What next in Iraq?

Contrary to general expectations, the elections held in Iraq recently produced a very large turnout of voters. The transparency of elections has not so far been questioned by any neutral observers. The world media was a witness to the long queues of voters who had turned out in large numbers, in spite of the dire warnings issued by extremists and terrorists to keep away from the polling booths.

Many voters were in a defiant, even a jubilant, mood. They clearly relished this first-ever opportunity in their lives to cast their vote in an open election offering multiple choices of parties and candidates.

The Iraqi voters had, of course, taken part in previous elections under the Saddam Hussein regime in which "over 99 per cent" were said to have voted for the only candidate on the list, viz. Saddam Hussein or his Baath party. In fact, even before Saddam Iraq never had any genuine elections.

Moreover, ever since Iraq became an independent state after the First World War, power was always in the hands of a Sunni oligarchy, which oppressed the Shia majority. The Kurds in the north were also kept in shackles and their periodic uprisings were crushed with an iron hand.

Saddam Hussein's party had ruled Iraq since 1968. Though he took over as president in 1978, he was clearly the dominant figure in the party right from the beginning. Saddam ruled Iraq in a ruthless manner. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed, tortured and jailed by him. Mass graves of thousands are littered all over Iraq and many of them have since been discovered and visited by grieving relatives as well as by media representatives.

The nearest parallel to Saddam one can find in history was Stalin. During Saddam's 30 rule, no one, not even his own relatives, top party leaders or companions escaped his wrath. There are accounts that after a purge of top leaders, Saddam executed some of his erstwhile comrades with his own hand.

Anyone opposed to him was dubbed as a traitor and an agent of Zionism and imperialism who had to be meted out exemplary punishment by the wrathful masses. The tongues and limbs of such "traitors" were cut off and they were tied to lampposts where they bled to death in full view of passers-by. This was the kind of terror that reigned Iraq for 30 under Saddam.

Personality cult was promoted with a vengeance. Saddam's statues and portraits were all over Iraq. Songs in praise of Saddam were sung in rallies held to extol his services to Iraq and the Arab people. From kindergarten onwards, every Iraqi child was told to love Saddam. This indoctrination produced a set of hard core loyalists.

Saddam also had admirers who pointed out that he had used Iraq's oil wealth to good purpose viz. the eradication of illiteracy and better health care, construction of highways and impressive buildings. Some believers of Arab nationalism were impressed by his anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist rhetoric.

Thus, there were some Iraqis who were inclined to look away from the cruelties of the regime as an unavoidable price that had to be paid for the good of the country. Most members of the ruling Baath party, of course, developed a vested interest in supporting Saddam so that they could continue to enjoy the perks and privileges that come to those holding political power.

The foregoing background has to be kept in mind to understand why so many voters turned out to exercise their franchise and were so jubilant and joyful to have had this opportunity. Of course, the happiest were those belonging to the oppressed Shia majority in the south and the Kurds in the north. The Shias are now set to dominate whatever government emerges in Baghdad. The Kurds are also likely to get constitutional sanction for a large measure of autonomy.

The Sunni triangle was expected to boycott the election. However, there are reports that even in towns like Fallujah, which had been the centres of the resistance to the American occupation forces, there was a considerable turnout. In Iraq's new dispensation, the Sunnis appear to be the big losers. Still, some Sunni voters did not heed the boycott call because of their rejection of the Saddam era and all that it stood for.

It seems clear that by their large turnout in the election, the Iraqi people have rejected the extremists who had used violence of the worst kind, with publicized beheading of helpless hostages (including two Pakistanis). Islamic militants like Al Zarqawi (who has links with the Al Qaeda) appear to dominate these shadowy extremists.

In addition, there are some Islamic militants, including foreigners, who have reached Iraq in order to fight the Americans who are seen as the enemies of Islam and the Arabs. The remnants of the Baathist regime and some non-Baathist Sunnis, who resent the loss of their erstwhile domination of power, are also supporting the anti-US resistance.

No doubt, the US invasion of Iraq has led to a storm of protest all over the world. The US was wrong to bypass the UN. Its resort to unilateral force to impose its will over another country has alarmed world opinion, which believes that this is a recipe for the law of the jungle, and could be replicated by other strong powers to commit aggression against smaller neighbours.

