Pakistan Press on Brutalised Society, Twin Tower Attack and Afghanistan: New Age Islam's Selection, 24 September 2020
By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
24 September 2020
•
Pakistan: A Brutalised Society
By I .A.
Rehman
•
Nineteen Years of 9/11
By Saleem
Safi
• Fifty
Years of Spilt Afghan Blood (Part 1)
By Hafeez
Khan
• The
Underlying Constants of Afghan Crisis
By Inam
Ul Haque
-----
Pakistan:
A Brutalised Society
By I .A. Rehman
24 Sep 2020
“The
dignity of man ... shall be inviolable.” —
Article 14 (1) of the Constitution.
AMONG the facts highlighted in the wake of the
motorway gang rape outrage is the extent to which the ruling elite has been
brutalised and the way it is further brutalising ordinary citizens. The
punishments suggested for assaults on women and children reveal not only a
total disregard of civilisational values but also ignorance of the country’s
Constitution and its obligations under international treaties.
The incidence of gang rape in Pakistan is quite high
and such cases rarely cause public outrage. But the motorway gang rape hit a
sensitive nerve and caused public revulsion on an unprecedented scale. However,
the ruling elite went berserk while proposing punishments for the perpetrators
of the heinous crime. The proposed punishments ranged from public hanging to
chemical castration of the culprits. The lead was unfortunately taken by the
prime minister who supported public hanging and chemical castration both.
All those backing the utterly barbaric punishments
betrayed a stunning ignorance of Article 14 (1) of the Constitution, regarding
the inviolability of the dignity of person. This guarantee of inviolability of
the human person, the only right in absolute terms the citizens have, is not
aimed at protecting the dignity of the privileged as much as it offers
protection to underprivileged people who come into conflict with the law. All
suggested punishments that violate the right to the dignity of person are
inadmissible in a debate on the subject.
Besides, suggestions of chemical castration have
already been overruled for being contrary to Islamic injunctions by the
chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology.
The experience of all nations shows that severe
penalties do not cause a decline in crime.
Anyone in the administration could have informed the
prime minister and other members of the government that Pakistan is a signatory
to the Convention against Torture which also bars cruel, inhuman and degrading
treatment or punishment.
The government should examine the final report of the
committee on torture on Pakistan’s initial report in 2017 and assess the level
of compliance with its recommendations that Islamabad has supported or noted
before defending its performance in May next year.
The prime minister has blamed foreign governments for
tying his hands and preventing him from moving mountains for the public good.
It is time this bogey of foreign hands’ involvement in Pakistan’s affairs was
laid to rest. There is much in the affairs of the state that is in violation of
the Constitution and the laws and that cannot be attributed to foreign
authorities. Besides, good governance is not demanded to please foreign
governments. It is demanded as a fundamental right of the people. Let the
government exercise its authority as much as it wants and in a manner of its choice.
If the people are incapable of judging the government’s performance, history
will.
The whole hankering for cruel, inhuman and degrading
punishments is based on a misconception that severe penalties deter crime. The
experience of all nations in the world shows that harsh punishments do not
cause a decline in crime. Pakistan has been trying to control crime by
increasing the severity of punishments. At independence, the death penalty was
prescribed for only two offences; today it can be awarded for 27 crimes. Each
year, the death penalty is awarded to several hundred persons. During
2015-2017, for instance, 385 persons on an average were sentenced to death each
year. Has this reduced the number of murders per year? Did the murder rate in
Pakistan come down during the Zia regime? There was a time when the punishment
for stealing a mare in England was death. That didn’t stop the stealing of
mares. What helped bring down crime in England was far-reaching reform in the
system of criminal justice, industrialisation, greater prosperity and improved
job security.
The key to crime management does not lie in raising
the scale of punishments but in making the legal processes efficient by
establishing what is called the majesty of law, and that is secured by ensuring
that no criminal can escape being caught and punished. The government must
investigate the causes that have brought the conviction rate to less than 20
per cent. This gives a criminal reason to believe that he will not be caught
and if he is unlucky to be apprehended the chances of his being convicted are
at most 20pc. Who doesn’t know about inefficiency and corruption in the
investigation and prosecution of cases and the fact that at the level of
subordinate courts there is nothing that money cannot buy?
A most fundamental flaw in official thinking is that
serious crime, such as gang rape, is viewed selectively and treated entirely as
a law-and-order matter. In an incident of gang rape, perhaps as shocking as the
motorway incident, reported from Punjab the other day, a woman was gang raped
by dacoits in front of her husband whose hands and feet had been tied up. No
person in authority felt outraged because each and every gang rape is not
denounced. There is, in fact, considerable acceptance of gang rape as something
of an unfortunate occurrence about which nothing can be done.
