LONDON, Sept 1: In what reads like a highly sympathetic analysis of the current situation in Pakistan — Seize this chance to support Pakistani democracy — published in the Financial Times, Robert Templer, Asia Programme director of the International Crisis Group, notes that the country has a legitimate government for the first time in years and no crowds have taken to the streets.
In his opinion there is need to help democracy in the country with policies that put the Pakistani people ahead of personalities and institutions ahead of facile answers.
For the West, according to Mr Templer, a critical issue has to be the Federally Administered Tribal Areas as “much of the insurgency in Afghanistan emanates from this region.”
He says scrapping discriminating laws and bringing the tribal areas into the state is the first step towards delivering services to people who have been denied even the paltry government benefits received elsewhere in Pakistan.
“Plenty of aid money is available for such an effort, although it will be squandered unless there is political reform. The government has taken an unequivocal stand against the Pakistani Taliban, banning the organisation. It is time for the military to do the same or face a reduction in foreign aid”.
For Pakistanis, he says, the critical issue is the economy, with inflation being above 25 per cent.
“A US Senate plan to provide $15bn in civilian aid over a decade is a start, as is some emergency food support, but all donors need to move rapidly to help stabilise the economy.”
Mr Templer pleads for an international plan to improve infrastructure, healthcare, education and “justice should be the next step.”
He says at the heart of justice and security is policing “Washington has handed over billions of dollars to an unaccountable military that has spent it maintaining its privileges and buying new high-technology weapons, few of which can be used to fight insurgents.
“Pakistani soldiers are no more capable today of beating the Taliban than before the attacks on the US of September 11, 2001 and the military’s intelligence agencies still view jihadis as a foreign policy tool.
“What is needed is a focus on the police and civilian intelligence agencies, which for decades have been the neglected stepchild of the security sector. Alongside significant changes in policing, there must be support for judicial and prison reform. Only when all three go together can a state build a system that provides rather than undermines legitimacy and security”.
He said: “Mr Musharraf has gone and the world’s view of Pakistan must change. Anxieties about state failure and loose nukes are overstated and hypocritical when the steps most needed to prevent them – addressing the economic and social concerns of the population – are ignored.”