Misbah, Younis help visitors seal series win

Pakistan stubbornly ground out a draw in the second Test against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve on Wednesday to secure their first series win in four years.
Captain Misbah-ul-Haq produced a man-of-the-match performance with an unbeaten 70 off 226 balls to frustrate New Zealand and ensure Pakistan reached stumps at 226 for five after being set a target of 274.
The draw followed Pakistan’s crushing 10-wicket victory in the first Test at Hamilton and gave the tourists a 1-0 series win, their first since overcoming the West Indies 2-0 in 2006/07.
It also maintained Pakistan’s record of never losing a Test match at Wellington’s Basin Reserve.
Misbah said his side went into the final day happy to hang on for the draw and claim the series.
“In the end, I think the series was important for us, rather than just this game,” he said.
“Everybody supported each other and really performed well.”
New Zealand’s hopes of bowling Pakistan out on the final day were raised when three wickets fell in the first hour as Chris Martin and Tim Southee made the most of the new ball.
Southee trapped Taufeeq Umar lbw for a first ball duck in the second over, with Martin dismissing Azhar Ali (10) lbw nine overs later.
Mohammad Hafeez (32) went in the next over after edging Martin to the slip cordon, leaving Pakistan struggling at 42-3.
The wickets brought Younis Khan and Misbah to the crease and the veteran pair defied pressure from the desperate New Zealanders to steady the innings.
In a repeat of the 142-run pairing that formed the backbone of Pakistan’s first innings, Misbah and Youis dropped anchor to deliver a 118-run partnership lasting almost three hours.
Younis’ dismissal for 81 on the last ball before tea energised New Zealand but Misbah remained immovable, combining with Asad Shafiq to graft out his sixth consecutive Test half century.
Daniel Vettori’s probing spin eventually claimed Asad Shafiq for 24 but with just eight overs to go it was a consolation wicket for the Black Caps’ captain, who finished with figures of one for 57 off 34 overs.
Martin was also left rueing missed opportunities as he finished the match on 199 Test wickets, forcing him to wait until a series in Bangladesh tentatively scheduled for May for the chance to reach his double century.
New Zealand, whose attack was rendered impotent by Pakistan’s batsmen in the final session, turned to part-time spinners Martin Guptill and Jesse Ryder, who also failed to provide a breakthrough.
Adnan Akmal joined his skipper at the crease, surviving 17 balls to be two not out as Misbah guided Pakistan to a draw that his side celebrated as if it were a victory. The series loss meant New Zealand ended its summer season without a Test victory for the first time in 15 years.
But coach John Wright, on a mission to add steel to the Black Caps after his appointment in December, will take some comfort from the fact that his charges rallied after their Hamilton humiliation.
Vettori said that loss left New Zealand chasing the match in Wellington to try to level the series.
“The way (Pakistan) played in Hamilton meant that we had to play catch-up this whole Test and unfortunately we couldn’t quite do it at the end,” he said.

Vettori calls time on Test captaincy

WELLINGTON: Daniel Vettori officially ended his tenure as New Zealand’s Test captain on Wednesday, though he will not relinquish the coin toss responsibilities completely until after the World Cup.
The 31-year-old Vettori had already said several times since he took on the captaincy from Stephen Fleming in November 2007 that he would step down from the role after the 2011 World Cup, which runs from February 19-April 2.
“I made that decision three-and-a-half years ago and that’s it,” Vettori told reporters after New Zealand and Pakistan drew the second Test at the Basin Reserve, which allowed the visitors to win the two-match series 1-0.
“My timing was always to step away after the World Cup and that stays the same.”
Vettori said he still wanted to continue playing Test cricket under a new leader. Ross Taylor is his likely successor having been his vice captain in recent series. “Test cricket is part of the game I love,” Vettori added.
Vettori refused to contemplate on how his tenure as Test captain would be judged, though he felt he had given it all when he captained the side. “There’s always regrets, you always want to perform better, to do better, but its hard to say.”

Man-made natural disasters

UNTIL a few years ago, Sri Lanka was regarded as a paradise untouched by the ravages of natural disasters. Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes and snowstorms were nothing more than picturesque images to the average citizen of this country. The 2004 tsunami disaster changed that at a cost of more than 35,000 lives, but even so, the nation recovered from that tragedy, unconvinced that natural disasters would become a regular phenomenon in this land. The weeks gone by should force us to rethink this complacent assumption. The country has been hit by floods heralding the onset of the southwest monsoon. Hundreds of thousands have been rendered homeless overnight, and more than two dozen people have died.

This week saw many regions of Colombo city being submerged because of a few hours of torrential rain. …Ironically, even parliament was not spared, and the house had to adjourn early, to enable honourable MPs to return to their constituencies, without getting their ‘feet wet’. And the lingering question, which must be uppermost in the minds of most, is whether these events are the results of the wrath of nature at all. Or, as many environmentalists suspect, is this the result of compromising nature for the expediency of a fast buck?

It is a fact that many major cities in this country, including Colombo, are ill-planned. They have evolved from the colonial era in an ad-hoc manner, in keeping with the needs of the times. In such circumstances, environmental concerns have played only a minor role, if at all. What is alarming though is that this ‘development’, if it can be called that, continues to this day. Unauthorised buildings are erected, industrial con cerns come into operation, marshy lands are being filled up, only to be resold at a hand some profit, and garbage is be ing dumped with gay aban don. It is as if no one needs to ask anyone whether there is a protocol or procedure to fol low in these matters. ...This type of nefarious activity has been a cancer gnawing away at our environment, slowly but steadily for many deca des…. Now, however, events appear to have reached a make-or-break stage, as last week’s flashfloods amply demonstrated. The recent del uge and all the disasters that it brought upon us is a rude reminder that there will be more to follow if we do not put our country and its eco systems in order.

…If the whip is not cracked hard enough, chances are that, the perpetrators of these deeds will continue their work unhindered and unconcerned. Politically, this is an opportune moment to do so. A new government — even if it has mostly old faces in it — has just assumed office. There are no national elections on the horizon for the next half a dozen years, so unpopular measures can be taken, if they are necessary in the long run. Thus there is an immense responsibility resting in the hands of the powers that be: the ministers in charge of the environment, housing and construction and disaster management, and the secretary of defence….

Former greats divided over captaincy issue

KARACHI: Former Pakistan cricketers were divided on PCB’s indecision over the captaincy issue ahead of World Cup 2011.
Iqbal Qasim, the former Test spinner, flayed the move and said that the uncertainty could harm Pakistan’s World Cup hopes.
“By not naming the captain, the PCB has acted unwisely because all this uncertainty might not be good for our team,” said Qasim, a former chief selector.
But Qasim added that apart from the captaincy issue, things seem fine for Pakistan. “As far as the selection is concerned, I believe it’s a balanced team,” he said.
On Mohammad Yousuf exclusion, Qasim said that the aging batter didn’t deserve a place in the squad. “It’s hard to find a place for Yousuf because senior batsmen like Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan are performing really well at the moment.”
He also hailed the decision to select Sohail Tanvir ahead of paceman Tanvie Ahmed. “Sohail Tanvir has the sort of awkward action that can add variety to our bowling attack,” he said.
Abdul Qadir, another ex-Test spinner, also backed the move to overlook Yousuf. “It is a good decision because he wasn’t required after successful comebacks by Misbah and Younis,” said Qadir, also a former chief selector.
Qadir also supported PCB over its decision to delay naming Pakistan’s World Cup captain. “It’s a good tactic and will keep Shahid Afridi under pressure,” he said.
However, former Test fast bowler Sikander Bakht, believes it’s a ‘silly’ decision.
“It’s totally silly not to announce a captain and leaving uncertainty around the team,” he told ‘The News’. “Such foolish decisions cause divisions in the team. Our players would now be looking both at Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq and One-day skipper Shahid Afridi. This can harm Pakistan as loyalties would be divided.”
He said that Mohammad Yousuf has rightly been left out.
“For me personally, Yousuf should only concentrate on playing Tests just like Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. He should have retired from one-day and Twenty20 cricket two years back.”
Shoaib Mohammad, the former Test opener, felt that Yousuf has been victimised by the board.
“Yousuf should have been in World Cup team as he is the only top-class player in our team but he has fallen prey to the dirty politics of the PCB,” he said.
Former Test pacer Jalaluddin, however, welcomed the decision to drop Yousuf. “The game today is very fast and Yousuf’s exclusion will not really affect the team.
“Though he has experience on his side but Yousuf is not fit to play in 50-over matches and is not in greatest of form either.
“So calling back him in such a big event could have backfired. We have some talented young batsmen who have shown the guts and we’ve done well by showing trust in them.”

Yousuf upbeat in spite of Cup snub

KARACHI: Pakistan on Tuesday snubbed Mohammad Yousuf by overlooking him for World Cup 2011 but the seasoned batsman remains confident that his international career is far from over.
Yousuf, who conceded that he was disappointed over the World Cup snub, said that there is still a lot of cricket in him and declared that he would make his Pakistan comeback soon.
“I don’t think that my international career is over,” he said. “I will return to international cricket Inshallah,” said the 36-year-old former Pakistan captain.
“I don’t want to criticise anybody or the selectors,” he stressed.
Yousuf, who was dropped from the Pakistan team because of suspect fitness, said that he has proved his form and fitness by featuring in the ongoing National One-day Cup.
“I’ve proven my fitness,” said Yousuf who struck 81 while playing for Lahore Lions in their match against Hyderabad Hawks.
Yousuf is of the view that with his vast experience, he could have helped Pakistan in their World Cup campaign in Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh.
“I am in good form and could have benefited the team in the World Cup,” he said. “I would have quit myself if I felt unworthy for national duty after the World Cup.”