Further, no evidence is on record that gang rape or
any other heinous crime has been investigated or analysed from social and
psychological perspectives. Very young girls are raped and killed with
frightening regularity despite the hanging of a few culprits but apart from
making laws to prescribe tougher penalties the government has not undertaken or
sponsored any study of the causes of assaults on young girls or the methods of
protecting the victims through their and their parents’ education.
A fact that is hardly ever taken note of is that much
of the crime against women and girls has its roots in the patriarchal culture
that has become stronger over the years, mainly as a result of the state’s
deliberate failure to acknowledge women’s right to equality with the male
species. Without affirmative state action to establish gender equality, all
spasmodic efforts to protect women against sex fiends will prove in vain.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1581352/a-brutalised-society
----
Nineteen
Years of 9/11
By Saleem Safi
September 24, 2020
From the beginning of 2001, Osama bin Laden and his
close aides had been talking about the 'Planes Operation' and the coming of the
'big day'. Abu Hafs al-Masri – Osama’s deputy and close friend – told Al
Jazeera journalist Ahmad Zaidan in January 2001 during the wedding of Osama’s
son in Kandahar that “the United States is going to be forced to invade
Afghanistan and we are preparing for that. We want them to come”. However,
Mullah Mohammad Omar – Afghanistan's ruler and Amir-ul-Momineen – had no idea
what Osama was going to do right under his nose.
Adam Yahya Gadahn aka 'Azzam the American' –
Al-Qaeda's audio and video lead – stated in a video that Osama bin Laden had
kept the plan secret but shortly before 9/11 had informed his close aides in
Kandahar that he was thinking of taking such action against the US which would
force the latter to invade Afghanistan. Osama knew that his dangerous plan
would change the world.
At last, the 'big day' arrived on September 11, 2001
when Al-Qaeda hijackers brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center
and hit the Pentagon with hijacked planes. This fateful day changed the world
and led to the US invading Afghanistan – as predicted by Bin Laden and wished
by Al-Masri. The US invasion of Afghanistan brought drastic consequences for
both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In 2001, the US seemed to have been moving towards
becoming a strategic ally of India but the 9/11 incident and the strategic
location of Pakistan forced Washington to engage Islamabad and give it the
status of a major non-Nato ally. However, instead of Pakistan, General Pervez
Musharraf became the main beneficiary of the forced alliance and got a strong
lifeline for his rule. Consequently, Pakistan lost more than 70,000 precious
lives and faced billions of dollars in economic losses. Though Musharraf sided
with the US by angering the local jihadi and extremists' organizations, he
still failed to win the trust of the US and of Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the Americans invaded Iraq without
consolidating and stabilizing Afghanistan. The Iraq invasion caused a sense of
insecurity in Iran. In addition, the US also started giving space and role to
India in Afghanistan despite Pakistan's strong reservations. As a result, Gen
Musharraf changed his Afghan Taliban policy. The US started blaming Pakistan
for playing a double game. In addition, the dramatic killing of Osama bin Laden
on Pakistan’s soil also damaged the country's credibility.
However, the main brunt of war was borne by
Afghanistan which was already devastated by decades-long chaos and instability
brought by the Russian invasion and internal civil wars. The 19-year-long 'war
on terror' played havoc with the lives and economy of Afghanistan.
After 19 years of bloodshed, the US and Taliban came
on the negotiation table and signed a peace deal. Though both sides claim
victory, in reality there is no winner. Victory comes when you win what you had
intended to win. But here both sides have retreated from what they had wanted.
The US had earlier been reluctant to negotiate and had
vowed to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat" the Taliban. However, now after
19 years of killing hundreds of thousands of people and spending billions of
dollars, the Americans have come to the negotiation table with the Afghan
Taliban. Similarly, the Taliban were at one time not ready to sever ties with
Al-Qaeda. But now they have given a written assurance to the US that they will
not keep any relations with Al-Qaeda.
Though the US and Taliban have signed a deal, peace in
Afghanistan is still a distant dream. The war between the US and the Taliban is
over, but the war between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban
continues.
The ongoing negotiation in Qatar between the Afghan
government and the Afghan Taliban is a good omen and a little ray of hope for
durable peace in Afghanistan. But still, there are huge differences between
both sides. The Taliban insist on the restoration of their Islamic Emirate in
which they will accommodate the current political figures of the Afghan
government. On the contrary, the Afghan government wants the Taliban to accept
Afghanistan’s constitution and become part of the current political system.