Moreover, the US has not been able to substantiate its main excuse for attacking Iraq, namely, the possession by the Saddam regime of weapons of mass destruction. None have been found despite nearly two years of search by the occupation forces.

Many Muslims are outraged by the fact that one Muslim nation after another is coming under attack. For a long time, Israel (backed by the US) has been oppressing the Palestinians, and commits provocations almost on a daily basis. Afghanistan was invaded by the US in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.

The US has been threatening Syria and Iran as well. All this has led to a rise in intense anti-Americanism, which in turn has produced Islamic extremists, suicide bombers, and terrorists of the Al Qaeda variety. This explains why the US is facing so much resistance from Islamic and other extremists in Iraq.

However, a big turnout in the Iraqi election shows that the majority of Iraqis have rejected all that Saddam stood for, and they welcome the opportunity to decide their own future in a democratic Iraq. Bush and Blair feel vindicated by the big turnout in the election. They believe that the Iraqi voter has endorsed their argument that the removal of Saddam was the right thing to do and that the invasion was justified for this reason alone.

In any event, by attacking Iraq, the US has already achieved two strategic objectives. Firstly, it has removed the Saddam regime that it saw as a threat to its own interests, as well as those of Israel and the pro-US regimes in the Middle East. Secondly, the removal of Saddam eliminates the possibility of production of any WMDs by Baghdad.

The argument that no WMDs were found after the US occupation cannot change the fact that Saddam did have biological and chemical weapons in the past, which he had actually used in the 1980s against Iran in the Iran-Iraq war and against Iraq's own Kurdish population.

It is possible that the induction of democracy in Iraq might produce some unwelcome consequences for the US. Clearly, the Shias will be the dominant force in the Iraqi government. Iran is delighted with this outcome and had, for that reason, supported the holding of elections in Iraq on January 30. While there are secular-minded Iraqi Shias also, it is likely that the more orthodox Shia alliance led by Ayatollah Sistani will be the largest group in the Iraqi parliament. Some pronouncements by Sistani's spokesmen suggest that, while leaning towards Iran, he is unlikely to opt for an Iranian-style Islamic regime.

Where is the library law?

There are days when in the flood of depressing news of wars, violence and killing, newspapers carry a cheery item that restores to some extent readers' faith in the goodness of man. Last Friday was one such day when this paper reported a statement by the Nazim of Karachi, Naimatullah Khan, that the city would get eight new libraries.

Plots for the purpose have already been identified in different localities, we were told. But one will have to drum up all of one's optimism to believe that these libraries, which are to be air-conditioned, are just round the corner. Moreover, if you are not an avid newspaper reader you may not remember that in early November 2004 an identical statement was issued by the city government's office.

Things don't move that fast in this country, especially if they concern the development of human resources like libraries, schools, colleges, universities and hospitals. Moreover, many of these turn out to be something quite different when they take final shape. Take the women's library complex which is at present under construction on the University Road at the Nipa Chowrangi. This land was earmarked for a city library in 1991. An architectural design competition was also held and the best design selected - this process cost the government Rs100,000. But the city library never saw the light of day.

Mr Moinuddin Khan, a committed champion of libraries and book culture, who was a member of the committee which drew up the design for the city library, disclosed in a letter to this newspaper that an old student of the Karachi University had pledged Rs300 million for this institution. It was never availed of. Later Hakim Said, when he was governor of Sindh, had worked for this project but it also never materialized.

In 2004 some women councillors were handed over the land to build a women's library on it. This project is said to be half complete. The biggest miracle is that for 13 years the plot lay vacant and was not grabbed by some developer to build a shopping plaza.

Hence one cannot be certain that the eight libraries Mr Naimutallah has promised will ultimately be built as institutions to house books or will be used for some other purposes. It is also not known what timeframe the Nazim has in mind. What is worrying about libraries not only in Karachi but all over the country is that there is a lot of loud talk about promoting the library culture and reading habits of the people but these pious intentions generally don't get translated into action.

The problem is that along with the statements promising new libraries issued by the high-ups in every branch of government, newspapers are replete with stories of how neglected our public libraries are - buildings being in a woeful condition, book stocks gradually destroyed/ stolen, pathetic furniture, no practice of acquiring new stock and the biggest sin of all, library budget lying unused.