KARACHI: Hasan Raza, captain of Habib Bank Limited who won the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, has backed the use of floodlights and the orange ball for first-class games in Pakistan in the future.
The Trophy final between HBL and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was played under lights at the National Stadium in Karachi, an unprecedented event for the first-class game in the country.
“It was a really good experience, all the boys really enjoyed themselves and I hope that this is not a one-off,” Raza told Pakpassion.net.
“I really do hope that this idea is continued for next season and further into the future.
“We started practicing with the orange ball and pink ball two days ahead of the match, so it gave us all an opportunity to adjust to the light and the colour of the ball.
“The PIA captain Kamran Sajid and I in discussion with our teams decided that the orange ball would be better and I really do hope that future matches in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy are played under lights with the orange cricket ball.”
Raza said that the experience was enjoyable, not just for the players but for the spectators as well.
“The fans seemed to be having a good time watching the game and got behind the teams. I think if you asked the supporters they would definitely say they prefer day-night cricket compared with day cricket.”
The tournament is currently played with two divisions and departmental sides and regional teams are spread across both divisions. Raza, however, felt that the format needed to be changed for the next season.
“Departments should play against departments and the regional sides should play among one another. The departmental sides play the most competitive cricket and generally produce the best players. I think it would benefit the national side also if the format was altered where department teams and regional teams are kept apart, as the most talented players but be visible in the first division and playing for the departmental sides.”
Raza, who made his Test debut for Pakistan at the age of 14, has played seven Tests and 16 ODIs.
He last played for Pakistan in 2005, but has been a consistent performer on the domestic circuit, having recently gone past 12,000 first-class runs.
Raza said he was hopeful of making a comeback to the national side, along the lines of Pakistan’s current Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq.
“I’m a much more responsible individual now and have had the responsibility of captaincy with me for the past few years,” he said.
“I’ve been a consistent performer in domestic cricket and I look at Misbah-ul-Haq’s example as someone who can make a strong comeback into Test cricket. I have faith in my ability and know for sure that I can do a job for Pakistan.”

Pressure cooker

As the nation absorbs the shock of the death of Salmaan Taseer, the business of politics continues. On the day he was assassinated there were developments that would have been headlines had his death not pushed the story to the bottom of the page. The PML-N has, seemingly, finally decided to get tougher with the PPP but is not yet prepared to challenge it by moving a vote of no confidence. The PML-N has announced a nine-point agenda for which it seeks government compliance, and the agenda comes attached to a 72-hour deadline (amended in the light of governor Taseer’s murder by three days to allow proper respects to be paid.) The other major party in the National assembly the PML-Q also held back from the no-confidence line in the dust; and there is a collective holding of breath and careful scrutiny of positions to see who is going to blink first.
There does not appear to be the political desire to oust the government, at least not yet, and space has been created for some high-speed horse-trading and the extraction of political concessions by the opposition from a government weakened by the decision of the MQM to sit on the opposition benches in the Centre. The prime minster has indicated that he may consider a reversal of the decision to raise petrol prices. Such an adjustment is a quick fix, and easier to fulfil than getting rid of corrupt officials, cutting back on government expenditure and appointing independent members to vacant seats on the election commission. These latter are rather more difficult to achieve than by the stroke of a pen, and the PML-N will doubtless have been aware of that when its demands were formulated. Breathing space is provided by a cushion of 45 days which the government has been given by PML-N to meet its demands – which takes us to February 20. After that, and if the government has failed to comply, the PML-N is saying it will put the same agenda to other opposition parties to see if consensus can be arrived at for a challenge to the government. Whatever happens, the government just saw its ‘wiggle room’ diminish significantly, and for the first time in the current crisis change may be on the horizon.

Targeting children

Children surely play no role at all either in the devising of policy or in other decisions made at the national and provincial levels. Yet they have been made targets in the conflict between terrorists and the state. Very recently in Turbat, five children were injured – four of them critically – when the van taking them to school was attacked through a remote-controlled explosive device. The fact that the school was run by the FC is likely to have been a factor in the strike carried out by well-prepared militants who fired several rounds of shots before fleeing.
The targeting of children surely marks an act of extreme dastardliness. It is hard to even imagine anyone immoral enough to be capable of carrying out such an action. No matter who the perpetrators are they must be hunted down and punished under the law. The attack in Turbat seems to copy those that happened previously in the tribal areas and even in Peshawar. The fact that few arrests were made will have encouraged others to adopt similar methods. It is possible that nationalist militants have picked up ideas from the Taliban and resorted to the same violence the Taliban have used so often to create havoc across in our north. The last thing we need is for this to spread. The level of literacy in Balochistan is already extremely low. In some areas it stands below 20 per cent, compared with the national average of just above 50 per cent. It would be a disaster if more children were to be driven away from schools because their parents are too afraid to send them to there.

Indispensable element

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Pakistan earlier this month was his second trip to Pakistan - the earlier one took place in April 2005 - and the first by a top Chinese leader since that of President Hu Jintao in November 2006. Unlike other major world leaders who have been visiting India this year but have shied away from combining their trip to that country with one to Pakistan, Wen arrived in Islamabad directly from a visit to India. The Chinese also pointedly kept the duration of Wen’s visits to the two countries the same: two days in both Pakistan and India. While Obama - not to speak of lesser Western personages like Cameron and Sarkozy - avoided Pakistan to underline the de-hyphenation of relations with the two South Asian countries and the wish to “make” India a global power, the main purpose of Wen’s visit to Pakistan was to reassure Pakistan - and demonstrate, not just to India -, that its warming ties with India will not be at Pakistan’s expense, that the importance that Beijing attaches to its strategic partnership with Pakistan remains intact and that its interest in developing political, economic and military ties with Islamabad is undiminished.
This message was reciprocated by Pakistan in an extraordinarily warm reception accorded to the Chinese leader. The highlight of the visit was Wen’s heart-warming speech to a joint session of the Parliament, the first by a Chinese leader to the assembled parliamentarians since that of President Jiang Zemin to the Senate in December 1996. (Since the National Assembly stood dissolved at that time, a joint meeting of the two houses could not be held.) The essence of Wen’s speech was summed up in its title: “Shaping the future together through thick and thin”. China and Pakistan, Wen said, are “all-weather strategic partners” and “brothers forever”; and “to cement and advance this partnership is the common strategic choice” of the two countries.
This choice has been reflected in the policies and actions of the two countries for nearly half a century. Besides extending cooperation to Pakistan in the development of roads, ports and infrastructure of strategic importance, China has brushed aside Indian protests and US objections to the supply of military hardware to Pakistan and has been cooperating with the county in the generation of nuclear power at a time when the rest of the world has maintained a discriminatory embargo. The strong strategic partnership that has existed between Pakistan and China has been and remains an indispensable element for the peace and stability of South Asia.
Earlier this year, Washington and Delhi joined hands in an effort to scuttle an agreement for the sale by China of two 300 megawatt nuclear reactors (Chashma-3 and -4) to Pakistan and the possible supply of a larger 1,000 megawatt nuclear power plant, all under IAEA safeguards. Not only are these efforts continuing, the US last week imposed a heavy fine on the Chinese subsidiary of a US firm for exporting equipment (high-performance coatings) to Chashma-2 Nuclear Power Plant which the Chinese are building in Pakistan, although this plant has the clearance of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. This could be a signal that Chinese suppliers for any future nuclear reactors in Pakistan would face similar heavy penalties.
In a briefing for reporters ahead of Wen’s South Asia tour, a senior Chinese official reaffirmed that China and Pakistan would further develop their nuclear energy cooperation. “This is restricted to the civilian nuclear sphere and conforms to the international duties assumed by both countries,” Liang Wentao, a deputy director general at the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said. “It is entirely for peaceful purposes, and comes under the safeguards and oversight of the IAEA.” Nevertheless, during his talks with Wen in Delhi, Manmohan Singh predictably reiterated India’s concern at the supply of Chinese nuclear reactors to Pakistan.
The question of civil nuclear cooperation was not the only point concerning Pakistan that Manmohan took up with Wen. In fact questions concerning Pakistan-India and Pakistan-China relations, as well as the issue of “stapled visas” for the Kashmiris, seem to have consumed a not inconsiderable part of the talks between Wen and Manmohan and received a lot of attention in Indian media coverage.
The Indian Prime Minister forcefully took up with the Chinese Premier the issue of “terrorism emanating from Pakistani soil”. Wen expressed great sympathy for the victims of the Bombay attacks but in stark contrast to the orgy of Pakistan-bashing by Cameron and Sarkozy from Indian soil, Wen refrained from any comment that could suggest that Pakistan had harboured the perpetrators of this terrorist act or that Pakistan has been tolerating acts of terrorism from its territory. The spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry suggested that Pakistan and India should deal with the question through bilateral exchanges and cooperation.
Wen probably irked the Indians further by praising Pakistan’s sacrifices and efforts to tackle the challenge of Islamic militants in his speech to the Parliament. He also called on the international community to fully recognise and support Pakistan’s efforts in its struggle against this menace. In other words, it is for the international community to “do more” to help Pakistan in its fight against militancy. It is unlikely though that Washington will heed Wen’s sound advice.
We must also be wary of the way India has been trying to narrow the scope of the Kashmir issue to a question of “stapled visas” rather than one involving the destiny of 13 million Kashmiris. Delhi asserts that this practice challenges India’s “sovereignty” over Kashmir and India’s territorial integrity. Beijing, on the contrary, has been trying to play down the significance of the question. A Chinese official reportedly said it was an administrative not a political issue. Another Chinese official said it “falls under the category of details.”
In talks with Manmohan Singh, Wen himself brought up the subject. He said he took India’s concerns seriously and suggested in-depth consultations at the official level to resolve the issue. Delhi has raised the ante by linking it to India’s support for “One China.” The Indian scheme is easy to guess: If China gives in to India’s demand, Delhi would be able to claim that Beijing has recognised occupied Kashmir as an integral part of India, something that it has not done so far.
On the question of a permanent seat for India on the Security Council, the joint statement stopped short of endorsing the Indian bid. It repeated China’s position that it attaches great importance to India’s status in international affairs as a large developing country and that China understands and supports India’s aspiration to play a greater role in the United Nations, including in the UN Security Council. But according to one Indian newspaper, Wen also told Manmohan that China would not be an obstacle to India getting a permanent seat. This indicated, the newspaper said, that a “significant gap” had been covered during Wen’s visit. The Indian Foreign Secretary has expressed the confidence that when the time comes for “the ultimate decision”, China was unlikely to stand in the way if there was a groundswell of support for India.
The report on Wen’s promise that China would not stand in the way of a permanent seat for India may or may not be true but it cannot be lightly dismissed. Even without the reminder from Delhi, our policy-makers should know that if there is overwhelming support for an Indian permanent seat, Beijing would find it politically very difficult to stop it, even if it wished to. In any case, it would be huge mistake to bank on others to do what is our job. The confidence expressed by Shah Mehmood last month that India would not get a permanent seat because of Chinese opposition falls under this category. We will have to do some heavy lifting ourselves and the sooner we start the better.