Moreover, the Afghan government is not happy with the
deal between the US and the Taliban, but they cannot oppose it openly due to
American pressure. Some elements in the Afghan government do not want
reconciliation with the Taliban due to the fear that the Taliban will replace
them in the new setup. These elements are also convinced that the US’s exit
plan could change if Trump loses the presidential election. In fact, these are
those troublemakers who used delaying tactics in the commencement of the
intra-Afghan negotiations. But now once the negotiations have started in Qatar,
there is a possibility that these elements will try to sabotage the process by
bringing such conditions that will not be acceptable to the Afghan Taliban.
On the other hand, the Taliban also seem to not be in
a hurry about the success of the negotiation. They think that the Ashraf Ghani
government is getting weaker with each passing day and that they can at some
point soon capture Kabul and establish their rule with impunity. However, both
sides harbour wishful thinking and misunderstanding which will bring no good to
the future of Afghanistan. For the sake of Afghanistan's stability, both sides
should find a middle way of reconciliation.
However, at this important stage, when the Afghan
government and Taliban negotiate for a political solution, Pakistan also needs
to give serious consideration to the threat of the TTP. Different factions of
the TTP have reunited and they have pledged allegiance to its head – Mufti
Noorwali. Their attacks in different parts of the country, especially in
Waziristan, are also on the rise.
Though Pakistan is playing a decisive role in the
intra-Afghan reconciliation process, unfortunately, it seems indifferent
towards finding any political solution to the TTP problem at home. It is high
time Pakistan found a political solution to the TTP and other extremist groups
in the country. If a political solution is not possible, then Pakistan should
ask the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban to cooperate on the issue of the
TTP. Though Pakistan believes that the TTP is receiving support from the Afghan
government, it is also a fact that the Afghan Taliban do not consider the TTP
as their enemy. Ideologically, the TTP seems almost like a franchise of the
Afghan Taliban. Pakistan should continue its role in the Afghan reconciliation
process but at the same time it should find a solution to the TTP problem with
the help of the Afghan government and Afghan Taliban.
-------
Saleem Safi works for Geo TV.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/719135-nineteen-years-of-9-11
-----
Fifty
years of spilt Afghan blood (Part 1)
By Hafeez Khan
September 24, 2020
It was early 70’s and my friend, late Ajmal Malik, had
landed a job with the information department in Peshawar. A brilliant mind, he
was a successful journalist and a carefree loving soul. We communicated via
booking trunk calls thanks to Ajmal’s access to official phones. We chatted
regularly reminiscing our University days.
After the 71 war, Indian films were banned in
Pakistan. One day Ajmal, “Malik sahib” for friends, invited me to Peshawar for
an onward trip to Kabul. “The film Pakeezah is playing in theatres there” was
enough to convince me. Not having a passport was overcome by Ajmal arranging a
‘Red Pass’. The same night I boarded Khyber Mail to Peshawar.
After a day in Peshawar we left for Kabul on a GTS
bus. It was a fascinating journey weaving our way through the historical Khyber
Pass. Passing through steep mountains and rugged terrain was a daunting
experience. The journey ended when we entered the Kabul valley and skies opened
up. It was autumn and evening air was crisp.
The peaceful Kabul that I witnessed degenerated into
chaos. The Soviets knew one way to quell resistance; by crushing it
Our hotel was downtown Kabul. It was full of life with
multiple young free spirited European tourists mulling around. The city seemed
to permeate excitement. We were there for three days. We went to movies, toured
the city, visited the Royal Palace areas open to public and visited Kabul University.
My credentials as a student leader helped us interact with students and
teachers.
Inter-Continental Hotel Kabul was located on higher
grounds from where we were able to view the whole city with river Kabul
meandering through it. Kabulis were friendly with many speaking Urdu and
English. Ajmal met some journalists and we had wide ranging discussions. In our
interactions I sensed underlying tensions between leftists and rightists,
nationalists and Islamists.
Afghanistan has a proud heritage and history. It
emerged in its modern form shaped by the 19th century competition between
British, Russian and Persian empires. The 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention created
the existing boundaries of Afghanistan as a buffer state between competing
Empires. The eastern boundary was demarcated by Sir Henry M. Durand, a British
official in 1893 known as Durand Line. It divided Pushtun tribes into two
countries leading to a “Greater Pashtunistan” dispute.
The diversity of Afghans is quite complex based on
ethnic, linguistic or tribal variations. Pushtuns are 38% in the East, Tajiks
are 25% in the North, Hazaras 19% in the Centre. They comprise bulk of the
population with Turkmans, Baluch, Uzbek and some others completing the count.