Our library system suffers from four basic problems all of which are rooted in lack of political will on the part of the authorities to set up libraries. First, there is no a sufficient number of libraries around which would make these institutions easily accessible for the general readers. Instead of grandiose projects in some of the big cities, we should have concentrated on creating a network of small mohalla libraries in every town and city.

It is also essential that every school, college and educational institution is equipped with a library for its own students. At present Pakistan is said to have 1430 libraries, some of which do not even merit to be called libraries.

The second flaw in our library system is that the existing libraries have not been maintained properly. As a result, their stocks are generally obsolete, if they are housed in old buildings the structures are often dilapidated and modern facilities are absent, The library sector in Pakistan gives the impression of being in stagnation rather than a vibrant area of public life.

The third major drawback is that the libraries in Pakistan are set up in an ad hoc fashion. There is no library policy which provides a blueprint for the creation and expansion of these facilities. That accounts for the vast disparity between the good and the bad.

While the good libraries are provided with the best facilities and emerge as model institutions, the neglected ones are in had shape - not cared for, not wanted. Like many other projects in our society - private schools versus public schools, government hospitals versus private clinics - these libraries promote class stratification, as the affluent get all the facilities while the poor are denied even their basic needs.

The final weakness in our library system is that in over five decades no library law has been formulated. Without a library law, no country can have an organized, well financed and properly planned library system. Conventionally a library law sets up an authority to manage this sector and makes it mandatory for various departments of the government to set aside a fixed proportion of their budget (preferably two per cent) for libraries.

A service structure for the librarians is also drawn up in order to give the librarian's profession a respectable standing and dignity. Every library should have a library committee to regulate its working and to ensure judicious and honest use of its funds. It should be mandatory for every educational institution to have a library with a stock of five books per student.

A law drafted by Prof Anis Khurshid, the doyen of library and information science in Pakistan, took care of all these aspects. Unfortunately the law makers don't share his commitment to knowledge, education and books. Although a PPP-P parliamentarian, Sherry Rehman, took up the issue a year ago and collected information on a draft library law, it still hasn't been introduced in the National Assembly.

It speaks of a flawed approach if this law is dismissed as something trivial. Libraries are an integral part of education and the publishing industry. These institutions are also central to the reading habits of people. A country that has no library system of any significance is a country where book culture is missing. What we need is a library movement so that books and reading habit are popularized in the country.

Protecting old trees

The Spring Tree Plantation Drive has just concluded. It enabled many VIPs to have their photo taken while watering a sapling. We are great at observing these drives, but somehow we are not able to give the saplings the attention they need. To me this is symptomatic of a national trait. We will fight a battle like warriors, but going through a war is too tiresome for us.

In a recent BBC programme I saw something novel. It seems that the Thais are as bad as we are in destroying forest wealth. So someone there had a bright idea. They consecrated the old trees, then symbolically ordained them as Buddhist monks by tying saffron robes around their trunks. The result was that no one dared to fell these trees as that would have amounted to killing a monk.

A very good idea I must say, though it depends for success on the veneration that a people pay to their priests. I was wondering if it would work in Pakistan. Suppose the Forest Department were to place a green turban on a free and give it out that it had been sanctified by that headgear, would our people abstain from axing such a tree?

However the ruse has a chance of succeeding if the tree to be saved from greedy vandals is named after the local pir. Our people (right from presidents and prime ministers to the common man) are great believers in the powers of pirs, and might be inclined to protect a tree ordained as one. Then they will studiously place the yearly offering of money at the foot of that tree because, unlike Buddhist monks, our spiritual mentors don't come free, and can be as exacting as the income tax man.

The real question is: will the timber mafia in Hazara, the Murree hills and the mountains of Dir, Swat and Azad Kashmir be impressed and refrain from their tree-killing activities if they find that a fifty-year old giant that they want to fell is actually a pir. The BBC programme said that the consecration of trees as monks had brought about a wonderful change in the attitude of the rural population. It's a moot point if our timber mafia will be taken in by the disguise. They are a terrible lot and would be ready to murder even a real pir to get their way.

