Gurmehar’s Silent Battle for Peace: New Age Islam's Selection, 03 May 2016
New Age
Islam Edit Bureau
03 May 2016
• Gurmehar’s Silent Battle for Peace
By Jawed Naqvi
• MQM Or PSP?
By Shahab Usto
• A New Fata
By Mohammad Ali Babakhel
• The Less Explored Foreign Policy Options
By Nasuruallah Brohi
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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Gurmehar’s Silent Battle for Peace
By Jawed Naqvi
May 3rd, 2016
IT is not unlikely that Gurmehar Kaur or her mother has read Sahir Ludhianvi’s anti-war poetry. It is also possible they have read Charles Sumner’s views on human strife. Gurmehar echoes an earnest sentiment of the legendary Massachusetts senator who endured physical assault from rivals to oppose the politics of slave trade.
“Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace,” said Sumner.
The words were similar to the frequent voices for peace we hear between India and Pakistan and elsewhere in strife-riddled South Asia. These voices rise and fade with time but the perspectives for a more agreeable future they offer become another strong reminder of the terrifying prospects wars pose.
Gurmehar is the 19-year-old daughter of an Indian soldier who died fighting Pakistanis in the Kargil war. She was only two years old at the time. Growing up required grappling with terrible demons. And so the young girl arrived at her anti-war worldview through a tortuous maze of hatred and distrust, primarily of Muslims and Pakistanis who she blamed for her father’s loss. It was her mother who pulled her back from the destructive journey.
The sight of mothers is universal who weep over the bodies of their fallen soldier-sons.
The history of war and its victims is replete with heart-tugging stories of fortitude and forgiveness, of failure followed by hope. The sight of mothers is universal who weep over the bodies of their fallen soldier-sons. But they never fail to speak up against the insidious lure of war. In India’s current nationalist chaos Gurmehar’s call stands out as an unusual albeit somewhat unheeded voice, but it is a required voice in a season fraught with dire uncertainty.
In a sense her anti-war appeal offers as good a chance as any to bring an urgent ring to the issue. We had heard similar words of anguish from Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”
How does Gurmehar put across her own thoughts about war? In a video of about four minutes she posted on Facebook, the Jalandhar-based girl has conveyed the message through a series of 30 placards written in English. There is no voice, only sombre music playing in the background. Some would not hesitate to say her silence speaks louder than words in the video. The placards convey a simple workable request to both the hostile neighbours.
Gurmehar lost her father Captain Mandeep Singh in the 1999 conflict. “I have more memories of how it feels to not have a father. I also remember how much I used to hate Pakistan and Pakistanis because they killed my dad.”
At six, she writes, she tried to stab a woman in a Burqa. “Because of some strange reason I thought she was responsible for my father’s death.”
Her mother held her back and made her understand that it was not Pakistan that killed her father. It was war that did. “If there was no war, my father would still be there.”
“Today, I’m a soldier just like my dad. I fight for peace between India and Pakistan.”
“We cannot dream of becoming a First World country with Third World leadership.” Her words are deliberately blunt, and also somewhat impatient in their appeal. There’s “enough state-sponsored terrorism, enough state- sponsored spies, enough state-sponsored hatred. Enough is enough”.
You might wonder what Gurmehar would have made of the galaxy of fine diplomats who had gathered in Delhi last week ostensibly to probe a similar agenda as hers. All of them had been high commissioners who had represented their country in India or Pakistan. Never had one seen so many people in one room carrying nothing but authentic insights about the problems we face and pose with the neighbours. Somehow, my feeling is that they would have yet exasperated the young girl who lost her father while they were pondering the future.
As Pakistan’s most senior former envoy Dr Humayun Khan said there were policy insiders from each side going back to about 50 years. That’s an unusually rich gene pool of experience and knowledge to not strike success if they had wanted. The names form links of particular moments in bilateral ties. K. Natwar Singh, K.S. Bajpai, Shivshankar Menon, Salman Bashir, Aziz Ahmed Khan, Shahid Malik, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Riaz Khokhar, G. Parthasarathy among other senior envoys.
There are problems, they told each other and they told us. They are not insurmountable problems provided each side does their bit and doesn’t do something underhand. Though this meeting was an improvement, India-Pakistan parleys are often like Munkar-Nakeer at work, the two angels of death who quiz the dead and apportion blame before assigning heaven or hell to the soul according to their findings.
