Highlights of the August 2004 issue
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The Pakistani al-Qaeda
By Zaffar Abbas
Within 24 hours of the suicide attack that nearly killed Pakistan’s financial wizard and prime minister-designate Shaukat Aziz, a statement was posted on a website known for carrying propaganda material from several Islamic militant groups. “One of our blessed battalions tried to hunt the head of one of America’s infidels in Pakistan while he was returning from Fatehjang, but God wanted him to survive,”said the statement that was sent to the website in Arabic. The hitherto unknown group identified itself as the “Islambouli Brigade of al-Qaeda”, an apparent reference to Lt. Khalid Islambouli, the man who had led the group of soldiers in the 1981 assassination of the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat.
Initial reaction from senior Pakistani security officials was one of scepticism and not without reason. Even if Osama bin Laden or his second in command, Aiman al-Zawahiri, had directly issued the instructions, it was highly unusual for the terror network to use the name al-Qaeda. But then, it was no ordinary incident and clearly indicated that the group involved in the attack comprised of highly motivated Islamic militants. In some ways, the attack was no different from those on President Musharraf in December last year as well as the one against the Karachi corps commander in June this year. While these were arguably the three most high profile attacks on top government functionaries, a series of other suicide attacks and bomb explosions had already led some of the top government and security officials to suspect the emergence of a home-grown militant force based on a philosophy similar to that of al-Qaeda. “It’s a frightening thought,” says a senior government minister. “Especially since it is not entirely baseless.”
Terror’s allies
By Amir Mir
Given the gradual shift in the focus and tactics of local militant outfits, al-Qaeda has many allies in Pakistan.
The recent spate of terrorist violence across Pakistan has confirmed the Pakistani intelligence’s worst fears regarding al-Qaeda’s presence as well as its range of activities inside Pakistan. Not only does al-Qaeda have a large presence in Pakistan, say intelligence sources, it may be acting in tandem with several local militant organisations. In this respect, intelligence officials have been able to identify two Pakistani outfits – Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) and Harkatul Mujahideen (HUM) – who may now have active linkages with al-Qaeda.
Investigations into the June 10, 2004, attack on the Karachi corps commander led the authorities to eight suspects who identified themselves as activists of a hitherto unheard of militant outfit by the name of Jundullah. However, subsequent enquiries convinced the authorties that Jundullah was just another name for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi which had struck up a strong working partnership with al-Qaeda. “The LJ is working as an al-Qaeda strike force,” says one official, adding that the strike force in question could have been trained by Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, currently in US custody, to go after high-profile targets such as General Pervez Musharraf.
Ready To Rumble
By M. Ilyas Khan
The violence nurtured by Pakistan’s security establishment in Afghanistan is now looking for a new home.
How does one explain the ferocity of al-Qaeda’s recent attacks against top Pakistani leadership? Is it indicative of the desperation of a beast whose escape routes have been blocked, or is it the precursor of a new phase of international intrigue with Pakistan at its center? While federal information minister, Shaikh Rashid Ahmed subscribes to the first view, some veterans of the Pakistani intelligence community warn that history has a dangerous habit of turning full circle, especially if it has been crafted to go against the tide of time.
After all, Afghanistan should have been the last place on earth to serve as a hatchery for al-Qaeda. The country never remained under sustained colonial rule and therefore never evolved an Islamic revivalist movement to mobilise resistance. Over the last three hundred years, Afghanistan has been governed by tribal confederacies in which religion has meant no more than a fixture on the social facade of a subsistence economy and a harsh tribal code. Yet it became the base for an advanced version of Ikhwanul Muslimeen or Islamic Brotherhood, the colonial-era internationalist movement that flourished in Egypt and the fertile regions of the rest of the Middle East.
There are other surprises, such as the fact that countries most affected by Islamic terrorism today are also the ones that worked the hardest to turn Afghanistan into an al-Qaeda hotbed.
Off Centre
By Zaffar Abbas
Collateral Damage
By Ayesha Tammy Haq
Should she be at one of those seminars where social activists speak of things that matter with words that must be said, the rest being far too apathetic to do more than spoon out the odd bowl of ice cream? And when the little boy asks for more or turns into a tribe of little boys looking for their scoop, is the irate reaction accompanied by: “Really, these people are too much. Do they think this is a gelato affair?” Or should she be at one of those mass meditations seeking to centre her navel and balance her chakras with controlled breathing so that she can smile benignly as the child works? But there is no ice cream as the freezer is filled with wholesome foods, rich in antioxidants but awful to taste.