McCullum torments Pakistan in warm-up match

WELLINGTON: A quickfire 206 by Brendon McCullum put the New Zealand XI in a commanding position at 342-4 at the close of the first day of their first Test warm-up match against Pakistan in Whangarei on Sunday.
The Pakistan and New Zealand sides are at near full strength and have agreed to use 12 players for this match ahead of the two-Test series which starts on January 7 in Hamilton.
McCullum, who did not play in the recent Twenty20 series won by New Zealand 2-1, belted 20 fours and five sixes after skipper Daniel Vettori won the toss and elected to bat on the new Cobham Oval wicket.
McCullum brought up the double century in style with a six, scoring 200 off only 210 balls and featured in a 162-run opening partnership with Tim McIntosh (51) before being caught by Umar Gul off Asad Shafiq to end a 218-ball stand.
BJ Watling was out for 24 and Kane Williamson 16 with James Franklin (17) and Dean Brownlie (11) the unbeaten batsmen at stumps.
Wahab Riaz, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman and Gul have taken a wicket each for Pakistan.
McCullum, who has returned to play after a recurring back injury said he is feeling fit after his absence and did not consider retiring.
“Hopefully I can can carry this form into series. I feel pretty good, a period away keeps you hungry and I’m looking forward to making a contribution in the Test series.”
It was another chance to develop his partnership with Tim McIntosh as test openers that could not be passed up, he added.
“We have had some we had some good ones (opening partnerships) and a couple of not so good ones so it’s a good opportunity to work on it. “Any chance to build on it has got to be taken especially with an attack like this one.”
Score board
New Zealand Cricket XI won toss
New Zealand Cricket XI 1st innings
T G McIntosh c Azhar Ali b Abdur Rehman 51
B B McCullum c Asad Shafiq b Umar Gul 206
B J Watling c Younis Khan b Wahab Riaz 24
K S Williamson c Adnan Akmal b Saeed Ajmal 16
J E C Franklin not out 17
D G Brownlie not out 11
Extras (lb1, w5, nb11) 17
Total (4 wickets, 86 overs) 342
Did not bat: *D L Vettori, †R A Young, T G Southee, T A Boult, B J Arnel, C S Martin
Fall: 1-162, 2-248, 3-291, 4-321
Bowling: Sohail Tanvir 12-2-48-0 (2nb); Tanvir Ahmed 13-2-80-0 (4nb, 1w); Umar Gul 14-2-52-1 (3nb); Wahab Riaz 16-3-51-1 (2nb, 4w); Abdur Rehman 18-3-56-1; Saeed Ajmal 13-2-54-1
Pakistan
Saeed Ajmal, Taufeeq Umar, Younis Khan, Azhar Ali, *Misbah-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, †Adnan Akmal, Abdur Rehman, Tanvir Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir
Umpires: B G Frost and C B Gaffaney

Announcement to be made in London US, allies plan

WASHINGTON, Jan 26: The United States and its allies are expected to set up a $500 million integration fund at a conference in London this week to lure Taliban fighters to join the political mainstream.
“We are going to go to London to affirm our international support for it,” said US special envoy Richard Holbrooke. “Money will be forthcoming for it. I can’t say how much. The Japanese are going to take the lead.” In an interview to MSNBC television on Monday evening, Mr Holbrooke said that the initiative would fill a gap in dealing with the Taliban because “there’s no good programme to invite them back into the fold”.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is hosting the London conference, said the summit would “cover both our military and our political strategies, but concentrate on the political strategy for Afghanistan”.
About 60 countries are expected to attend the conference.
The United States is offering $100 million to set up the fund.
In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told journalists that her government would contribute $14 million a year for five years to the proposed fund.
“This is an international ac cord to set up a fund to allow reintegration in cooperation with the Afghan government,” she said.
She said 500 German troops would join 4,300 already in place and that 350 reservists would be put on stand-by for Afghanistan.
The plan will be presented at the conference on Jan 28, in a response to a call by Afghan President Hamid Karzai for help in getting insurgents to stop fighting his government.
The plan aims to integrate those Taliban who are not part of the Al Qaeda terrorist network into the political mainstream.
In an interview to Turkey’s NTV, President Karzai praised the plan as a step in the right direction, saying that “those who joined the Taliban are also children of Afghanistan”.
“I will be making a statement at the conference in London to the effect of removing Taliban names from the United Nations sanctions list,” Mr Karzai said.
In Washington, the US State Department announced that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would also attend the conference, which would demonstrate the international community’s support for Afghanistan’s future and the agenda outlined by President Karzai in his November 19 inauguration speech.
“The meetings will focus on the implementation of our strategy in support of Afghanistan’s security, governance and development, and improved international civilian coordination,” the State Department said.
Gen Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, will also attend the conference. “I’d like everybody to walk out of London with a renewed commitment,” he said, “and that commitment is to the right outcome for the Afghan people”.
Gen McChrystal is expected to push his plan for peace with the Taliban, while Mr Holbrooke will participate in discussions on the so-called Taliban integration fund.
Canada, which has deployed 2,800 troops in Afghanistan, also has indicated its support for a negotiated peace with the Taliban.
“Yes, discussions with the Taliban; yes, led by the Afghans; and yes, certain conditions that have to be in place,” said Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay. “Without that the discussions really are moot.” The Taliban has long resisted calls for negotiations. Last week, spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid emphatically stated that “the only political solution is that the foreign forces and the Afghan government surrender to us”.
Diplomatic observers in Washington say that negotiations may be the only way to a peaceful settlement in Afghanistan.
A continued confrontation, they warned, might lead to a massive bloodshed at the hands of militants once Nato soldiers left.


Copyright DawnNews 27.01.2010
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Japanese PM in a pinch

TOKYO: Nearly 100,000 people rallied on Japan’s Okinawa on Sunday to demand a US airbase be moved off the island, media said, deepening the prime minister’s woes as he struggles to resolve a feud by an end of May deadline.

Voters’ perception that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has mishandled the row over the US Marines’ Futenma airbase on Okinawa, a reluctant host to the bulk of US forces in Japan, is eroding support for his government as a key mid-year upper house election approaches.

Hatoyama’s Democratic Party, which swept to power in a general election last year, needs a decisive victory in the upper house poll, expected in July, to enact legislation smoothly.

Some, even within Hatoyama’s own party, say failure to resolve the row by his self-imposed deadline could force him to resign before the election. Crowds of residents, many wearing yellow as a symbol of protest, gathered in the town of Yomitan on Okinawa one day after a US newspaper said Tokyo was moving towards broadly accepting a 2006 deal to relocate Futenma’s functions from the centre of a city to a less populous part of the southern island.

About 90,000 people, including representatives of all major parties, took part in the rally, Kyodo news agency said. “To save the life, property and living environment of citizens, we Okinawans urge both Japanese and US governments to give up the relocation of the Futenma airfield within the prefecture,” Kyodo quoted a resolution adopted at the rally assaying.

US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell is scheduled to visit Japan in the next few days. Hatoyama, who has said any new plan must win local understanding as well as satisfy the United States, on Saturday repeated his objection to the original 2006 plan.

In the campaign that swept his Democratic Party to power last year, Hatoyama had raised hopes the airbase would be moved off Okinawa, if not outside Japan entirely. The Washington Post said on its website that Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told US Ambassador John Rooson Friday Tokyo was moving towards accepting major parts of the2006 deal.

It said Okada had suggested some changes to the 2006 deal, including altering the design of the runway at the new air station and moving parts of the facility to an island about 100 miles from Okinawa. It was unclear whether the proposal referred to the small island of Tokunoshima, where a crowd of 15,000 protested against accepting the airbase last week.

The row has not only ruffled ties with Washington but dented the government’s ratings with voters.

Support for Hatoyama’s government has fallen to around 30 per cent, after previous highs above 70 per cent, on growing voter doubts over his decision-making skills, clouding his Democratic Party’s chances of a decisive win in the upper house vote.

Burka, Niqab have no place in Denmark: PM

COPENHAGEN: The face-covering Burka and Niqab veils worn by some Muslim women have no place in Denmark, Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said on Tuesday, adding his government was considering restricting them.

Rasmussen stopped short, however, of calling for a ban on the veils, noting “legal and other limits”.

“The government’s position is clear: the Burka and the Niqab have no place in Danish society. They symbolise a view of women and humanity that we totally oppose and that we want to combat in Danish society,” Rasmussen told reporters.

Denmark is “an open, democratic society where we look at the person to whom we are talking, whether it’s in a classroom or on the job,” he said. “That is why we don’t want to see this garment in Danish society,” he added.

The prime minister’s comments came a day after the publication of a report which showed that use of the Burka was “extremely rare” in Denmark, though no figures were given, and that the Niqab was worn by “between 100 and 200” women.