Very little appears in the press about the incalculable damage caused to the economy, the ecology and the geography of Pakistan's tree growing areas by the depredations of these crooks. And the real tragedy is not that the mafia cuts these trees illegally. Its members are armed with permits issued by the governments of NWFP and Azad Kashmir, and the sole consideration for this privilege is cheap politics. Hundreds of square miles have been denuded of forest wealth by the short-sighted policies of the provincial regimes in the past.

I assert that this deed is both criminal and unpatriotic. To secure the political allegiance of corrupt MNAs and MPAs, the permits were doled out in the business of horse-trading, and these unscrupulous legislators made a lot of money in the process. It would be difficult to match such myopic administration anywhere else in the world. This heinous activity went on during both the PPP regimes and the PML regimes. It only shows that dirty deeds come naturally to the practitioners of Pakistani politics.

It is said that even if half of the saplings planted in Pakistan during the last 57 years had survived, the country would have been covered with a canopy of green. The charade of tree-planting was as conscientiously gone through in the early days as it is now. I can never forget the big mela organized in Punjab's Thal area 50 years ago where Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad was to come and see for himself the reclamation work.

In order to lend an air of development to the occasion, hundreds of semi-grown trees were "planted" overnight to show that the desert was about to bloom. They wilted the next day and there was a dispute between the Thal Development Authority and the forest people as to who should foot the bill.

Talking of the Thal, I wonder if the mosque built in one of the newly-settled chaks of the desert, which was formally opened by the then Governor Punjab Sir Francis Mudie, is still identified with him. For a long time it was called Mudie Masjid by everyone. Yes, we Muslims were still tolerant enough to name a mosque after a non-Muslim. We had not become obsessed by the fear of invisible dangers to Islam. Isn't it strange that we were better Muslims when we lived among the economically and politically powerful 'kafirs' than we are now? This only proves the truism that Islam has more to fear from its own adherents than from its declared opponents.

As a young boy I lived in Lahore's Model Town. On every Eid in the grand Model Town mosque (designed, incidentally, by an Englishman) an old Sikh gentleman used to join the congregation. None of us were bothered by his presence. Let a non-Muslim try to do this today. He would probably be lynched. As if in emulation of this noble spirit (as Mr Cowasjee has written many times) the Quaid-i-Azam and Miss Jinnah attended a special service in a Karachi church on August 17, 1947, a service dedicated to the strength and welfare of the new state.

Can President Pervez Musharraf do this today. Can that self-styled darling of the masses, Ms Benazir Bhutto, or the holder of the so-called record in popular mandates, Mian Nawaz Sharif, dare to say a prayer in a church or a temple? The maulvis would have made mincemeat of them, and it would have taken them countless umrahs as an act of penance to prove their bona fides as Muslims. Only General Zia could have got away with it, and that too through his hypocrisy!

If our top leaders and politicians were to listen to me, I would say, "For God's sake, try to plant the tree of tolerance in this benighted country. Let this tree then grow up and spread over all of us and embrace the entire nation. Let it give shade and shelter to Pakistan's tortured soul."

New horizons, new hazards?: Electronic Media Freedom Day

As Electronic Media Freedom Day is being observed today, two anomalies symbolize the curious condition of media laws and policies in Pakistan.

Those satellite TV channels which originate their content from within Pakistan but are telecast from overseas locations like Dubai, or elsewhere, and which have helped transform the electronic media environment over the past four years operate without being subject to any specific media law.

Despite the passage of over 27 months since the elections of October 2002 and the creation of a National Assembly, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting has yet to hold its first meeting. The PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) Amendment Act 2004 tabled in the assembly in October 2004 has been gathering dust in cupboards waiting for a decision as to who will chair the Committee. The committee itself was constituted a full two years after the election of the assembly.

Some may view both the above anomalies as being welcome. Just as it is said that: "no news is good news", it could be said that, in the case of media: "no law is good law". But experience across the world in a wide variety of countries proves that all media and all societies require a minimal level of law, regulation and continuous vigilance to ensure equity, accountability and transparency in the functioning of media, those very important virtues which media themselves often demand in public affairs.