The Final Cut
By Saad Sayeed
The Shaukat Mirage
From Ali Hassan in Mithi and
Mohsin Raza in Attock
Pakistan’s poorest and least developed district braces itself to send a billionaire banker to the PM’s office.
They have come from all over the desert, from one end of Tharparker to the other. True, the National Assembly constituency NA-229, the focus of this fanfare, does not include the whole of Thar. But who cares. For the poverty-hit, fun-starved people of this 20,000-square-kilometre wasteland, the desert heat is not reason enough to deny an offer that includes a free ride and a midday meal. Wearing soiled clothes, Sindhi caps, occasional ajraks and festive airs, groups of Tharis can be seen disembarking from kekras, the locally modified trucks dating from the second world war. Others are moving towards the huge pindal erected on the open ground beside the road that connects Mithi, the headquarters of the district, with Naukot, district Mirpurkhas. Closer to the pindal, people are lining up to get inside. Most of them do not know who the visiting dignitaries are. But some do. “Shaukat Aziz is coming,” speculates one peasant, standing in the queue. Another corrects him. “Aziz Memon is coming,” he says.
So much for the voters who are going to elect (or unelect) Shaukat Aziz as the country’s next prime minister in a by-election on August 18. As for the constituency which Aziz seeks to represent, it is lost somewhere in the southernmost borderland of the country where his five-year-old economic revolution is yet to kick in. The question is, how does the billionaire super-banker expect the unrefined and underprivileged people of Thar to relate to him in an election?
Policemen absolved from charge of gang rape
By Nadeem Saeed
Multan – As expected, the judicial enquiry into the gang rape of two street singers Shazia (18) and Tabassum (30) has exonerated the police. Additional district and sessions judge Abdul Rehman Khan latched on to minor discrepancies between the victims’ accounts to deliver a clean bill of health to his uniformed colleagues. Of course, fake witnesses and a rather casual attitude towards the prescribed law of evidence also helped. Clearly, there are none as adept at breaking the law as the law enforcement agencies themselves.
Muttahida awarded by-election seats by SHC
Syed Shoaib Hasan
Karachi – The May 12 by-election saga has taken yet another controversial twist. In its July 23 verdict, the Sindh High Court (SHC) ruled in favour of the Muttahida and upheld the results of the election. While Muttahida activists are still celebrating, the MMA-JI combine has expressed its dissatisfaction with the ruling. The MMA is already talking of holding a meeting to protest the decision. “This conspiracy against democracy has been played out according to the deal the Muttahida cut with the federal authorities,” contends Dr Mairajul Huda of the JI who promises to take the matter to the Supreme Court.
The Election Commission of Pakistan had cancelled the results of the May 12 by-polls amidst widespread allegations of rigging by the Muttahida. The party reacted by filing a petition challenging the order in the SHC. In its ruling, the court held that only the Federal Election Tribunal – and not the Election Commission – was empowered to cancel the results of the by-election.
“The decision meets the ends of justice,” gloats Dr Farooq Sattar of the Muttahida. While he gamely agrees that the level of violence evidenced on election day was unprecedented and inexcusable, he is quick to pin the blame squarely on the MMA.
The show must not go on
Azmat Abbas
For many, the five years passed by in the blink of an eye. But only one man dared to actually do something about it. Rather than switch the channel, advocate Babar Khilji went ahead and filed a writ petition against former MNA Aziz and the five top rankers at the Pakistan Television Corporation in the Lahore High Court. Khilji’s advocate Ahmad Awais who happens to be the president of the Lahore High Court Bar has asked for an immediate ban on the programme. Clearly, Tariq Aziz by any name is unacceptable.
The lawyers’ stand is simple. A man who is an ex-convict is not eligible to contest elections. By the same token, he should not be projected as a “national hero” and allowed to “sermonise” on state television. Aziz was among the dozen-odd PMLQ workers who stormed the Supreme Court in 1999 and were consequently sentenced to one-month imprisonment for contempt of court. In his petition, Khilji has held that the broadcasting of the show is offensive to public morality and brings the judiciary into disrepute. The high court has accepted the petition and has asked the respondents to appear before the court in September.