Fresh clashes claim 200 lives in Nigeria

KANO (Nigeria), Jan 19: Nearly 200 people have been killed in fresh religious clashes between Christians and Muslims in the Nigerian city of Jos, a senior Muslim cleric and paramedic said on Tuesday.
State authorities placed the city under a 24-hour curfew and terrified residents reported hearing gunshots and seeing smoke billowing from parts of the city, the capital of Plateau State in central Nigeria.
The bodies of the most of the dead were being brought in to the city’s central mosque, according to its head Balarabe Dawud.
“We received 156 dead bodies this morning and another 36 this afternoon, in total we have 192 dead bodies,” Dawud said.
He said at least 800 people had been wounded in the clashes, 90 of whom had been evacuated to military hospitals with serious injuries.
Fighting had spread to Bukuru town on the outskirts of Jos by late afternoon, killing at least three people, paramedic Maryam Mohammed said at a clinic there.
“So far we have three dead and 39 injured,” he said.
Dawud, the imam, said the Jos central mosque was attending to those with minor injuries, but had run out of medical supplies.
“Even neighbourhood private clinics are full with the injured. Normally these are the places we would have gone to for supplies, but they are also in need of them,” he said.
An employee of the mos que, Mohammed Shittu, said earlier that “the mosque is full with the injured and the dead,” adding that 156 bodies had been taken to the mosque on Tuesday morning.
Authorities said a curfew put in place at the weekend had been extended.
“The government has placed a 24-hour curfew on Jos and Bukuru following the resumption of violence in parts of the city,” the state’s information commissioner Gregory Yenlong said.
“All residents are hereby directed to stay indoors as security agents work towards restoring peace,” said Yenlong.
All flights to the city were suspended on Tuesday, airport and airline sources said.
David Maiyaki, a Christian resident of Dutse Uku area of Jos where the latest fighting erupted overnight, said the curfew did not yet seem to have taken effect and “fighting is continuing unabated”.
“We woke up to new fighting this morning. As I am talking to you we are indoors, but there is burning and gunshots all around us,” said David Maiyaki by phone.
Ibrahim Mudi, a resident of Sabon Fegi suburb, said: “From here I can hear gunshots and see burning buildings from a neighbourhood in the northern part of the city.” “It seems that Jos north is completely on fire,” added Mudi, who spoke by phone from his veranda.
Mohammed Ahmad from the Unguwarrogo area said the city “is enveloped in smoke and gunshots have filled the air”.
“It’s quite terrifying. We are indoors but we don’t feel safe. It’s like any moment something is going to happen to us,” said Ahmad.
Sunday’s fighting had been confined to the predominantly Christian Nassarawa Gwon area but has since spread to other parts of the city, the army said.
“It is not concentrated, it is not limited to one area, it is scattered,” army spokesman Colonel Galadima Shekari said.
Fighting first erupted when Christian youths protested the building of a mosque in a Christian-majority area of Nigeria’s 10th-largest city. Houses and vehicles were set ablaze.
Sunday’s clashes killed at least 26 people, according to Muslim leaders.
The Red Cross said more than 100 people were seriously injured in that fighting and that it was struggling to cope with around 3,000 displaced people.
State authorities said on Monday that calm had returned and urged people to go about their daily activities as normal after hundreds of troops and police had been drafted in to impose order and a 12-hour dusk-to-dawn curfew.
The curfew was extended following the latest clashes.
Jos, situated between the Muslim-dominated north and the Christian south, has in recent years been a hotbed of religious violence in Nigeria, whose 150 million people are divided almost equally between followers of the two faiths.

Pope summons Irish bishops over sex abuse

VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI has summoned Irish bishops to the Vatican in February to chart a way forward over a child sex abuse scandal that has shaken Ireland, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
The Feb 15 to 16 meeting will address the aftermath of revelations that Church authorities covered up for paedophile priests in the mainly Catholic country for some three decades.
The pope already met on Dec 11 with Ireland’s two most senior Roman Catholic churchmen, primate of all Ireland Cardinal Sean Brady and Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, following a shock government report on the scandal in the Dublin archdiocese, Ireland’s biggest. The pope said then he shared “the outrage, betrayal and shame felt by so many of the faithful in Ireland (over) these heinous crimes” catalogued in the report issued in late November.
One priest admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children, while another accepted that he had abused on a fortnightly basis over 25 years.

Our population problem

IN the 1960s President Ayub Khan made population growth a major policy concern for his development-minded administration. However, since then policymakers have not given the subject of population the attention it deserves.
That is unfortunate since the dynamics associated with population growth varies according to the location of people, the patterns of migration and differences among various areas. It has had a profound impact on the way the country has developed — and not just economically.
Demography has also had a profound impact on Pakistan’s political and economic development. Today I will look at some of the broad trends in Pakistan over the past six decades, look at the way population trends are shaping globally, and see how these world trends re late to Pakistan.
When Pakistan became independent in 1947 its population was estimated at 32 million. Sixty-three years later it has increased 5.3 times to 170 million. This implies an average annual rate of growth of 2.74 per cent, one of the highest in the world. The government claims that the rate of increase has been declining in recent years and is now below two per cent, possibly no more than 1.8 per cent a year.
In 1947, only 10 per cent of the population lived in urban areas; today the figure is about 50 per cent. This means that the size of the urban population has increased 26.5 times, again one of the highest rates of growth — 5.4 per cent a year. About a third of the urban population resides in two large cities, Karachi and Lahore. As is the case with the rest of the developing world, the rate of increase in the populations of large cities in Pakistan will also decline while those of the secondary and tertiary cities will increase.
This brings me to the question of global trends. It is useful to reflect on these in order to comprehend the challenges Pakistan’s policymakers face and will do so in the future as they begin to focus on the impact of demography.
The UN’s population division now projects that world population growth will almost come to a standstill by 2050. At that time the global population will stabilise at 9.15 billion compared to the present 6.83 billion. This levelling in the rate of increase was not anticipated a couple of decades ago. In the 1980s, for instance, demographers worried about what they had begun to call the population bomb. The bomb did not explode in most parts of the developing world. That said, there is now a new worry — the distribution worldwide of the anticipated growth. The new generation of demographers has now begun to point to some population trends that could produce a great deal of economic, political and social instability.
Almost the entire growth in the world population of 2.32 billion will occur in the developing world. By the middle of this century the share of today’s rich countries will decline to only 12 per cent of the total, five percentage points lower than was the case at the beginning of the century. It is not always recognised that this is a significant reversal of past tends. At the start of the 18th century, Europe accounted for 20 per cent of the world’s population.
The advent of the industrial revolution in Britain resulted in an explosion of its population as health and sanitation facilities improved and the rates of mortality declined. In 1913, on the eve of the First World War, Europe had a population larger than that of China at that time. By that time the proportion of Europe in the context of the global population had increased to 33 per cent of the total. However, the continent was getting too crowded. There were serious food shortages in some parts; Ireland suffered what came to be known as the potato famine. In migration, the Europeans found a solution to their population problem. There was a massive movement of people to North America and Australia.
There will be other significant changes in the distribution of the population. Not only will today’s developed countries have a significantly lower proportion of the total population, their populations will also be much older and the proportion of non-working to working populations will increase considerably. Will the burden of looking after older people fall mostly on the young or will the state step in to help? If it is the latter, how will the state pay for the care of the poor? These have already become important policy issues in developed countries.
By the middle of the century more than half the global population will live in towns and cities. Most of the increase in urban populations will take place in the large- and medium-sized cities in the developing world. Even at this time these cities are proving hard to manage. Neither they nor the states in which they are located have the means to pro vide some of the essential services people need. In many of them security is a major concern. Today some 90 per cent of global homicides are committed in the urban areas of the developing world.
There will also be sig nificant demographic shifts within the developing world. Populations in Muslim countries will increase much more rapidly than in other parts. As Jack A. Goldstein says in his article, ‘The new population bomb’, in a recent issue of Foreign Affairs, “most of the world’s expected population will increasingly be concentrated in today’s poorest, youngest and most heavily Muslim countries which have lack of quality education, capital and employment opportunities”. He probably had Pakistan in mind when he wrote that sentence. But the option of migration is increasingly less available to the crowded Muslim world as was the case for the Europeans 100 years ago.
This then is the context in which we should look at our demographic situation. We are engaged in a race: either develop the economy rapidly so that opportunities are created for the young or fumble with the economy and let the youth turn increasingly towards extremism. ¦

Curfew in Hyderabad Deccan after sectarian clashes

HYDERABAD, India: Indian police on Tuesday imposed a curfew across a third of the southern city of Hyderabad, home to global IT giants Google and Microsoft, after days of inter-religious clashes.

At least one man died in street battles between Hindu and Muslim mobs during violence triggered by arguments over putting up decorations for a religious festival, Hyderabad Police Superintendent AK Khan told AFP.

He said the victim, a Hindu youth, was stabbed to death on Monday and scores of people had been injured. “We have imposed a curfew on parts of the city because we did not want the situation to escalate,” Khan said.

Violence spread over the weekend through the Muslim-dominated “old city” of Hyderabad with crowds pelting stones at each other near the tourist landmark of the Charminar mosque. Five smaller mosques and one Hindu temple were slightly damaged, police said, as shops, buses and cars were set on fire. Hyderabad, a city of eight million people, has attracted major investment from global information technology and pharmaceuticals firms, and is a symbol of India’s emerging economy.

But it has also suffered from historically deep communal tension and growing unrest over the proposed division of Andhra Pradesh state into two entities — an issue that has also led police to impose curfews in recent months. Frequent strikes and road and rail blockades in the city, which is the state capital of Andhra Pradesh, have caused widespread disruption to business over the last year. Analysts say the turmoil has created a sense of uncertainty among investors, though social networking group Facebook chose Hyderabad earlier this month for its first office in India.