A typical line of inquiry from the scriptures would be about stealing money from a widow or about drinking alcohol. The bickering and haggling seems to be an unending affair even after we die. And so it seems to be with India and Pakistan too.
Which is perhaps why perhaps an urgent message in Gurmehar Kaur’s poignant placards castigates the “governments of both countries to stop pretending and solve the problem”.
Source: .dawn.com/news/1255916/gurmehars-silent-battle-for-peace
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MQM or PSP?
By Shahab Usto
May 3rd, 2016
LONG before revelations emerging from the Panama Papers caused a furore over offshore assets allegedly held by the prime minister’s family and other important political and business figures, the political narrative in Pakistan had already turned normative and divisive. The army chief’s public denunciation of corruption, followed shortly after by the news of the dismissal of senior army officers, added further substance to the demand for across-the-board accountability.
Whether the ongoing normative discourse is able to cleanse the muddied political waters, and usher in political reform and good governance, is yet to be seen. What is certain is that democracy and corruption can no longer coexist as they have for some years now. The combination of patronage and dynastic politics may also become indefensible. A new breed of young and restless electorates has risen, who not only demand a piece of the pie, but link their collective wellbeing to cleaner and efficient governments — national, provincial and local.
No wonder then, that the signs of stress are visible on the three most dominant political forces — PPP, PML-N and MQM. While Asif Zardari is in self-exile, his son and party chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, is struggling to meet two pressing challenges: saving the party’s image (tarnished by the allegations of corruption and mal-governance, particularly in Sindh), and reclaiming the constituencies lost to PTI and others, in Punjab and elsewhere.
Similarly, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is facing his nemesis in the form of document leaks, which connect his children to offshore companies and assets. While he may elude the resulting political pressure of a fissiparous opposition, he cannot avoid the necessity of evolving his style of politics beyond traditional ploys of patronage and selective development, if he is going to save his constituencies from the onslaught of PTI and others.
To emerge as a viable alternative, PSP must play its cards right.
But it is MQM which — while apparently in dire straits — remains a paradox for political observers. There are some who predict its early unravelling; sending its leader, Altaf Hussain, into oblivion. Their ominous punditry draws on a long list — MQM’s alleged connections with RAW; the ban on its chief’s public communications; the crushing of its ‘militant wing’ by the Rangers; its shrinking role in local and national politics, and of course; the defection of its key leaders to (and the rise of) the newly formed Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP).
But there are others who still see MQM as a political force to reckon with in local and national politics, at least as long as Altaf Hussain is relevant or alive. They refer to the streak of MQM’s victories in by-elections held on its traditional turf. Some analysts even venture to guess that MQM will gain more sympathy votes on the basis of perceived persecution of Mohajirs by law-enforcement agencies.
Be that as it may, MQM is facing a double whammy. On the one hand Altaf Hussain, veritably MQM’s ‘source’ of inspiration and sustenance, is battling against a number of criminal charges here and in the UK, including alleged links with RAW. On the other, the Rangers have virtually defanged MQM’s muscle power; opening the city up to its political rivals, particularly PTI and a nascent PSP, founded by former Karachi nazim, Mustafa Kamal, and other renegade MQM leaders.
Which raises the question: can PSP emerge as a viable alternative to MQM for Urdu-speaking communities among others? To make it, PSP has to play its cards right.
Though PSP has yet to draft its manifesto, its current strategy is, manifestly, to take advantage of a beleaguered MQM. Thus, PSP is shoring up support by enlisting MQM’s disgruntled MPs and ranks. It is showing ethnic affinity with Mohajirs by demanding that the government announce a general amnesty for MQM’s ‘misled’ workers, as it did for Baloch insurgents. And it is wooing the propertied and business classes, by promising to rid the city of political violence and crime.
To achieve even a measure of success, however, PSP needs to cross many a barrier. First, party head Mustafa Kamal must establish his credentials as a political leader beyond that of an able city nazim. Second, he must debunk the perception that PSP is an ‘establishment-sponsored’ and ‘media-driven’ party. Third, he must shun or at least clear the names of party stalwarts who carry a shady record. Finally, while exploiting the ‘ills and failings’ of Altaf Hussain may be politics, sustaining a political movement requires a lot more intrinsic energy and moral force.