Musharraf under fire for Pakistani hostages killed in Iraq
Zulfiqar Ali Khan
Muzaffarabad – If it weren’t for satellite television, 29-year-old Sajid Naeem’s mother would still be waiting for his phone call. On July 23, Naeem and his compatriot 49-year-old Raja Azad Khan were kidnapped by an Iraqi resistance outfit which later identified itself as the Jaish-e-Islami. Five days later, a gory video featuring the slaying of the two Pakistanis was sent to the Arabic channel Al-Jazeera. “Sajid called me the day before he was kidnapped and we spoke for an hour,” sobs his mother Zarina. “He was coming home in August and told me to find a girl for him to marry. I never suspected it would be our last conversation.” If it weren’t for President Musharraf, wails the heartbroken mother, Naeem would be alive today.
Pakistan replace Miandad with Woolmer, finish third in Asia Cup
Saad Sayeed
Karachi – At a press conference during the Pakistan-India Test series in April, coach Javed Miandad unforgettably proclaimed, “the players are not responding”. It was clear from that point on that Miandad’s end was around the corner. Finally, on June 10, the PCB announced that Miandad’s contract had been terminated and his replacement was none other than Englishman Bob Woolmer – the man responsible for much of the success enjoyed by Hansie Cronjie’s South African side between 1994 and 1999.
After the unforgettable tied World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston, the ICC recruited Woolmer in 2001 to fill the post of high-performance manager. But three years into the job, Woolmer chose to return to what he does best and took up the PCB’s “exciting” offer. His first assignment was the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka – a tournament featuring the hosts, India, Bangladesh, the UAE and Hong Kong – where Pakistan, despite beating India, went out in the second round due to a heavy loss at the hands of Sri Lanka. A controversial bonus point was all that separated Pakistan and India in the end. Woolmer, predictably, was not pleased with the way things were organised, commenting that bonus points should not be given to the losing side. Still, despite the team’s failure to live up to expectations, experts feel Woolmer is the right man for the job.
Marriage creates a political empire in central Punjab
Shamsul Islam Naz
Faisalabad – As credible political parties struggle in the wake of induced disintegration in their ranks, creating localised political monopolies with the ability to pedal government patronage is the latest fad in the Punjab. And the newest addition to these monopolies may well be a matrimonial union between two nouveau-riche families of central Punjab.
The Nazirs of Faisalabad and the Chaudhrys of Toba Tek Singh are two upwardly mobile houses of the Arain stock. Both started from scratch in the 1980s and have since worked up to a position of substantial political and financial affluence, first under the tutelage of General Ziaul Haq and then by intelligently manoeuvering the straits of political opportunism that the Ziaists in the Pakistani establishment have so diligently kept serviceable. The recent marriage between Asim Nazir, a member of the National Assembly and son of Mohammad Nazir, and Sana, the daughter of Chaudhry Ashfaq Ahmad, brings the two families together in a union that will be hard to beat in future elections in the Faisalabad-Toba Tek Singh region.
Old Kashmiri woman appeals for opening
of borders
Z.A.K.
Muzaffarabad – Two lives, two husbands, two religions. Khursheed Bibi hasn’t seen filmmaker Sabiha Sumar’s award-winning Khamosh Pani but her life could well have been the inspiration for it. The politics of the land tore her family apart and Gyan Kore became Khursheed Bibi. “I’m old and I just want to meet my surviving relatives before I die,” pleads the 73-year-old Kashmiri, tears welling up in her rheumy eyes. Whether Islamabad and New Delhi kiss and make up in her lifetime is another question altogether.
In the late 1970's, a relative told Khurshid Bibi that her brother was alive and living in Dehradun in Uttar Pradesh. For more than two decades now, the siblings have participated in each others lives through letters and photographs.
JM militants turn to armed robbery
N.S.
Balochistan up in arms once again
Idrees Bakhtiar
Karachi – On August 1, five soldiers and a civilian were gunned down by unknown militants near Khuzdar while on their way to Quetta. Though not the first of its kind, the ferocity of the attack and the fact that it was aimed at military personnel shook the Pakistani establishment to its core. No sooner had an organisation calling itself the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) accepted responsibility for the attack, that the federal government slapped murder charges against prominent nationalist leaders and activists including the former Balochistan chief minister Akhtar Mengal. At the same time, senior government officials warned ‘nationalists’ of stern action if they took up arms against the government.
The incident brings to a head months of simmering tension between the federal government and various stakeholders in Pakistan’s largest and least populous province. As has always been the case, political turmoil in Balochistan never really registers on the map of Pakistan’s mainstream politics. As such, when news of the attack broke, followed swiftly by an attempt on the convoy of Balochistan CM Jam Yusuf, it jolted political observers all over the country into taking a closer look at what was going on in the province.