About 2,000 extra security personnel were sent to reinforce the city’s police on Tuesday as Hindus marked a festival celebrating the birth of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. Many shops and offices were closed and the streets were quiet as residents stayed indoors. At least 100 suspected rioters have been detained.

Police patrolled in large numbers through the city’s troubled areas, which remained calm during the day. “The curfew will remain in force till the situation is brought to normalcy,” said Sabita Indra Reddy, home minister of Andhra Pradesh.

The modern parts of Hyderabad where the multinational companies are based were unaffected by the unrest. Hyderabad’s star rose during the 1990s as India established itself as an IT outsourcing destination offering low-cost services to multinational companies for a fraction of the cost in their domestic markets.

Using its leverage at last

Islamabad finally managed to extract formal apologies from the US and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) for the Sept 30 raid on a Pakistani border security post in Kurram Agency, in which two Frontier Corps soldiers were killed.
The apologies were offered by Ambassador Anne Patterson and Gen David Petraeus, commander of the NATO-led ISAF in Afghanistan. Admiral Mike Mullen, Richard Holbrooke, special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen also expressed regrets at the incident. Subsequently, Pakistan reopened the key Torkham route for supplies to the NATO forces in Afghanistan, after 10 days of closure.
It was surprising that the Pakistani authorities denied suggestions that the closure of the Torkham supply route was in response to the attack on the border post by NATO helicopter-gunships and the killing of Pakistani soldiers. Instead, the suspension of the supplies was attributed to the enhanced security threat to the convoys passing through Pakistan amid the emotions caused in the country by the repeated violation of the country's borders and, in this case, the death of the two Pakistani soldiers, Lance Naik Nawazish Khan of Peshawar and Sepoy Shahinshah of Mianwali.
At least four big attacks subsequently took place in all four provinces of Pakistan on stranded oil-tankers carrying fuel for the NATO forces. More than a hundred oil tankers were burnt and several people, including drivers, guards and bystanders were killed, with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its allied groups quickly claiming responsibility.
The attacks showed that the security threat mentioned by Pakistan was real, but the assault on the oil tankers stranded in Shikarpur in Sindh raised eyebrows as no presence of militants had been reported there until then. The attacks in Khairabad in Nowshera in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and in Mithri in Bolan district in Balochistan were also reportedly easy jobs, as the parked oil tankers, without proper security to guard them, were sitting ducks for the militants or anyone else who wanted to attack them.
The attack on oil tankers in the limits of the Islamabad Capital Territory, close to the ICT's boundary with Punjab, also caused suspicion because of the ease with which the attackers managed to escape after the daring assault. The situation became complex and confusing when the Islamabad Police, like their counterparts elsewhere in the country, argued that it wasn't their responsibility to protect the NATO convoys, blaming the lapse on the private security assigned to do the job. The US embassy in Islamabad responded by saying that it was the responsibility of the Pakistani government to give protection to the supplies for NATO forces.
This kind of blame-game and the activities raising suspicion could have been avoided, had Pakistan made it clear at the outset that it stopped NATO supplies through one of its two border crossings to Afghanistan in retaliation for the attack on its clearly marked security post flying the Pakistani flag. The claims of "victory" by government ministers after Pakistan received apologies from the US and NATO, would have sounded credible if it had been made obvious that the supplies had been blocked in response to the raid on the border post and the killing of the two soldiers.
That wasn't done, out of fear that the US and its NATO partners would be antagonised. A rather strange method was adopted to convey Pakistan's anger and put pressure on the US and NATO to tender the apology. At the same time, Islamabad failed to close the Chaman border route through which close to 20 per cent of all NATO supplies passing through Pakistan enter Afghanistan. The US and NATO planes using Pakistan's airspace to fly supplies to their troops in Afghanistan also continued to operate.
The closure of the Torkham route, through which almost 80 per cent of NATO supplies of food, fuel and other goods passing through Pakistan are transported to Afghanistan, was thus meant to be a temporary measure aimed at conveying Islamabad's anger and making the US and its allies realise that Pakistan's cooperation was vital for the achievement of NATO's war objectives in Afghanistan.
Pakistan was and is in no mood to completely and permanently shut down the NATO supplies or end its military alliance with the US. Instead, Islamabad is using to its best advantage the leverage given to it by the dependence of NATO forces in Afghanistan on the shorter and less expensive supply route through Pakistan.
Pakistan's weak and muted response to its border violations by US forces in the past meant that its demand for an apology this time wasn't taken seriously. It had failed to lodge a strong protest and seek apology for a far more serious incident of border violation in 2008 when 14 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a cross-border attack by US helicopter-gunships on the Gorparai security post in Mohmand Agency. They all belonged to the Frontier Corps.
As in the incident in Kurram Agency, missiles were fired to attack the clearly marked Pakistani border post. There were also two more serious incidents of border violations in Angoor Adda in South Waziristan and in Saidgi in North Waziristan in which twenty-one and three Pakistanis, respectively, were killed, and a few taken away in military helicopters that had actually landed inside Pakistani territory.
Pakistan had specified "red lines" warning against such incidents in which US and NATO troops operated and launched attacks on its soil. Promises were made at the time by the US and NATO authorities that such incidents would be avoided in the future, although the promises were never honoured. The closure of the Torkham supply route was also seen in Kabul, Washington and Brussels as a temporary measure for a brief period. It was only after realisation dawned on the US and NATO authorities that the closure of the Torkham border could go on and threaten their military operations in Afghanistan that they agreed to offer formal apologies.
Initially, the US and NATO military authorities tried to justify the Kurram Agency attack by arguing that it was undertaken in self-defence because their helicopter-gunships were fired at. This is strange logic because the two military helicopters had menacingly intruded about 200 metres into Pakistani territory and threatened the border post manned by Frontier Corps soldiers. The soldiers, who opened fire with their G-3 rifles after coming under attack, were certainly firing warning shots. In fact, it was they who were using their right of self-defence, and not the Americans intruding into and violating Pakistan's borders.
No principle of "hot pursuit" was involved in this incident as no militant activity was reported in that part of the Pak-Afghan border. In any case, Pakistan has made it clear it hasn't agreed to any "hot pursuit" operations by the NATO forces in Pakistani territory because the ISAF mandate is confined to Afghanistan. Besides, Pakistan has mostly ignored and kept silent whenever the NATO forces have carried out operations against militants operating on or near the Pak-Afghan border.
More importantly, Pakistan seems to have accepted as a fait accompli the drone attacks that the US carries out with increasing intensity and impunity in its tribal areas. The government denies that these missile strikes are undertaken by the US in tacit agreement with the Pakistani military, since some of the drone attacks have killed some most-wanted TTP commanders, such as Baitullah Mahsud.
The apologies have been received and accepted and NATO supplies through Pakistan have resumed. But there are no guarantees that cross-border attacks on Pakistani territory will not take place again. However, Pakistan has finally learnt to use its leverages while interacting with the US and NATO to make its point and restore some of its lost dignity.
Nearly 500 trucks and a large number of oil tankers pass daily through Pakistan to meet almost 80 per cent needs of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, and the alternative route via Russia and the Central Asian states costs two to three times more and takes twenty days longer. This is the greatest leverage that Pakistan has and it is no longer shy of using it to protect its interests.

