Highlights of the September 2009 issue
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Following the Money
Trail
By Shayan Rajani
America’s plan to expand its embassy in Islamabad, particularly the budget allocated for it, has caused an uproar in Pakistan. The construction of the enormous new embassy is being touted as part of America’s renewed focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan under US President Barack Obama’s recently unveiled Afpak policy, but even then conspiracy theories abound. The Herald here takes a look at US spending on the Islamabad embassy in comparison to its spending on other diplomatic missions.
Figure
1 shows US expenditure on embassies in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mexico and
China from 2006 to 2010. While Afghanistan and Pakistan are important
countries for America’s national security and its fight against terrorism,
China and Mexico are crucial economically, ranking among the US’ top three
trade partners. Data reveals that even though the funds allocated for
running embassies in Beijing and Mexico City show little to no increase,
funds for Kabul and Islamabad skyrocket in 2009. This steep increase makes
Afghanistan’s and Pakistan’s embassy budgets the second and fourth largest
out of 174 US diplomatic missions (Iraq and Germany are number one and
number three), whereas in 2008 they had ranked twenty-third and twentieth
respectively.
The death of Baitullah Mehsud in a drone attack on August 5 seems to have thrown
the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) into organisational chaos. Rumours of fights
over succession and internal disagreement are rife. Two men emerged as the most
likely candidates for TTP leadership — Hakimullah Mehsud, the ruthless warrior,
and Waliur Rahman, the financial, political and organisational mastermind. They
have now jointly declared that the former is the new TTP chief while the latter
will oversee the affairs in South Waziristan. However, observers wonder if any
one organisation can contain two such powerful and ambitious men.
After much deliberation, the TTP have settled on a new leader to replace slain chief Baitullah Mehsud. Hakimullah Mehsud, the brutal and ambitious 29-year-old militant commander, is reported to have assumed control after reaching a power-sharing deal with rival TTP strongman Waliur Rahman.
By Muhammad Badar Alam and Nasir Jamal
The government’s formal decision to commission rental power plants does
not mean that these will easily and quickly be set up
The government may have decided to set up at least 14 rental power plants (RPPs)
to meet Pakistan’s urgent electricity needs but that does not mean the road
ahead will be easy. Chances are that the administration will still miss its
self-declared deadline of ending load-shedding by the end of 2009. A number
of financial, administrative and security challenges are hampering efforts
to get the RPPs going. As the government keeps changing its data,
requirements and incentives in the face of these challenges, investors are
becoming increasingly wary of the viability of investing in Pakistan.
Take, for example, the case of financial incentives offered to investors.
“It has taken the government more than a year to approve its first RPPs,
mainly because it was struggling to put together the financial and legal
infrastructure,” says a source in the power industry who wants to protect
his identity. The earliest agreements date back to 2007, when the Associated
Group of Iqbal Z Ahmed and General Electric of US became the first firms to
set up RPPs. The agreement that General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s
administration signed with them provided that the government would make
available a seven per cent mobilisation advance to help with initial set-up.
It also confirmed a standby letter of credit from an international bank in
case the government did not make ongoing payments on time.
Lahore — On August 1, after an alleged incident of desecration of the Holy
Quran in the last week of July at Korian (a village about four kilometres to
the east of Gojra), a mob of religious zealots attacked Gojra. They torched
two churches, set ablaze at least 50 houses, looted dozens of others and
burnt alive seven people including three women and two children.
The authenticity of whether or not the desecration actually took place or
whether or not it was intentional, if it really happened, is lost in the
verbal crossfire that the two communities have engaged in since. The Muslims
claim the children of Talib Masih, a Christian trash paper vendor of Korian,
shred the Quranic verses into pieces before throwing them on the floor. “It
was actually an Islamiat book but the desecrated pages carried the verses of
the Holy Quran,” says Syed Israrul Bahar Shah, who heads a madrasah and
mosque in Gojra.
The Curious Case of Zardari’s Survival
By Massoud Ansari
Asif Ali Zardari may just manage to cling on to power while he lurches
from crisis to crisis
August brought not only whispers about the departure of Asif Ali Zardari
from the political stage but also a confirmation of these rumours by senior
Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) officials, who publicly and privately decried
the so-called minus-one formula. They hinted at a conspiracy hatched by the
country’s invisible “establishment” to remove Zardari as the head of state
and as the chairperson of the party.
Reports of friction between the PPP-backed government and the powerful
establishment were earlier overshadowed by fresh military offensives in the
country’s north-west. In recent weeks, however, they have started doing the
rounds again and have been lent credence by the PPP itself.