Perhaps it is precisely due to the wrong kind of legislative abstinence (as in the case of private, Pakistan-based but telecast-from-overseas TV channels operating without a governing law) and disregard of vital parliamentary and legislative processes (failure to elect the chairman of the National Assembly standing committee on information and broadcasting) that we find at least 12 issues concerning electronic media require immediate attention.

While each of the 12 issues noted in this comment requires separate and detailed analysis, reference to all these issues on a single day underlines the need for well-informed public debate, for relevant new laws, for comprehensive policy reform and for effective implementation of the existing laws and rules.Twelve basic policy issues and several questions which arise from them are placed below:

1) Has the recent expansion in the number of radio and TV channels in Pakistan genuinely increased the range of choice for citizens and strengthened freedom of expression? Or are new channels merely more of the "older version", with only minor variations. Are they simply more like each other? Have the new channels been cleverly "co-opted" into the mainstream with a basic conformism camouflaged under a new "freedom of choice"?

2) Why have no applications been invited so far by PEMRA to issue licenses for small-scale, non-profit, public service community-based electronic media as provided for in the PEMRA law, expect for some university-based media channels?

3) Does the exclusion of PBC and PTV from the PEMRA law enable a required balance between state, public service-oriented media and private, profit-driven media? Or is there a need to enact new legislation to make PBC and PTV truly autonomous so as to ensure authentic and comprehensive electronic media freedom?

4) While PTV continues to enjoy the largest audience share by being the sole terrestrial (earth-based) TV network, the private TV channels are obliged to use satellite transmission from outside the country and go through local cable distributors in order to reach a smaller audience than PTV. Is this fair?

5) Some - or many? - cable distributors are operating their own "private" unlicensed channels to screen Indian movies and Indian TV channels without effective checks by PEMRA. Those cable distributors who respect the law, and do not indulge in unlicensed practices are placed at a distinct disadvantage against those who openly violate the law and the rules.

6) Why is the up-link facility to satellites for Pakistani-based channels not freely and equitably available to all licensed channel operators on a long-term basis?

7) Is there a need to re-define, or entirely disregard the principle of "conflict of interest".

Some cable distributors under other names are also channel operators, particularly of those that transmit Pakistan-based content, and not just Indian movies and Indian TV channels.

Are licensed Pakistani TV channels placed at an unfair disadvantage when they are dependent on cable distributors who are also competing for the same audiences by operating their own unlicensed and licensed channels?

With the prospective change in PEMRA rules, even owners of advertising agencies may be issued licenses for electronic media channels. Historically, the world-wide practice is to separate ownership of advertising agencies from ownership of media. Yet some advertising agency owners in Pakistan are already publishers of print media. Will such a trend be allowed in electronic media? Will such commonalities of proprietorship lead to undue and unhealthy concentration of media power? Are there new global norms? Do we need new ground rules in Pakistan?

8) The absence of a representative body of official and private electronic media channel owners and operators on the lines of the All-Pakistan Newspapers Society and the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors results in considerable difficulties. There is a lack of coordinated, cohesive development and management. Should a new forum be formed?

9) What are the implications for viewers, for channel operators, and for cable distributors from the prospective grant of licences for DTH (Direct-To-Home telecast from satellites, without using land-based cable distributors)?

10) Is it fair to prevent private FM radio channels from broadcasting their own news and current affairs programmes? Or is the "gradualist" approach necessary in view of potential problems of law and order because of possible 'provocative' broadcasts by some radio stations?

11) In view of the excessive commercialism in electronic media, is the public service broadcasting component being sufficiently protected in each channel?

12) Threats to freedom from both official actions and non-official elements is evident from the persecution of electronic media journalists in Lahore in 2004 and the vandalism committed to the premises of a leading TV channel and newspaper group in Karachi in January 2005. Are these actions the signs of an unreformed coercive tendency of the state apparatus and of curiously unchecked "elements" in society against freedom of media?

This is the eighth occasion since February 1998 when the Citizens' Media Commission of Pakistan has observed Electronic Media Freedom Day each year. The roundtable being convened in Karachi today will bring together prominent specialists from electronic media, the regulatory sector, print media, advertising, academia and civil society to address all or some of these issues. The prime responsibility rests with the government to initiate action to answer the above questions.

The writer is a former federal minister of information and media development.