Can The Sharifs Reform Pakistan?: New Age Islam's Selection, 03 February 2016
New Age Islam Edit Bureau
03 February 2016
• Can the Sharifs reform Pakistan?
By Rasul Bakhsh Rais
• Cool encounters
By Akbar S Ahmed
• Dark underbelly
By Zeenat Hisam
• Crime and politics: Who is Uzair Jan Baloch?
By Zahid Hussain
Compiled by New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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Can The Sharifs Reform Pakistan?
By Rasul Bakhsh Rais
February 3rd, 2016
The writer is a professor of political science at LUMS
My unequivocal answer to the question posed in the headline is ‘no’, and when I state this, I believe I am voicing the opinion of the vast majority of the people of Pakistan who are highly disappointed by the Sharifs. One may assume that they have learnt nothing from their past blunders, while others may argue that they have very limited intellectual capacity to handle the big problem of reforming Pakistan. After having lived through half of their current tenure, which has been consumed by adhocism, cheap populism and bending like noodles at the slightest pressure exerted by vested and organised, anti-people interests and lobbies, I see no chance of better days in the remainder of their time in office. In fact, we may live to suffer even greater ill-effects of their style of governance, their inability to avail big opportunities and openings for Pakistan, and their failure to bring about structural reforms in the country.
The Sharif dynasty and its collaborators or allies cannot be blamed for everything wrong in the country. The national situation we have today, especially with respect to the economy — where we always seem to be at the ‘take-off stage’ only to crash back to the ground — as well as problems like the patronage of radical groups, corruption, poor governance and public enterprises guzzling up public monies, is an old story predating the Sharifs’ time in office. There are many culprits who are responsible for this state of affairs, and the Sharifs are not alone in bringing Pakistan to where it is today. We also know that for any political government, reforming Pakistan is always going to be a big challenge because of the power and resistance of vested interests and the opposition-for-the-sake of opposition politics, but it is a challenge that the PML-N accepted when it came to power. It promised many things that no one believed it could deliver, but even so, it could have still done a few things right had it displayed some grit, intelligence and good political resolve.
First, let’s look at the so-called efforts to reform public-sector enterprises — PIA, Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and power distribution companies. The whole world, supporting Pakistan’s reforms, is crying hoarse that these and some other state-run organisations are consuming amounts that are close to four to five per cent of the GDP. And what is the progress of these reform efforts? Zero. As I write these words, 30 per cent of Pakistan’s electricity is being stolen and the theft of natural gas is also at a significant level. The honest consumer continues to suffer, while governments come and go and dynastic politicians continue to replace each other. It is shocking to see the way the government has handled PIA’s privatisation. There is a clear self-interest in robbing the public as many dynastic politicians have placed thousands of their relatives and friends in PIA and other public-sector enterprises. The issue of the PSM, power distribution companies, State Life and many other entities continues to linger, for which this government and its predecessor have paid for from the taxpayers’ money or by borrowing heavily from national and international sources.
Second, the government has surrendered to business interests on two very important issues. The first is the closure of shops and markets at 8pm and the second relates to bringing businesses into the tax net. Businesses threatened to conduct what they call ‘shutter-down’ strikes and the Sharif dynasty immediately took its decisions back. Where in the world can we find a country facing an acute energy shortage, which doesn’t avail of the day-light saving system? Businesses all over the world close at 8pm, even in the most developed countries.
Finally, the present government’s ill-advised priorities focus on extravagant projects and corruption makes it no different from the one it replaced. Once again, it appears that the PML-N has squandered a huge opportunity to put Pakistan on the path of reform and reconstruction.
Source: tribune.com.pk/story/1038988/can-the-sharifs-reform-pakistan/
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Cool Encounters
By Akbar S Ahmed
February 2, 2016
Societies that are confident in their identity are more accepting of difference, whether racial or religious. There is a ‘cool’ factor where the arts are freely pursued, there is an environment of openness and creativity and acceptance of religious and cultural diversity. I saw this in my first encounter with the US in the 1980s when I arrived at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. I was struck by how civilised, welcoming and generous Americans were. Today in Europe this is happening in Germany, a vibrant, innovative and open nation with confidence and a thriving artistic spirit, notably in Berlin. It is also happening in Scotland, which has steadily become an artistic haven, recognised around the world and on the cutting edge in the fields of visual art, fashion, literature and music. Both Germany and Scotland are increasingly comfortable in their identity — witness the response to two significant 2014 events in both countries: Germany’s World Cup victory and Scotland’s holding of its referendum on independence. Both resulted in a surge of confidence in their identity following years of self-loathing, for Germans horror and soul-searching at their culpability in the Second World War and for Scots the “Scottish Cringe: a persistent sense of inferiority, self-pity and embarrassment at overt expressions of Scottishness developed over years of English domination” (Karen Gardiner, “Is it the end of the Scottish Cringe?“ BBC News, January 25, 2016).
