicians walk about in starched clothes — with the menacing Taliban around the corner — the goals set by the new prime minister seem rather far-fetched as history has not been kind generally, and in particular to our region. As Bacha Khan once sadly reflected: “Our geography is our destiny.” Only time can prove it to be otherwise.
adilzareef@yahoo.com