“Mega-projects are a conspiracy to turn the Balochis into a minority in their homeland”
By Idrees Bakhtiar
INTERVIEW: Sardar Ataullah Mengal
The situation in Balochistan, Pakistan’s least developed and most neglected province, has turned volatile yet again. For the last few weeks, reports of sporadic violence, terrorist attacks and political unrest have poured in consistently rom far flung areas such Turbat, Pishin, Gwadar and Khuzdar. More recently, senior government officials such as the Balochistan CM and armed forces personnel have also come under attack.Interestingly, the violence unfolding in Balochistan has little in common with al-Qaeda related attacks in the rest of the country. As such, few amongst the province’s religious organisations are under suspicion for fanning such violence. “The religious parties are not there in this protest,” says Sardar Ataullah Mengal, once a towering personality in Baloch politics. While he stops short of musing on the reality of organisations such as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) that has accepted responsibility for some of the attacks, he nevertheless insists that the nationalists are clearly up in arms, perhaps for the first time at this scale since in the mid-1970s. Settled in London for several years now, Sardar Ataullah Mengal has been living abroad since 1979. He has been visiting Pakistan occasionally, usually on family business, but has now returned, as he puts it, to his homeland. The Herald talked to the elder Baloch leader on the situation currently unfolding in Balochistan.
By Way Of Deception
By Syed Shoaib Hasan
Why is it that when a high-profile arrest is made, the police spells out a detailed indictment to the press but ends up filing toothless challans in the court?
No one knows how many security agencies were watching him. The fact remains, however, that on the evening of May 13, Maulvi Amanullah Rais was whisked away by sleuths of one agency from right under the nose of the others. In retrospect, it seems obvious that it was done to protect him rather than grill Rais for the crimes for which he is wanted by the police.
Act I, Scene 1
By Idrees Bakhtiar
Cracking down on car theft can stem many crimes – terrorism included.
Stealing cars is big business in Karachi. Though official reports may suggest otherwise, automobile theft remains the most rampant form of crime in the city. And those looking to make a quick buck aren’t the only ones eyeing the new Civics and Corollas being driven down Shahrae Faisal. Admittedly, most stolen cars are sent to Balochistan to be cannibalised and resold in parts. But according to a study conducted by the Herald, some of these vehicles also end up with hardcore criminals who use them to perform acts of theft and terrorism. Clearly, curbing car theft will deter other more serious crimes in the city. But despite common knowledge of this fact, the authorities have done little, if anything, to address the situation.
Off to Athens
By Osman Samiuddin
If the Olympics are as much about participation as success, Pakistan can be fairly pleased with its contingent.
It certainly isn’t the most glorious of sporting tapestries but within it are nestled stories of valour and pride. While the medals tally – 10 in 12 Olympiads (three gold, three silver and four bronze) – doesn’t amount to all that much, Pakistan’s Olympic history has its fair share of intrigue and disappointment and a few special moments as well. There is the tale of the first medal Pakistan ever won – a hockey silver at the 1956 Melbourne Games – when a valiant team including the legendary Naseer Bunda and Habib Ali Kiddie, lost by a solitary, controversial goal to the dominant Indians. Bunda later got his hands on a gold medal at Rome ’60. Then we have Mohammad Bashir, arguably the country’s greatest wrestler, who picked up bronze at Rome – he also won three Commonweatlh Golds in the 1950s and ’60s. And Hussain Shah, more used to boxing barefoot, gave the sport an international face in Pakistan by winning a bronze medal at the Seoul Games in 1988. Soon people will recall the tale of 13-year-old Rubab Raza, the first female swimmer to compete from Pakistan at the Olympics.
Given Pakistan’s hockey pedigree, success in the Olympic Games continues to be defined by the chances of the men in green. But the Olympics are as much about participation as winning or losing and in that regard, Pakistan can be content. At Athens 2004, Pakistan will be represented by 26 athletes and a further 19 officials in five different events: hockey, boxing, athletics, shooting and swimming.
“Our best chances of winning a medal are still through our hockey team or some of our boxers but it is heartening to have athletes competing in other events,” says Latif Butt, secretary of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA). “We have had bigger contingents before but those were during the days when there were no qualifying rounds for specific events. Athletes would get picked on quota levels but now there is competition and we are pleased with the number of athletes going to Athens.”