Societies that feel confident and are dynamic are able to integrate outsiders comfortably. In Scotland, I saw proof of this when I met two immigrants who held important positions. Scotland had appointed a young man with a Pakistani background to an important position in the cabinet and fielded another, a woman this time, as a Member of Parliament. In Germany, Angela Merkel took in over one million refugees when the US, traditionally hospitable to immigrants, accepted a mere 2,600 with heated debate accompanied by unpleasant abuse (a presidential candidate called Syrian refugees “rabid dogs”).
The situation in Scotland and Germany can be contrasted with that in European countries such as Greece and the nations of East Europe, where the opposite is true — they are not confident, are insecure, and unsure of themselves, thus reverting to primordial forms of identity that resist outsiders. With the economic crisis, xenophobia, terrorism and the enormous flows of refugees, you have a perfect storm in these countries.
I saw this confidence and cool in visits to both Scotland and Germany. In 2013, I visited Alex Salmond for a private lunch in the First Minister’s residence in Edinburgh. Accompanying me were Harrison Akens, my assistant from Washington DC and Ibrahim Hoti, my grandson who had joined us from Pakistan. When we arrived in the taxi, I asked the driver whether he was sure this was where the First Minister lived because I did not see a single policeman outside the house or anywhere in the entire square. The driver said he was sure saying, “Not in Scotland!” and we walked toward the door. Someone was waiting inside and opened the door straightaway. We were taken upstairs to the living room which was of modest proportions and had modest furniture. A small table had been arranged for lunch. The menu was simple and there was no dessert. We were joined by two of Salmond’s staff.
Salmond himself was the perfect host — hospitable, humorous and full of anecdotes. Harrison who was proud of his Scottish ancestry was thrilled by Salmond and so was my grandson Ibrahim who was the more difficult to please as he was a teenager and not so impressed by high office or age. As Salmond entered the room, I held out my hand to shake his hand. He reached out and embraced me.
But it was Salmond’s humility and humour that won over Ibrahim. In fact, when Salmond took pictures with him, he lent across with his elbow on Ibrahim’s shoulder and his legs crossed in a mock vaudeville comic pose as if they were old buddies. All this was cool enough; then, as we left, Salmond said to me we will meet again, inshallah.
In Berlin, I had the occasion to call on the senior German envoy in charge of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Dr Michael Koch. The meeting had been arranged by our friend Dr Heinrich Kreft who had received me at the reception. As we walked through the impressive foreign office building, I could not help but notice the vast central space at the entrance, festooned and decorated with a football motif. It was in the days leading up to the World Cup final and there was a genuine football fever in the land. There were images of footballs and young men kicking footballs, and even the cushions to sit on in the atrium resembled the colours of a football and were designed as deflated footballs. Dr Kreft explained the German passion for football and how Germans relate their pride and identity with their fortunes as a football-playing nation.
As we were ushered into the office of Dr Koch, I was struck by its simplicity. Arsallah Khan Hoti and Dr Amineh Hoti, who were with me, could not help compare the humility and simplicity of the VIP we were meeting to Pakistan’s elite. Apart from one black and white picture, there was nothing else — no pompous-looking pictures of heads of state or the minister, no colourful calendars of the Alps, no football hero scoring goals in heroic poses while distorting his limbs, and no photographs of poised wives and scrubbed children with shiny faces which are so common in offices in the US. I was intrigued by who was in that photograph. Perhaps his father, I thought but decided it was someone else. The fact that the picture hung alone, high above us, almost as a talisman, conveyed to me that it had some deep meaning for the occupant of the office. It was Schopenhauer, the German philosopher. Wow, I thought to myself; this was German cool.
Akbar S Ahmed is Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University, Washington, DC. His recently released film is Journey into Europe and he is working on the book of the same title for Brookings Press as the fourth project of his award-winning quartet of studies examining relations between the West and the world of Islam
Source: tribune.com.pk/story/1038447/cool-encounters/
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Dark Underbelly
By Zeenat Hisam
February 3rd, 2016
‘Democracy is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder.’ — Plato
AS the democratic process unfolds in Pakistan, one wonders what kind of a hybrid would emerge in times to come. Don’t get me wrong: no sane person would argue against the supremacy of democracy. But yesterday’s turn of events — the state shooting down the peaceful protesters at the Karachi airport — indicates this hybrid democracy could be worse than martial law. The dark underbelly of our democracy is marred with bloodied repression of workers’ rights, the military calling the shots, co-optation by the political elite, and a parliament that passed the draconian PPA 2014 and 21st Amendment without batting an eyelid.