NATO against ragtag warriors

The 28-member North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is struggling to achieve victory, or should one say avoid defeat, in its maiden military engagement outside Europe. In fact, the Afghanistan conflict is the first real war that the Western military alliance, set up 61 years ago, has ever fought. Losing it, and that too against the ragtag Taliban fighters, could unravel NATO and raise questions about the strength and morale of the heavily-armed, hi-tech armies comprising the US-led defence bloc.
Meeting in Portugal’s capital Lisbon on November 19-20, leaders of NATO member countries and their allies discussed a host of issues, but the one that took up most of their time was the war in Afghanistan. Forty-eight countries that make up the NATO-led International Security Assistance Security Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan and represented at the summit signed an agreement with President Hamid Karzai to begin handing over control of the war to his government in early 2011 and cede command also by the end of 2014. Karzai, installed by the US and sustained in power by NATO forces, had little choice in the matter even though he would have liked the Western armies to stay longer in Afghanistan. However, it needs reminding that it was President Karzai who first mentioned 2014 as the deadline for handing over security to the Afghan forces. His Western supporters have gone by his word even though this could turn out to be a misjudgement by Karzai.
Staying beyond 2014 in Afghanistan in a diminished role is indeed the most debated issue in NATO member countries right now. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO’s hawkish Danish secretary general, made it clear that the 2014 withdrawal deadline did not mean that the military alliance would leave behind a vacuum in Afghanistan that could be filled by enemies waiting out the exit of NATO forces. Just like Denmark’s prime minister who annoyed Muslims worldwide by refusing to condemn the blasphemous cartoons of Holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) published in a Danish newspaper, Rasmussen insisted that NATO would stay committed to Afghanistan as long as it takes to finish the job.
The ‘job’ at hand, though, has changed over the past nine years when the US invaded Afghanistan to destroy Al-Qaeda and punish the Taliban as a revenge for the 9/11 attacks. Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda have survived the assault despite suffering painful blows and the Taliban are back and in a much stronger position after suffering defeat in 2001. Other aspects of the ‘job’ that the US-led Western powers took upon themselves were to do some nation-building in Afghanistan and turning it into a democracy. Achieving those goals would require years and a lot more money, some of it lining the pockets of those in power and contributing to making Afghanistan the second most corrupt country in the world.
The ‘job’ that Rasmussen has in mind right now is to prevent the Taliban from capturing power as NATO believes this would amount to providing safe havens again to Al-Qaeda and other likeminded groups in Afghanistan. The Western leaders have been talking about fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan in places like Helmand to stop them from attacking cities in Europe and Northern America. By drawing such parallels, they at times raise unnecessary alarm and make their own mission even more difficult and unachievable in Afghanistan.
NATO Secretary General Rasmussen, enthusiastic and confident in keeping with the demands of his job and not required to heed the anti-war public opinion in the West as he no longer is contesting elections, is already being contradicted by certain Western government functionaries, more importantly by the US. Among them is Vice President Joe Biden, who has been calling for scaling back the US military involvement in Afghanistan. He described 2014 as the ‘drop-dead date’ for troops’ withdrawal and said it did not mean that the US would still have near 100,000 troops in Afghanistan in 2013. He and President Barack Obama, along with civil and military officials, have been reassuring the American people that their soldiers would start coming home from July 2011 onwards as promised.
There were question marks about the July 2011 date until now due to statements hinting otherwise by certain US officials, particularly the ISAF and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, but the NATO summit’s joint communiqué and the deal signed with President Karzai should mostly put those concerns at rest. However, the beginning of the withdrawal of the US troops by July 2011 would still be symbolic instead of substantial and the military authorities could still come up with arguments to delay or alter the manner of the pullout.
More importantly, though, is the fact that the US decision to start withdrawing troops has opened a window of opportunity for its reluctant NATO allies to consider pulling out most of their soldiers from Afghanistan in 2011, or much before the 2014 deadline. Once the principal power, the US, is ready to withdraw, it would become easier for other countries to extricate themselves from a war that has become increasingly unpopular with their electorate. The Dutch have already left, more so due to political compulsions and the force of public opinion than any other reason, and the Canadians are preparing to fully pullout in 2012. Other countries would then come under growing pressure from their citizens to withdraw. Most NATO countries or their ISAF partners are promising to provide military trainers and resources after ending their combat operations to make amends and to quickly train Afghanistan’s security forces to take over responsibility from the departing foreign troops.
Here lies the crunch because the biggest challenge now would be training the Afghan national army, police and other security forces not only to reach the targeted strength but also make them capable enough to stop the Taliban and the Hezb-i-Islami (Hekmatyar) fighters from overthrowing the government in Kabul or capturing provinces in the south, east and even the west. The US and NATO military commanders until now are dissatisfied with the performance of the Afghan security forces and it is debatable if they would become satisfied with their capabilities in the remaining three years. The Afghan national army has been suffering from an unusually high rate of desertions and raise in pay might not be enough of an incentive to check this trend. The army has a serious ethnic imbalance due to inadequate Pashtun representation and this cannot be overcome unless a major restructuring is done and more Pashtuns in the officers’ ranks are recruited.
The Afghan government would need to win over more Pashtuns and induct them not only into the security forces but also other segments of the administration in order to deny the Taliban the opportunity to recruit from among the ethnic group to which most of them belong. More importantly, the Pashtuns and also sections of the other ethnic groups would have to be convinced that they would have a better future siding with the West-backed Afghan government than the Taliban.
As for the NATO, it cannot afford to lose the war that was a test of its capability to intervene in distant lands to fight potential enemies and bring regime changes to its liking. Its faltering military campaign against the lightly-armed Taliban guerrillas would have to be turned around to avoid defeat and embarrassment. The US is willing to put anything and everything into this war and its recent decisions to send tanks to Afghanistan and build and expand military airbases are indicators that it still believes it can achieve victory in a country that has been described as a graveyard of empires. All this is understandable because some experts think defeat for the US in Afghanistan could well herald the beginning of the end for America as the leading military power in the world.

Collateral damage

‘Collateral damage’ is a seemingly bland phrase, but it indicates stomach-churning contempt for human life. It was fashionable during the Vietnam war, when countless thousands of civilians were blown to bits, burned to death by napalm, or otherwise destroyed or maimed by a military machine that was out of control.
In later years the jargon words fell into disfavour with those who killed civilians in conflict, if only because the world had realised that when some robotic mouthpiece mentioned ‘collateral damage’ in a media briefing it was certain that official savagery had resulted in the deaths of an unknown number of innocent people. But the phrase came back into fashion.
During NATO’s war against the Serbs there was a particularly repulsive spokesman called Jamie Shea whose smug account of the destruction of a bridge in May 1999 was a typical attempt to justify the killing of civilians. Of this particular blunder the BBC recorded that “At least 11 civilians were reported killed and a further 40 injured when NATO bombers mounted a daylight raid on a bridge in south-central Serbia… Rescuers who went to aid the injured were hit in the second attack.”
And Shea announced that the bombs were directed at a “legitimate designated military target.” There was no regret for the massacre, or even for the killing of patients when NATO planes bombed a hospital in Belgrade.
Then came the sublime moment, the resurrection of the We-are-the-Masters jargon, after a US airstrike on a train killed a dozen civilians. It provided an opportunity for Shea to declare “We regret any loss of life that this may have caused because our policy remains to minimise collateral damage.” The fool couldn’t see the absurd callousness of his statement – and he could hardly admit that ‘collateral damage’ is usually caused by criminal incompetence and sometimes with criminal intent.
The phrase wasn’t used much during the Iraq fiasco and has been avoided during the equally senseless war in Afghanistan. Which doesn’t mean to say there have not been enormous numbers of civilian deaths. Many blameless civilians have been killed in Afghanistan – and Pakistan – by foreign forces and their video-gamers in the sky.
In Afghanistan in October, for example, the reporter Kathy Kelly related that : “…the first picture showed his cousin’s ruined home. A US aerial bombardment had destroyed the dwelling. The next pictures were of two bloodied children. ‘All of his children were killed,’ the spokesperson said. ‘All his family, his wife, his five children, by an attack from the air’.”
In Pakistan most of the killing of civilians by US drone-fired missiles goes unrecorded. There is no doubt many of the 100 drone strikes this year have killed some very nasty people, but it would be ridiculous to claim there have been no civilian casualties. The attacks take place in remote areas of the country, and the dead are rarely seen by independent witnesses. But the slaughter of his fellow citizens by US missiles is not a cause for concern to Pakistan’s President Zardari who is reported in Bob Woodward’s ‘Obama’s Wars’ as telling the director of the CIA in 2008 that “Collateral damage worries you Americans. It does not worry me.”
Give that man an ‘A’ for bluntness. And a ‘Z’ for decency, honour, loyalty and compassion.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yousef Raza Gilani, had no problems with drone strikes either, and in 2008 told the US ambassador in Islamabad (as learned through Wikileaks) “I don’t care if they do it as long as they get the right people. We’ll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it.” What a fine example of caring democracy, to be sure.
But only too often American missiles and assassination squads do not “get the right people”. The US military and the CIA have an appalling record in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the numbers of ‘collateral damage’ deaths have been enormous; and there has been a policy of official lying about civilian casualties until forced by facts to admit the truth.
It is difficult to conduct investigations into drone killings in Pakistan’s isolated valleys, but a Washington-based organisation, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, managed to probe some of the strikes and determined there had been “30 civilian deaths in just nine cases that we investigated – all since 2009 – including 14 women and children.” In one account, “In June 2010, Shakeel Khan was sitting in his home in North Waziristan with his family when a drone missile struck: ‘I was resting with my parents in one room when it happened. God saved my parents and I, but my brother, his wife, and children were all killed’.”
But there is not only butchery in the drone campaign; there is colossal damage being done to Pakistan, with massive propaganda advantage to insurrectionists, extremists, and thugs and anarchists of all descriptions. The country is in ferment and on the edge of social disaster. There could hardly be a worse time for the US, in concert with an unpopular, corruption-struck and feeble government, to carry on blitzing. The US has achieved control and lost credibility. But the government of Pakistan has lost both. That’s collateral damage, too.

Good for democracy

Since 9-11, the US government, through Presidents Bush and Obama, has increasingly told the US public that “state secrets” will not be shared with citizens. Candidate Obama pledged to reduce the use of state secrets, but President Obama continued the Bush tradition. The Courts and Congress and international allies have gone meekly along with the escalating secrecy demands of the US Executive.
By labeling tens of millions of documents secret, the US government has created a huge vacuum of information.
But information is the lifeblood of democracy. Information about government contributes to a healthy democracy. Transparency and accountability are essential elements of good government. Likewise, “a lack of government transparency and accountability undermines democracy and gives rise to cynicism and mistrust,” according to a 2008 Harris survey commissioned by the Association of Government Accountants.
Into the secrecy vacuum stepped Private Bradley Manning, who, according to the Associated Press, was able to defeat “Pentagon security systems using little more than a Lady Gaga CD and a portable computer memory stick.”
Manning apparently sent the information to Wikileaks - a non profit media organization, which specializes in publishing leaked information. Wikileaks in turn shared the documents to other media around the world including the New York Times and published much of it on its website.
Despite criminal investigations by the US and other governments, it is not clear that media organizations like Wikileaks can be prosecuted in the US in light of First Amendment. Recall that the First Amendment says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Outraged politicians are claiming that the release of government information is the criminal equivalent of terrorism and puts innocent people’s lives at risk. Many of those same politicians authorized the modern equivalent of carpet bombing of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, the sacrifice of thousands of lives of soldiers and civilians, and drone assaults on civilian areas in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. Their anger at a document dump, no matter how extensive, is more than a little suspect.
Everyone, including Wikileaks and the other media reporting the documents, hopes that no lives will be lost because of this. So far, that appears to be the case as McClatchey Newspapers reported November 28, 2010, that ‘US officials conceded that they have no evidence to date that the [prior] release of documents led to anyone’s death.”
The US has been going in the wrong direction for years by classifying millions of documents as secrets. Wikileaks and other media which report these so called secrets will embarrass people yes. Wikileaks and other media will make leaders uncomfortable yes. But embarrassment and discomfort are small prices to pay for a healthier democracy.
Wikileaks has the potential to make transparency and accountability more robust in the US. That is good for democracy.