Drag-flick demon
By Osman Samiuddin
Pakistan’s Olympic hopes rest firmly on the shoulders of wunderkind Sohail Abbas. But don’t tell him that.
You could easily miss him if you didn’t know who he was. The toned, Popeye-like forearms and the lean, athletic physique hint at a sporting occupation but little beyond. You wouldn’t guess, for example, that within this unassuming – almost inconspicuous – frame lies arguably the most potent short corner specialist in hockey today. It will be argued, with some conviction years from now, that Sohail Abbas was the greatest ever. As great as, perhaps, the legendary Dutch duo of Floris-Jan Bovelander and Brad Lomans, although whether Abbas himself will agree is unlikely.
That Abbas is grounded is evident: “In Pakistan, people are always eager to pull you down if you are successful. I’ve always maintained that whatever happened with my career the people that matter to me most are those who have been with me since my earlier days. Everything else is irrelevant.” But that is not to be mistaken with meekness – as is often the case with Pakistani hockey players,. His transformation from a slow, unlikely attacker to that of a sweeping full-back, short corner specialist emanates partially from a desire to be contrary.
Walking on air
By Huma Yusuf
With the government issuing radio licenses faster than Mickey Dees can serve up Big Macs, most FM stations are too busy riding the airwaves to strategise for the future.
Twist it on, tune it right, turn it up. Sift through the zing and crackle of white noise to find your fave frequency. Ayeshah Alam’s ambiguously-accented voice is chattering on about the 10 best first-date scenarios while Azra Apa shares 10 tried-and-tested home bleaching tips. In case you want to diss shopaholics, chocaholics and rockaholics instead, surf your way to Talha and Annie. But if the romantic within needs a hefty dose of jaded shairs and jilted lonely hearts, Mariam’s ghazal hour is the show for you. Enjoy techno beats at twilight and mornings-after with Barry White, Pakistani pop while you shop and “Shehr Kahani” as you cook biryani. No doubt, our airwaves are the new domain of the young-at-heart and sexy-of-voice and they’re ready to make some noise. Listen hard. They’re talking about a revolution.
The only problem is, they don’t seem to know it yet. The fact is, the infamous ‘liberalisation of the media’ has become the latest catchphrase with clout now that private radio licenses are being issued faster than Mickey Dees can serve up Big Macs. Except no one seems to be thinking through the huge implications of this media frenzy. By 2005, 89 FM stations will be up and running nationwide while the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority’s (PEMRA) ultimate goal is 233 stations. Campus radio, community stations, infotainment, health shows, tech-talk shows and cityscapes plan to keep our middle class informed and upwardly mobile. Indeed, in a quintessentially Pakistani one-step-forward, two-steps-back move, radio in all its retro-glory is poised to have its finest hour. But it’ll take more than politically-correct rhetoric and sultry inflection to make private radio Pakistan’s big success story as far as agents of change go. It’ll take some thought, more planning and a whole lot of regard for the with-freedom-comes-responsibility cliché.
The Human Factor
By Zulfiqar Ali
Armed with old laws and new expediencies, the Pakistan Army has wreaked havoc in the lives of South Waziristan’s civilian population.
Are the ongoing hostilities in South Waziristan agency a “non-international” armed conflict subject to international rules of combat? Or is it just militarised police action launched to round up common criminals? While independent opinion in Pakistan and abroad favours monitoring under the Geneva Conventions, top officials in Islamabad abhor such an idea. And they have had their way so far.
Those in favour of international monitoring justify their view on the basis of the duration and intensity of the conflict and its impact on the civilian population. On-again off-again military action has been underway in South Waziristan since 2002 but it has been particularly intense over the last six months, with no sign of abating in the near future. Close to 70,000 regular and paramilitary personnel have been mobilised by Islamabad so far to arrest, kill or flush out an unspecified number of foreign militants along the Pak-Afghan border. At one stage during the Kalosha operation in March this year, at least 7,000 military troops were battling the militants in more than six different villages located west of Wana, the agency headquarters. The weapons used by the military thus far include light and heavy artillery, helicopter gunships and guided weapon systems.
This has taken its toll on the local population. Close to 200 people have been killed since March, including over 70 military personnel, at least 30 civilians and a number of alleged militants who may also include non-combatant tribesmen caught in the crossfire. More than 30,000 residents in Wana and the Shkai area have been temporarily or permanently displaced and a large number of people have gone missing, presumably picked up by the security forces. In addition, the entire area remains under a crippling economic blockade since June 12.