Dari, a dialect of Persian, is spoken by half the population while Pashto is
spoken by Pushtuns. Both are official languages. Roughly 70% are Sunni Muslims
and 25 to 30% are Shias. Add to that the tribal mix and affiliations and you
get the picture.
Afghanistan was ruled by King Zahir Shah from 1933 to
1973. He was largely pro West. I saw a peaceful and calm society. However,
trouble was brewing. His restive cousin Daoud, who was Prime Minister for 10
years, overthrew him in 1973 declaring Afghanistan a republic. President Daoud
leaned towards Soviet Union. He found an ally in Soviet Premier Breznev who
believed in Third World activism. He chose to rely on Communist leaders rather
than backing non-communist nationalists.
It was a Pandora’s Box. The underground movements that
I had sensed came out in the open. On one side it was Soviet backed People’s
Democratic Party (PDPA) with its Khalq and Parcham factions.On the other side
Pakistan backed Islamists. Soviets had become bolder after USA’s Vietnam
ouster.
In 1978 Conflict erupted after assassination of a
Parcham leader. There were massive demonstrations led by PDPA. Army officers
sympathetic to it staged a coup and ousted Daoud. Soviets welcomed the change
through a massive influx of aid. President Hafizullah Amintried to implement
his Khalq agenda through brute force.
He failed. Infighting between Khalqis and Parchamis
disintegrated the state control and Afghan society. The Soviets in December
1979 removed the façade and rolled into Afghanistan. They stormed the Palace
and executed President Amin.
Having lost their staunchest ally in Iran, USA sought
to engage in Afghanistan. The Islamists who had attempted a failed coup a few
years earlier were in exile in Pakistan. The nucleus for Mujahidin already
existed. Resistance to Soviet occupation grew. It was a bloodbath in which
millions of Afghans perished in the next decade. The peaceful Kabul that I
witnessed degenerated into chaos. The Soviets knew one way to quell resistance;
by crushing it.
They failed to realize that when an Afghan picks up a
gun there are only two ways to resolve the situation. Kill or be killed,
freedom or heaven. The rugged Mujahid once armed, needed very little to survive
on. A bag of chick peas, a bottle of water and rags tied around their feet
sufficed.
In the mid-eighties, my business partner Abdul Latif
Al Sheikh and I flew to Islamabad from Riyadh. We had some Saudis in the
business class. They were scions of notable families. He started to chat with
them. They were headed to join the Afghan resistance with Attock as their destination.
They invited us over. A couple of days later we visited their camp. Over a few
hours what I saw is ingrained in my memory forever.
To be continued …
----
Hafeez
Khan is the director of CERF, a non-profit, charitable organisation in Canada
https://dailytimes.com.pk/670023/fifty-years-of-spilt-afghan-blood-part-1/
----
The
Underlying Constants Of Afghan Crisis
By Inam Ul Haque
September 24, 2020
Afghanistan remains one of the most widely covered
crises of modern times. True to 21st-century fad, there is a mushrooming army
of so-called 'Afghan experts'. These experts — to quote former Afghan cabinet
minister Mohammed Ehsan Zai — "read ‘The Kite Runner’ on [the] plane and
believe they are [an] expert on Afghanistan." There are desk officers with
no ground experience who cobble together books from hearsay and claim
greatness. These tenure-based bureaucrats tend to make faulty assumptions.
There are military veterans with limited/sectoral exposure, who end up creating
personality cults. Then there are freelance writers who tend to become outright
racist and bigoted in their description of Afghans and Afghanistan.
It is strongly felt that in the absence of a
multidisciplinary approach, cutting across political science/economy,
international relations, sociology, and anthropology… for example; such
analyses risk becoming personal experiences with limited universal
applicability. Sociology strongly rebuffs sweeping generalisations about people
and countries. Unless backed by rigorous analysis, academic adroitness, and
fieldwork; Afghans and Afghanistan would remain an enigma.
The following Op-Eds continue my earlier work on
Afghanistan and aim at distilling some 'constants' gleaned from some three
centuries of Afghan history. These have helped shape attitudes and policy
formulation in Afghanistan and are by no means exhaustive.
First, the nature of the Afghan monarchy. Unlike the
contemporary monarchies, the Durrani monarchy created by Ahmed Shah Baba around
1747 was a 'tribal confederation' with the king deriving power from the tribes,
and not the other way round. This shaped subsequent Afghan approaches towards
authority and governance.