More blood

We have seen yet another massacre, more blood has spilled, more lives been lost – this time in the Mohmand Agency where two suicide bombers struck at a gathering of some 100 people at an anti-Taliban lashkar’s meeting held at the offices of the local political agent. More than forty lives have been lost. The toll may climb. The attack emulates what has happened in other places in the past. As before, the lashkars set up by the government are a key target for the anger of militants who clearly wish to dissuade anyone who dares oppose them. We are told that security was in place at the venue. It was quite obviously not sufficient. If even after an effort that has continued for so many months the militants are still unbowed, it reflects a situation that is extremely dangerous and extremely challenging.
The fact of the matter is that security operations alone can never be enough to get rid of the militants. One point of the kind of attack we saw on Monday may be to demonstrate just this. The suicide bombing not only decimates lives but also makes it quite apparent that the Taliban remain intact and that their suicide squads can still be sent out at will. For authorities it is time to think. We need to do a lot more to root out militancy. Regional cooperation is one facet of this. The proximity of the tribal areas to Afghanistan makes it too easy for bands of militants to slip across the mountainous border and back. There is also evidence that there are pockets in the north where the Taliban continue to hide and it is possible they have support on the ground. From what we see before us, it is obvious that much needs to be done; the training centres for bombers need to be located and hierarchies of power dismantled. Until this happens there can be no real victory against a force that has proved to be far more tenacious than was first thought.

Bombing in Bajaur

The spreading stains of blood, the screams, the pandemonium are all now familiar to us. This time the suicide bomber struck in Khar, the principal town of the Bajaur Agency. The target had initially appeared to be a World Food Programme distribution point, handing out rations to IDPs and others in need. But while the WFP may be forced to curtail operations in the area, it has clarified that the target seemed to be a cluster of government buildings in the vicinity of the attack. To some degree at least, these details are academic. The fact is that at least 43 people are dead and another 60 injured. The toll could yet climb. Limited medical facilities in Bajaur make this more likely. As has happened before, the security situation could further affect humanitarian efforts in the country. It is people most in need of help who will suffer. This has already happened in other places as the spate of bombings, target killings and abductions forces both local and international relief agencies to pull out rather than risk violence against employees. The fallout of terrorism on ordinary people, in terms of lost jobs due to economic disarray, the growing sense of insecurity and threats to school-going children, has yet to be properly understood or assessed.
We have heard over the past few months assertions that the militant threat is now a thing of the past. The events of the past few days indicate this is not the case at all. On Friday night in Hangu, another bombing, perhaps aimed at a sectarian target, killed 11 people. This was of course not the first sectarian attack in the district. We have also seen suicide bombers strike in Mohmand where 40 died less than a week ago. Can we afford that this violence continues? The answer of course is ‘no’. Whenever a new bombing takes place, it creates a growing sense of insecurity among people and reduces faith that the terrorists are on their way out. As a result, confidence in the state inevitably declines. This has many negative connotations. Until people are convinced that militancy is a thing of the past, their loyalties will remain torn between the state and the Taliban. For the sake of survival, they cannot afford to back the wrong side. But, in turn, this makes the task of defeating the militants all the more difficult. For now, they remain capable of carrying out their missions and inflict death and destruction at will.

Dark city blues

We all have the blues from time to time. Those days when nothing seems to go right and even if it does it doesn’t go right in exactly the way you wanted. You wake up with that grumpy dissatisfied feeling; nobody can do anything that makes you happy and you are determinedly miserable. It can last for days, the blues. Weeks. Months. All sorts of things can bring on a bout of the blues from a broken fingernail to the recipe that failed to delight the hard-to-please guest. And electricity. Or its absence. Bahawalpur had a dose of the blues last week that continues as these words are typed and very nearly turned into psychotic axe-wielding brick-hurling tyre-burning violence. The dark blue mood was brought on by a marathon powercut that by the afternoon of last Wednesday had the banks musing on the wisdom of pulling down the shutters on the ATM machines – and when the banks do that you can sniff the same trouble in the air as they can.

Passing down Circular Road on a day when the sun was in brain-frying mode it was almost eerie - few cars, fewer pedestrians and apart from bakeries and the never-closed-as-far-as-I-know RhimJhims Tobacco Store, no open shops. The shutterdown in protest at the loadshedding was almost universal, and small knots of people stood around looking like they were trying to decide if they were blue enough to make a bit of a rumpus. Small knots of police looked at them, and in the end it was far too hot for a bit of ad-hoc rioting and so everybody sloped off home to houses that were as powerless as the people who lived in them.

There was power in my house but of the very expensive sort created by a UPS system for the computers and a noisy smelly generator at the back that gulps petrol like a man dying of thirst. A rhythm has developed. The power drops, the UPS picks up the computers and if power is not returned after an hour off goes the fridge, off go the mains and on goes the generator. The TV is left on as it is an indicator of when the power comes back – the picture reappears and the cycle is reversed. Off goes the generator, on goes the mains and the fridge and the UPS unit begins to charge up again. This may happen five or six times over a day depending on the outtages and can turn the cheeriest of souls into an ultramarine monster. Currently it is costing around 300 rupees a day to fuel Mrs Genny – work out for yourselves what that does to the monthly budget.

Seeing an entire city switched on is a startling sight. From a velvet blackness punctuated only by the lights winking at the top of the mobile phone towers and the faint orange glow from the airport to the south, to twinkling vibrancy in the blink of the eye. My house and a couple of others had stood out as islands of light, marking us as rich enough to hold the darkness at bay which may not be the best of advertisements considering the prevalence of armed robbery hereabouts. But it was the dark and fanless houses that preoccupied me. Blue as I was it will have been as nothing compared to what others less fortunate – poorer - but perhaps more angry, were experiencing. There was no power during the time it took me to write this piece. Fridge off, mains off and where is the petrol can? Anybody seen the petrol can? Dark city blues…

Economists sans research

Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought. -Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Despite the uni-dimensional education policy focus on churning out PhDs in every field, we have not yet settled for the reality that we are nowhere in the world when it comes to research on economic and social policies.

In any other country a field left so wide open could not have been up for grabs for so long, yet not a single domestic expert seems keen on taking advantage of the situation here. First, without going into individual profiles, let us analyse our experts. A strikingly high proportion of our economic and social development experts have been ex-employees of multilateral agencies. Even those associated with academic institutions have mainly been drawing significant income from working on “projects” as “consultants”, focused mainly on compiling “reports”. If such is the cadre of experts tasked to provide informed advice on matters of economic policy and development, no wonder we are getting nowhere with our policies.

Our ministries have a severe lack of capacity for conducting quality research on any aspect of the policies formulated by them. The government seems to have completely outsourced policy-making to donors and multilateral organisations. Experts are hired to compile reports and even more are appointed to make policy documents based on these reports. It is ironic that these very same experts are then hired from the donors’ side to reformulate the policies after some time. There is a complete institutional failure to develop inquisitive and probing researchers within the setup of ministries, who can at least provide some kind of feedback, if not wholly take the task of policy research, into the policy-making process.

A prime example of the lack of research capacity can be noticed at the premier policy-making body in the country - the Planning Commission. According to its website, this body is entrusted with “organising research and analytical studies for economic decision-making”, besides formulating five-year economic plans for the country. Surprisingly, however, this body – whose main function is to conduct research for economic decision-making - is headed by a respectable atomic energy expert, not an economist. The commission itself includes only four PhDs out of its total eight members, signifying just how much we value research. The story does not end here; under the publications section on the Planning Commission’s website, one finds the refreshing heading of “Research Papers of P&D Staff”- however, enthusiasm soon wanes when one finds that apparently only one member of the staff, Dr Karamat, seems to be interested in research. Dr Karamat again is not an economist; he is a health sector specialist.

The current mindset of our economic policy experts cannot be changed overnight. But it is about time we start moving in the right direction. For now we have a golden opportunity with the return of exceptionally brilliant young minds, well-trained in economic research from world-class western universities, via the Fulbright and other scholarship programmes. If the current mindset continues, we run the risk of wasting the young talent, continuing to depend on multilaterals for policy-making and carry on pretending that we know everything about our economy, when in truth we do not.

They’re coming — for good

Let’s, for a change, jump to some conclusions, ignoring the caution that it is wiser not to do so. Let’s also examine the portents, rather than the contents, of the recently concluded US-Pakistan dialogue with a little more imagination than what is usually on offer, or permitted. What does it suggest?

Well, to begin with, that the talks not only went off well but, perhaps, too well. The Pakistani participants seemed over the moon, and so too their American counterparts. The former were rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of goodies to come, while America, having restored trust between the two sides and with Pakistan fully on board, feels that it could still emerge from Afghanistan with its reputation intact. Of course, that is wishful thinking. The Taliban will retreat in the face of McCrystal’s oncoming “surge” and Pakistani pressure on their safe havens. But they will adjust and return to do battle. The Taliban, after all, are masters of their trade. Nevertheless, the vibes from the Washington meeting suggest that a breakthrough has indeed occurred. America is returning to Pakistan not to merely visit, or hang around, but to roost. It plans to be involved up to its neck in Pakistan. And the involvement will be close, intense and hands-on. And, what is more, America has, as its willing partner, the Pakistani military under Gen Kayani.

The transformation of the relationship—from diffident allies to partners, from having a stake to co-ownership of Pakistan’s future—stems from Washington’s belief that Pakistan must be saved, in spite of itself, for the sake of America’s own security. There is simply too much at stake. For Washington, acting like a backseat driver won’t do. The time has come for America, conjoined by Pakistan’s military, to take the wheel and chart the course. Without tinkering overly with the present system, the authors of this…let’s call it the “New Order,” mean to improve its working. The agenda will be nation-building-plus. Elected civilian governments will be the rule, but they will have to function within clearly defined economic and political parameters. The authors mean to be heard and obeyed, though seldom seen.