Instead of judiciously handling the process of privatising PIA, the state’s hasty decision to enforce the Essential Services Act, and worse, to shoot the protesters indeed bodes ill.
Privatisation of state-owned enterprises in Pakistan has had a long and convoluted history, and of all the SoEs, privatisation of PIA has emerged as the most complicated and controversial. The story of its privatisation is traced back to 1988 when a British consultant proposed that privatisation in Pakistan should be based on a public-participation approach and Pakistan’s capital markets developed by inducting hundreds of thousands of small savers into share ownership. Seven companies were short-listed for widespread offers and this included PIA. In 1990, only 10pc shares of PIAC were disinvested in May 1990 at par value. Later, the plan was abandoned.
Flawed government policies have led to the PIA crisis.
During the 1990s and 2000s the government came up with several plans, including the one drawn by the World Bank, but nothing materialised and, in 2009, PIA was dropped from the privatisation list only to be taken up again. In October 2013, 69 SoEs for privatisation were approved. PIA was one of the 39 entities marked for ‘early implementation’: 26pc of PIA’s shares were to be offered to ‘strategic investors’ by the end of December 2014. Then again, due to opposition, privatisation was postponed till 2015. In August 2015, the government told the IMF it would privatise PIA by March 2016.
The government, it seems, went berserk, with differences within its own ranks, the opposition from the PPP and the resistance from employees: in a very scandalous move, the ‘democratic’ government promulgated the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Corporation Conversion Ordinance in early December 2015, and later shamed by all, converted the ordinance into a bill on the last day of 2015. When the PIA unions and associations went on strike, the government instead of negotiation and consensus-building used the Essential Services Act.
One of the crucial factors in privatisation is labour relations and its impact on employment. Analyses of this aspect are less frequently done, or shared and highlighted in the media as it is considered highly political and a sore point by analysts, mainly because in Pakistan SoEs are grossly overstaffed due to political patronage of every political party who comes to power. According to an earlier figure, the aircraft to employee ratio in PIA was 1:418 as compared to 1:106 of the US national carrier and 1:229 of the Indian airline.
Nonetheless, we need to remember that an inter-ministerial committee constituted in 1991 to deal with labour employed in SOEs and safeguard their rights had got the workers’ consensus on a package of incentives for labour with workers’ representatives through the All Pakistan State Enterprises Workers Action Committee. To what extent the commitment was honoured is another debate.
There are valid arguments on both sides — privatise or not. It is better to accept at this juncture that the process of privatisation in Pakistan has gone beyond that debate. Yet it definitely does not absolve the government of going overboard and bypassing due process, crushing the voice of the employees. Needless to say, PIA’s current state of affairs, ie financial losses, is due to the government’s own flawed policies and lack of efficient leadership.
During the current episode of the spiralling of complications and controversies around PIA’s privatisation, what was amiss was information on the level of negotiation between the management and employees. The PIA employees’ four-point agenda comprises demands the state should have considered and negotiated. Also, hidden from the public view is how the government would resolve the question of labour retrenchment, and what possible policy measures it is going to adopt.
There could be three options. One is to delay retrenchment and spread it over a longer period after privatisation. Second is to freeze recruitment and offer generous retirement schemes. Third is to reintegrate workers into other forms of employment. In any case, it is essential that the government take privatisation-induced social protection measures.
Zeenat Hisam is associated with the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education & Research.
Source: dawn.com/news/1237074/dark-underbelly
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Crime and Politics: Who is Uzair Jan Baloch?
By Zahid Hussain
February 3rd, 2016
Who is Uzair Jan Baloch? A pawn in the political chess game or a powerful mafia don with strong political connections? While his association with the PPP appears to be irrefutable, there are also some reports of his links with influential political figures from other political parties as well as the intelligence agencies.
A leader of the so-called Lyari-based Peoples Amn Committee, Baloch is implicated in dozens of murder and other criminal cases. He oversaw charities, but also allegedly ran drug and extortion rackets. He was a key leader of the Lyari gang war that left hundreds of people dead and turned that impoverished neighbourhood of Karachi into a veritable battleground. The story of Uzair Baloch seems right out of a Bollywood crime thriller.