Jamaat-e-Islami, and later MQM-H, committed this same folly. They failed to generate a kinetic force specific to their own programmes by being exclusively fixated on MQM. PTI, on the other hand, achieved considerable success in Karachi by projecting its own programme while simultaneously exposing MQM’s excesses. PSP may do well to take a leaf out of PTI’s book — its current ally, and potential foe.
Shahab Usto is a lawyer and academic.
Source: dawn.com/news/1255915/mqm-or-psp
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A New Fata
By Mohammad Ali Babakhel
May 3rd, 2016
IN the wake of the successful military operation in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas, the demand for reforms here — referred to in Point 12 of the National Action Plan (NAP) — has become even louder. Fata, as a buffer between the settled areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been significantly impacted by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the subsequent US-led military interventions.
The area has been a breeding ground for extremism and terrorism since the Soviet invasion. With the exception of Orakzai Agency, all the other tribal agencies in Fata are contiguous with Afghanistan. Porous borders facilitated the intrusion of jihadis from across the border as well as the flow of weapons and explosives. This, added to the fact that socially isolated spaces in certain parts of Fata had traditionally been exploited by certain elements to raise private militias — even though Article 256 of the Constitution expressly forbids such outfits — resulted in a concentration of militants in the area.
After 9/11, there has been a growing realisation of the importance of reforms in Fata. Point 8 in the 36-point Charter of Democracy signed between the PPP and PML-N in 2006 suggested the merger of Fata with KP.
At the present time, three options are being debated: one, complete provincial status; second, merger with KP; and third, phase-wise gradual integration.
A sustainable peace requires a ‘soft’ approach.
Administrative reforms in Gilgit-Baltistan through the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order 2009 are a recent success of the Pakistani federation. With certain modifications, a similar phase-wise reform package can also be tried in Fata.
In Pakistan, administrative reforms have included the establishment of Mohmand Agency (1951); formation of One Unit (1954); inclusion of Khairpur and Bahawalpur states (1955) and Gwadar (1958) in the federation; integration of the states of Amb, Dir, Chitral and Swat in the then North West Frontier Province (1969); dissolution of One Unit (1970); establishment of Bajaur and Orakzai agencies (1973); renaming NWFP as KP (2010); and in 2011, under Article 246 of the Constitution, Tor Ghar, formerly a tribal area called Kala Dhaka, was integrated into KP as a settled district.
The 1973 Constitution empowered 37,000 Maliks to vote. From this point until 1997, when universal adult franchise was extended to all residents of Fata, the Maliks served as a bridge between the public and the political administration. Although the clergy emerged as a challenge to the Maliks’ assertive role, in practice both maintained the status quo.
During the last decade, as the area came increasingly in the grip of militancy, more than 500 Maliks were targeted, and the decline of the Hujra (informal community councils) weakened a mechanism of alternate dispute resolution. Instead, the Shura imported from Arab culture gained in strength; it challenged the Frontier Crimes Regulation as well as the institution of the Jirga.
The military operation has brought about a precipitous fall in violence. Compared to 234 terrorist attacks in Fata in 2014, there were 149 such attacks reported in the area during 2015. Post-operation however, a ‘soft’ approach is required to achieve a sustainable peace in Fata.
After a gap of seven years, the administration of Bara in Khyber Agency was recently handed back to the civilian administration. The governor KP also announced the resumption of trade activities and establishment of a 1,600-kanal industrial estate.
Besides the Fata Reforms Commission appointed by the governor, a sub-committee on Fata is mandated to compile administrative and development reforms. Reforms in Fata require a multi-pronged approach including constitutional, administrative and legal interventions. Remaining in a state of denial or confusion will be suicidal: militants have no stake in a nation-state system, making the reconsolidation of Fata crucial.
The Afghan jihad and the scenario post-9/11 badly eroded the traditional administrative system presided over by political agents. A corrupt, obsolete and elite-centric criminal justice system also helped incubate extremism in Fata, with people attracted by the alternate ‘speedy justice’ offered by extremists. A complete overhaul of this system in Fata is imperative, along with the introduction of courts, policing, modern prisons and local bodies. The situation also warrants the return of the internally displaced and start of de-radicalisation.
Effective administration of Fata requires an elaborate civilian administrative apparatus run by dedicated officers. Offering attractive financial packages and amenities will help. Moreover, the Fata Secretariat needs to move from its present location in Peshawar to a central point in Fata to monitor peace and development.