In return for allowing America a decisive say in Pakistan’s foreign and domestic affairs, and for unreserved willingness to cooperate in military matters, many good things are on offer:

1. Immediately, the IMF will be told to be more accommodating when it comes to enforcing its lethal regimen of ever-increasing taxes in lieu of subsidies. 2. The army can confidently expect to get more of what it requires, for doing more of what America wants. 3. A well-funded effort made to address Pakistan’s energy shortfall is likely to get underway as soon as projects identified by Pakistan pass American scrutiny. 4. India has already been approached to be less demanding and cantankerous, and restart the composite dialogue. “Secret orders” by Obama to this effect were reportedly issued earlier this year. 5. Foreign investment in Pakistan is being canvassed with, perhaps, America letting on quietly that it will be safeguarded. 6. Such an assurance, along with a good chit from the IMF, will enable the Friends of Pakistan Group to release moneys pledged earlier but withheld for fear of lack of transparency. 7. Meanwhile, the water crisis has been broached. Old dams will be dredged, canals lined, and much else done to improve the water supply. 8. At the end of the line, or somewhere in the middle of this ambitious agenda, if things go well, will be civil nuclear cooperation. 9. A seat at the table for Pakistan when it comes to deciding Afghanistan’s future setup has probably been conceded and, to cap it all, American assistance to achieve whatever is doable on Kashmir.

It is an ambitious menu, no doubt, but few will have failed to notice how much it blends with the 56-page list, unfairly dismissed as a “wish list,” handed over to the American side during the visit. A “wish list” is what you ideally need but cannot afford, not what is available for the asking if you cooperate and fulfil your side of the bargain.

There are several telltale signs that the “New Order” is being put into place. At America’s insistence the cofounder of the “New Order,” Gen Kayani, was made to attend and take the credit for the foreordained success of the Washington Dialogue. Twice the dates of the meeting were postponed while the government dallied with the question of his inclusion. The treatment extended to him during the visit was perhaps unique in terms of importance, given his standing in our own order of protocol. According to sources, Gen Kayani was “bugled” into the Pentagon when he arrived, a rare honour.

In preparation for the “New Order” Mr Zardari has been stripped of all his powers, less on account of the Charter of Democracy and more because Mr Zardari tends to abuse his powers rather than use them responsibly. Of course, Mr Zardari is being allowed to sell it as selflessness personified. Soon to go will be Mr Zardari’s controversial henchmen; they will likely be picked off, one by one, in the forthcoming trials and be replaced by carefully vetted men like Hafeez Shaikh. Mr Zardari himself may remain untouched for the moment, unless, of course, he hastens his own demise by acting up. And, if the judges become too unwieldy, a standoff between the two organs of the state can quickly be made to rebound to the detriment of both. With Gen Kayani now sure to get an extension or, better still, a promotion to the post of chairman of the Joint Chiefs, with enhanced powers, and Obama likely to win a second term, if only because its voting him out will traumatise American society, just as much as voting him in brought it together, the course is set. We are in for a period of stability in Pakistan. Noticeably, the Stock Market is booming.

How will the “New Order” be received? The major political parties will have to play ball. But as they are willing to play any game, even Russian roulette, in return for the pelf of office, this should pose no problem. Besides, they are used to taking directions; indeed, they are at a loss when acting without them. Even Nawaz Sharif, the one holdout, is rumoured to have “matured” after some tutoring. Moreover, the group of Kashmiris and East Punjabis around him are true survivors. They know how to adjust when the need arises. So much so that, when it happens, they will relish the crackdown on their ilk, the Punjabi fundos, as being long overdue. As for the populace, they are already disillusioned with the political parties. They have had it up to their gills with corruption and bad governance. They will welcome any relief that the “New Order” promises. In any case, it is not as if despotism is being imposed. The faces of those holding political office will remain comfortingly familiar and the font of democracy will be in place. Only the puppeteers will have changed.

The arrival of America with a decisive voice in government will undoubtedly fuel religious opposition. Links between religious political parties and the militant lashkars and jaishes, that are already fairly pronounced, will no doubt increase; however, their popularity need not. Moreover, the retaliation that they will invite by, for example, the closure of madressahs affiliated with them could deprive them of an important source of revenue. Thus, while their opposition to the “New Order” can be taken for granted, so too can its inefficacy.

Pakistan clearly needs a second wind if it is to emerge from the morass we are in. The advent of the “New Order” may just be the break we need. What do we have to lose?

The curse of borrowing and interest

The word “borrowing” in itself looks so simple, but it has been responsible for untold and unimaginable hardship and misery to many. Only someone who has been a victim of this curse, whether lender or borrower, knows the consequences.

Almighty Allah has clearly warned against it in the Quran:

1. As for those who devour interest, they behave as the one whom Satan has confounded with his touch. Seized in this state, they say: Buying and selling is but a kind of interest, even though Allah has made buying and selling lawful, but interest unlawful (haram). (2:275-276)

2. Believers! Have fear of Allah and give up all outstanding interest if you do truly believe. But if you fail to do so, then be warned of war (chastisement) from Allah and His Prophet. If you repent even now, you have the right of the return of your capital; neither will you do wrong nor will you be wronged. But if the debtor is in difficult circumstances, let him have respite until the time of ease, and whatever you remit by way of charity is better for you. If only you know. (2:278-280)

3. Believers! Do not devour interest, double and redoubled, and be mindful of Allah, so that you may attain true success. (3:130)

4. Whatever you pay as interest so that it may increase the wealth of people does not increase in the sight of Allah. As for the Zakat that you give, seeking with it Allah’s good pleasure, that is multiplied manifold. (3:39)

5. And for their taking interest which had been prohibited to them, and for their consuming the wealth of others wrongfully, and for the unbelievers among them, we have prepared a painful chastisement. (4:161)

Borrowing is easy, but the problems start when the time comes for repayment. We are all aware of the negative effects of borrowing and even a beggar, upon receiving alms, will pray for you by saying: “May Allah protect you from borrowing and from dependent on others.”

Despite these warnings, some people (rarely are they genuinely needy people) still buy on loan. Contrary to organised lending facilities, shopkeepers often hesitate to do so, as they usually end up losing their money. For them, lending is easier that recovering. In larger setups, thugs are hired to coerce lenders to return what they had borrowed. We have recently tried following the Indian practice of hiring khwaja saras to sit and sing in front of the houses/offices of loan defaulters in an effort to shame them into repaying their debts.

We often see that banks and other lending institutions are ruthless and harsh in recovering loans from the financially underprivileged while at the same time writing off billions of rupees in loans from the influential. The poor are often forced to sell property and or belongings to pay off Rs50,000 or so while the wealthy go off scot-free. Sometimes it even leads to suicide due to inability to repay.

There are many different kinds of borrowing, some of which can be summarised as follows:

Between shopkeeper and customer. The “borrower” here usually belongs to the low-income group. They buy at deferred payment and then pay when they receive their salaries. This kind of lending usually takes place between people who are known to each other and hinges on mutual agreement.

Between landlord and peasant. The peasant pays back the amount borrowed after selling his crop. However, here the rate of interest is always high and often not covered by the sale of crops. Often the peasant is forced to mortgage his land and ends up losing it. The entire peasant family then ends up being servants (read slaves) of the landlord. Unfortunately, this curse is quite common in Pakistan. It is not unusual to see a cruel landlord chaining the entire family and treating them as slaves. Thanks to the activities of the judiciary, such cases are now being exposed and are being dealt with severely and many families have been liberated.

• Between friends and family members. Here the victim is usually the lender, not the borrower. The borrower uses reasons of medical treatment, marriage of children, repayment of loans, etc., and promises to return the money as soon as possible. This “as soon as possible” often never materialises and the lender, poor fellow, due to many considerations, never presses the matter, thus losing his money. The borrower may then move on to his next victim.

• Between businessmen/industrialists and lending institutions. This type of borrowing is usually done very cunningly by using connections and influence and with the connivance of the lending institution. The value of the mortgaged property is estimated exorbitantly high or with insufficient collateral coverage in order to obtain a large loan. It is this abhorrent practice that is one of the main factors in breaking the back of our economy. Corrupt bankers and cunning industrialists/businessmen swallow billions of rupees every year, the latest example being that of Bank of Punjab losing almost Rs10 billion. Recently published statistics show that almost Rs100 billion was written of as “bad loans” during the Musharraf era. Over the last few decades, bad loans worth more than Rs250 billion have been written off. Ours is the only country where the writing off of loans is common practice. While the defaulters are still billionaires owning huge villas and expensive cars, the country suffers. Recently the Supreme Court has taken notice of this menace and is trying to have the money recovered. The amounts written off are from the taxpayers’ money and while the already rich benefit, the ordinary citizen gets very little return on his deposits/savings. This curse started with the nationalisation of banks and industries and the rulers appointing their relatives/friends as heads of these institutions. Now it became simply a matter of easy mutual connivance.

• Between Pakistani governments and international lending institutions. Corruption, mismanagement, the writing off of huge sums of money as bad loans, etc., has resulted in the country having to borrow billions of dollars from international institutions and foreign countries. The annual rate on these loans alone exceeds one billion dollar annually. The various institutions have a hold on us like an octopus holds its prey. We have to comply with their conditions and obey their dictates, often to the detriment of the national interest and the common man. Then there is no other option than to raise the prices of essential utilities/commodities, thus increasing the stranglehold on the poor. But then, as beggars, one can’t be choosers.

Every rational thinking Pakistani is worried. One wonders why a country with 180 million people, with many natural resources and with a reasonable number of educated and talented people should find itself in this situation. We are plagued by bad governance, corruption, nepotism, dishonesty, hoarding, adulteration, etc. In my personal opinion there are two main causes for this malady. 1) Our selfish, corrupt, bad administration, and 2) the poor performance of our financial managers. Bad governance and corruption lead to the break-up of all institutions and because of mal intent, the blessing (barkat) of Almighty Allah has disappeared. The progress, prosperity and development of a country depend on the performance of its financial institutions. In our case, both the leaders and the financial institutions have failed to deliver the desired results. All we can do is pray for a miracle, but miracles don’t happen when people indulge in wrongdoing and disobey the clear edicts of Allah.