His reported arrest from the outskirts of Karachi by the Rangers last week after his mysterious disappearance from Dubai where he was detained almost a year ago gives currency to all kinds of conspiracy theories. No one takes the Rangers’ version seriously. It seems quite plausible that he has been in the custody of the security agencies for the past several months. Then why the arrest announcement now? It gives an intriguing twist to the whole saga.
Unsurprisingly, the news of Uzair Baloch’s arrest has come as the noose around some top PPP leaders is being tightened. That gives some credence to the speculation that he may be used as an approver against them. Some reports suggest that he has already been talking.
What is most interesting, however, is that several joint investigation teams are being formed to question him on the 2007 Karsaz bomb attack targeting Benazir Bhutto’s welcome procession and also the murder of the former prime minister’s bodyguards following her assassination a few months later. Surely the scope of the investigation against Uzair Baloch is being extended beyond the already pending murder and other criminal charges against him.
It is important to expose Uzair Baloch’s political patrons.
The son of a transporter, Uzair Baloch’s rise to the crime scene was spectacular. He apparently joined one of the most notorious criminal gangs led by Rehman ‘Dakait’ after the murder of his father by a rival group. He became the leader of the gang after the death of Dakait in an alleged police encounter. That also brought him close to the PPP which had still retained some support in its erstwhile political stronghold of Lyari.
According to some reports, his ‘Dastarbandi’ as gang leader was a huge public event attended by several PPP legislators. His influence in the PPP grew so much that the party tickets for the MNA and provincial assembly seats from Lyari in the 2013 elections were allegedly awarded to his nominees. Although the PPP strongly denies the allegations, some pictures that show Baloch with several senior party leaders seem to confirm his organisational affiliation.
His main patron was Zulfiqar Mirza, the then powerful provincial home minister. Mirza, who has now turned against his old friend and former president Asif Ali Zardari, does not make any bones about his close association with Uzair Baloch. It is quite puzzling that the security agencies have yet to question Mirza for giving protection to a proclaimed offender. The former home minister is on record admitting that scores of gun licences were granted to members of the Amn Committee, which many alleged had been turned into the militant wing of the PPP.
But PPP leaders soon became apprehensive of Uzair Baloch’s rising political influence and grip over the party. The falling out also led to the Sindh government issuing an arrest warrant against the former fellow traveller. But there was never any serious effort to arrest him. Following the launch of the Rangers’ operation against criminal gangs in Lyari, Uzair Baloch fled the country to the Gulf.
It is not just the PPP that patronised Uzair Baloch and his Amn Committee. At one point, according to some media reports, a senior PML-N leader also approached him to bring him into the party’s fold. He reportedly tilted towards the PTI at the end, but apparently it remained a one-sided affair. Some Pakistani intelligence agencies are also reported to have used him to keep a tab on Baloch separatist groups operating from the area.
Meanwhile, this nexus of crime and politics turned Lyari into a lawless territory. Bloody gang wars forced many habitants to leave their homes. With no effective policing, drugs and gambling dens thrived in the area. Unemployed youth provided a constant supply of recruits for the criminal mafias that ruled this poor neighbourhood. The Rangers’ operation may have brought some peace to the area, but the situation is far from normal.
The arrest of Uzair Baloch has stirred a hornets’ nest, worsening the predicament of an already tottering Sindh provincial administration. Many PPP stalwarts, who allegedly had close links with the gangster, had fled the country much before the arrest. Some suspect that the investigation may lead to the PPP’s top leadership.
But there is also a strong apprehension that Uzair Baloch may just end up as yet another pawn in the hands of the security agencies in the power game as seen in some recent cases. Many believe that he may just become the Saulat Mirza of PPP.
Saulat Mirza’s death-row statement implicating top MQM leaders in a murder case was surely used to bring the party under immense pressure, but no action was taken against those named in the declaration. It could, however, not save the former MQM hitman from the gallows. Will this be a repeat of the Mirza episode?
Uzair Baloch is yet another example of the sordid nexus of crime and politics that has been one of the major reasons for Karachi’s pervasive lawlessness and violence. It is imperative that he be brought to justice for his crimes. But it is equally important to expose his political patrons. The Uzair Baloch case must not be allowed to turn into a political bargaining chip as we have seen in the past. Karachi cannot return to normality unless the political patronage of crime is halted altogether.
Zahid Hussain is an author and journalist.
Source: dawn.com/news/1237072/crime-and-politics
URL: https://newageislam.com/pakistan-press/sharifs-reform-pakistan-new-age/d/106209