To ensure zero tolerance of non-state actors and deny them physical space, strategic objectives must be spelt out and the counter-narrative amplified. More synergised civil-military efforts are needed to attain the goals of NAP. With the military having successfully cleared Fata, it is now the civilian administration’s turn to come forward.
Mohammad Ali Babakhel is a police officer.
Source: dawn.com/news/1255911/a-new-fata
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The Less Explored Foreign Policy Options
By Nasuruallah Brohi
02-May-16
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the formation of the Central Asia Republics (CARs), these countries with their huge economic potential have been less explored foreign policy options of Pakistan. Despite the fact that being located in the same region and sharing common characteristics, the geo-political and geo-economic importance of Pakistan and CARs should stimulate the two sides to reach out to each other.
Pakistan has always sustained a hope to become a gateway to the Central Asia but other than some occasional efforts, the two sides have not been so successful to forge closer political and economic relations, and even after almost three decades, Pakistan is yet to make any breakthrough into the Central Asian region. Despite CARs immense richness in terms of energy and other natural resources, Pakistan could not benefit much, and not even to address its energy issues through bilateral relations with these countries.
Gas fields of Uzbekistan are also overlooked, whereas if the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) connected with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the region can linkup the natural gas resources of Uzbekistan that could easily be utilised to overcome Pakistan’s energy crisis and help boost Pakistan’s ties with all the states in the Central Asian region. The Central Asian region vastly rich in untapped natural resources and being landlocked have no sailing route and sea connection with the rest of the world; this is actually one of its foremost drawbacks that also decreases the chances of trade and exports of the resources from this region. And therefore not surprisingly, despite being located in the immediate neighbourhood, the South Asian region is colossally energy-starved.
However, together with the Gwadar port of Pakistan and the CPEC project there is incomparable potential to make over the regional dynamics in terms of trade, investment and development. It would be without any exaggeration to actually call it a game changer that would of course uplift the lives of about three billion people across China, Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East. The Gwadar port and the CPEC have outstandingly brought the strategic and economic moments in favour of Pakistan, and have presented a wide range of opportunities for the country where it has assumed the position of economic pivot for the whole region.
The Central Asian States also show enthusiasm for a regional linkage and are eagerly desirous to benefit from the projects that will remarkably assist in connecting the Central Asian countries for trading and exporting their energy resources to the European markets. Moreover, with the advent of the CPEC, regional geopolitics has also assumed new characteristics as the region and their people are going to be better connected than ever before
Notably, during the visit of Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov in March 2016, the two sides keenly agreed to overcome their detachment and explore options on enhancing trade, economic relations, energy sharing, people-to-people contacts and tourism. The particular focus also remained on the timely completion of the projects of extraordinary importance, ranging from the TAPI pipeline to Dushanbe’s potential linkup with the CPEC. Moreover, because of the unique geo-economic and geo-political significance of both sides, Pakistan and Turkmenistan have decided to pay special attention to establishing air, road and rail links on a priority basis.
The greater interests of the two sides link with the TAPI and the CPEC that would further move forward to improve the regional connectivity and serve the economic activity. The emergence of the CPEC is an incomparable trade route to discover the potential of the region. Besides, Pakistan’s accession to the TIR (international road transport) convention is another good opportunity, whereas the TAPI could provide crucial linkage to the CPEC. Nevertheless, with the initiation of the CPEC project, the manifold options have increased the optimism about Pakistan benefitting from lucrative foreign trade and investment, with the prospect of Central Asian states joining aboard as well.
Finally, to make the long cherished dream a resounding success, the reality lies with the facts of regional peace and stability. The chaotic security situation in Afghanistan is one factor that could seriously undermine and hinge the linkage between Pakistan and the Central Asian States.
The instable political and security situation in Afghanistan has gloomy repercussions for the rest of the region, and the main reason for the delay in the timely execution of the TAPI project conceived since 1990s. Aware of its importance Pakistan considers the TAPI project a ‘trailblazing project’ that enables the region to become an energy hub and source of diplomatic networking. However, all possible efforts should be made to address the Afghan issue on a priority basis.
The region’s economic development mainly depends on the fact that the TAPI will only work if there is peace and stability in Afghanistan since the pipeline will pass through the north-eastern part of Afghanistan.
Nasuruallah Brohi works for the Strategic Vision Institute, Islamabad.
Source: dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/02-May-16/the-less-explored-foreign-policy-options
URL: https://newageislam.com/pakistan-press/gurmehar’s-silent-battle-peace-new/d/107175