Second, and following from the above; modern state
formation in Afghanistan has, therefore, remained a failed exercise, whether
under the erstwhile farangi , later Shoravi (Russian) or modern Amreeki
tutelage. Afghan political culture abhors a strong centre, especially if it is
imposed.
Third, Afghans (the term by extension covers Pashtun
tribes on both sides of the Durand Line) are almost entirely Muslim, converted
en-bloc around the times of the pious caliphs. They did so, as they find no
major deviations in Pukhtunwali/Pashtunwali — the operative code covering
everyday life — and the teachings of Islam. Both reinforce each other in major
areas. All Pathan tribes are Sunni except the Bangash tribe west of Kohat and
Turi tribes in Parachinar, Pakistan. The latter are actually Turkic.
Interestingly, the Taliban worldview of Islam is
essentially the rural Pashtun worldview... although interaction with the wider
world, as refugees, has introduced reform and changes in this outlook.
Fourth, paradoxically if ever there is a conflict
between code (riwaj) and Islam, Pukhtunwali would prevail. Literature aplenty
to substantiate that major decrees of the Peoples' Democratic Party of
Afghanistan (PDPA) — during the 1979 Saur Revolution — were reinforcing Islamic
teachings; yet the society revolted. The white-bearded elderly cadre
(spin-geeree masharan) scoffed at the clean-shaven, Moscow-educated young
communists, who asked them to change the social status quo. They fumed at these
young zealots telling them how to live.
Efforts to speed up societal change in riwaj-bound
Afghan society would eventually fail, even if the change is good overall. The
'nation-building' plans of the US — launched with much fanfare later, lie in
the dust. The world still doesn't seem to have learned any lesson. Outsize
emphasis on women/minority rights, freedoms, and constitution, etc would
complicate the ongoing intra-Afghan dialogue.
Fifth, it is interesting to see self-appointed experts
criticising Afghans for being undemocratic. They need to know that Afghanistan
had the representative Loya Jirga (Lower House) and Masharano Jirga (Upper
House) since much earlier. Afghans are extremely egalitarian. It is only in the
developed democracies that federating units enjoy greater autonomy like in the
present political dispensation of Afghanistan. Therefore, the imposition of a
strong centre in an intensely democratic Afghanistan has and would never
succeed.
Sixth, despite inter and intra-tribe differences and
conflicts, all Afghans (including the non-Pashtuns) subscribe to a unique sense
of nationhood. This is the binding glue, preventing any touted division of
Afghanistan along ethnic lines.
Seventh, like all tribal societies, Afghanistan has an
inherent conflict resolution mechanism in the form of the jirga. This mechanism
works effectively in the absence of foreign interlocutors, with no Afghan
faction looking over the shoulder. Repeated interference has battered this
system, hence the prolonged conflict and instability.
Eight, under the tenets of Pukhtunwali,
khegara/shegara (doing favour/good to others) occupies a central place. But the
favour has to be returned in order to re-establish the social equilibrium that
is disturbed when an Afghan receives a favour. Having done so, the Afghan feels
being on an equal footing, unencumbered by complexes. The Afghan does not feel
to be perpetually indebted. Pakistan's hope of Afghanistan remaining grateful
to us in eternity is, therefore, a misplaced over-expectation, based on lack of
sociological understanding.
Ninth, following on from the above postulation, it is
instructive to sometimes listen to the Afghans about our continued harping on
hosting Afghan refugees and Pakistan's help in the Jihad since the Soviet
times. They reckon, Afghans fought Pakistan's battle, as, without Afghanistan,
the Soviet Bear would be sunbathing on the beaches of Karachi. And for refugees
— they cite — it was Pakistan's religious obligation to provide refuge in line
with our lofty claims of Muslim solidarity.
Lastly, massive migration and continued life under
different social underpinnings have changed Afghan society marginally. The
newer power elite have emerged, as during my fieldwork in a refugee camp in the
1980s; 'ration malik' was the emerging power elite, responsible for the camp's
ration distribution. Afghans have otherwise tried to jealously guard their
traditions. Dead bodies are still sent back as far as possible and there are
negligible inter-marriages with locals.
The continued conflict has exacted a deadly cost in
human and material terms from Afghanistan, yet to be accounted for. The
hapless, ragtag but determined Afghans have forced two superpowers in our
lifetime to bite the dust. Faith and commitment were central to their success,
besides other reasons. The Afghans deserve empathy in the world, not disdain or
racial-profiling.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2265386/the-underlying-constants-of-afghan-crisis
-----
URL: https://newageislam.com/pakistan-press/pakistan-press-brutalised-society,-twin/d/122931
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