The ISIS Nazi: New Age Islam's Selection, 01 June 2017
New
Age Islam Edit Bureau
01 June 2017
• The Isis Nazi
By Sabina Khan
• Pro-Women Laws without Structures
By Jamil Junejo
• From Tehran to Riyadh
By Hussain H Zaidi
• Us-Europe Divide Grips NATO
By Syed Qamar A Rizvi
• A Question of Priorities
By Adnan Adil
• False Hopes
By Andre Vltchek
• Resolving the Dl Dispute
By M. Ziauddin
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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The ISIS Nazi
By Sabina Khan
May 31, 2017
A peculiar event took place last week in Florida. Details are still scarce, but the incident reportedly occurred at an apartment that was being shared by four young men who shared neo-Nazi beliefs. The past tense not only refers to time, but also to the shared ideology. One of the roommates, 18-year-old Devon Arthurs recently converted to Islam. If we are to believe Arthurs’ account, his housemates unsurprisingly disapproved of the conversion of faith. He cites their ridicule as part of the reasoning for shooting two of them to death. Following the murders, he then went to a nearby tobacco shop and briefly held people hostage before submitting to the authorities. When the police arrived, Arthurs claimed he was disheartened by the US bombing of “his Muslim countries”. He also stated that he carried out the murders to prevent his roommates from committing planned acts of domestic terrorism.
The shocking nature of this story has somehow received little press so far, but more details are slowly finding the light of day. Devon did lead police to bomb-making equipment and materials in the apartment garage, therefore his claim about stopping terrorism may have merit. Arthurs’ only surviving roommate, Brandon, was found crying outside the crime scene and claimed to be the owner of the fuses and said that he’d also created the explosive, a white cake-like substance known as HMTD. He has since been taken into custody.
How does an 18-year-old find himself in this position? At such a young age, Arthurs joined a neo-Nazi group, then became an ISIS sympathiser, and eventually murdered two men. Extreme ideology is the most commonly blamed culprit, but this teenager proved to be vulnerable to multiple hate-based factions in his formative years. You can’t simply blame a single set of extreme beliefs in this instance. What’s known for sure is that there was a youth who was desperately seeking to belong to something. A world devoid of ISIS or Nazis probably wouldn’t have saved Arthurs. His roommates may have lived, but Arthurs proved that he wasn’t tied to a specific belief system. The obvious commonalities between the neo-Nazis and ISIS were that they have a propensity for violence and both offer a sense of belonging.
There won’t be an easy answer to keep similar tragedies from happening in the future, but what useful lesson can we take away from this? As it relates to ISIS, it should be a reminder that the group is a symptom of deeper problems rather than the cause. It began when a busted up faction of Iraqis coalesced years after Iraq war began. If their members, such as the ex-Iraqi army officers, hadn’t been disenfranchised from the new Iraqi government, ISIS wouldn’t exist.
Suppression or perceived injustices to a group causes them to form their own unit, essentially gangs. More often than not, the individuals who end up joining fringe gangs do so because they don’t see a place for themselves in the larger society. Ensuring that people on the margins of society have equal rights and a path to prosperity will go a long way towards reducing the influence of gangs on our youth. This isn’t a new idea, but it’s the hard and dull truth. The military response to ISIS and other threats is absolutely necessary, but it will remain fruitless unless steps are taken to prevent the next generation from stepping up to replenish their ranks.
Source: tribune.com.pk/story/1423213/the-isis-nazi/
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Pro-Women Laws without Structures
By Jamil Junejo
May 31, 2017
One of the most significant feats of the Sindh government is promulgation of a set of progressive laws on the rights of women. Beyond any doubt, the Sindh Assembly has made impressive progress during the last few years in the lawmaking sphere on human rights, especially that of women. Some of its legislative actions, especially the Sindh Child Marriage Restraints Act of 2013, which penalises marriage of both males and females below the age of 18 years, have gone to the extent of challenging the ideological framework of the Council of Islamic Ideology — a constitutional body mandated to provide legal advice to the government on conformity level of the country’s laws with the spirit of the Holy Quran and Sunnah.
However, laws alone do not guarantee full protection of women’s rights, especially when such laws operate in the backdrop of a patriarchal social hierarchy and weak rule of law. But they are important to set legal norms and obligations for a state to honour and fulfill.
Within the sphere of women’s rights, the Sindh Assembly has enacted there major laws which include the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act of 2013, Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act of 2013 and the Sindh Commission on the Status of Women Act of 2015.
However, unfortunately, these laws have not successfully delivered on account of diverse reasons. This includes the fact that most of the implementation and monitoring structures to be set up under these laws are still pending.
Interestingly, the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act of 2013 provides for, inter alia, formation of the most significant commission mandated with extraordinary powers of “suo motu” on the issues of domestic violence. However, such powers which place this commission at a par with the National Commission on Human Rights and the Sindh Human Rights Commission have perpetually remained victim of ignorance, and subsequently no serious efforts are made to form this commission.
In addition to this, the act provides for formation of protection committees at district level and appointment of protection officers. These two very important protection mechanisms are not put into place either.
Given the wide occurrence of cases of violence against women across Sindh and weak, under-resourced and insufficient existing protection mechanism, especially protection centres (Darul Amans) plagued by lethargy and apathy of the duty bearers, the constitution and operationalisation of the structures provided by Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act of 2013 is the matter of high urgency. Otherwise, violence against women, especially domestic violence, will continue to occur without fear of legal accountability.
Another significant law within the sphere of women rights protection is the Sindh Child Marriage Restraints Act of 2013. This law has also been subject to the perpetual negligence with respect to formation and operationalisation of the structures it provides for. The rules of business of the Restraints Act of 2013, provides for the establishment of district level and provincial level monitoring committees on child marriages. But these are not yet formed in complete manner. This is the reason that in absence of these committees just a few cases of child marriages have been reported and prevented by the law-enforcing agencies in some districts of Sindh.
Given the weakness of this law that it does not provide any provision on the dissolution of a child marriage when it has successfully occurred, the formation and effective operationalisation of these committees constitute as necessity and a matter of high priority, so that these marriages could be prevented rather than brought to police and judicial action after their occurrences. As a result, the complexities of dissolution of such marriages could be evaded.
It is high time that the ministries and departments form and operationalise the monitoring and implementation structures provided by the relevant pro-women laws in Sindh, so that these laws could potentially deliver on their promises.
Source: tribune.com.pk/story/1423225/pro-women-laws-without-structures/
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From Tehran to Riyadh
By Hussain H Zaidi
June 1, 2017
The two developments that have come about in the Middle East in recent days – and sent mutually contradictory messages – are fraught with far-reaching implications for the region as well as the globe, including Pakistan. One is the re-election of Hassan Rouhani, arguably the nation’s most potent symbol of moderation, as Iran’s president. The other is US President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia during which both sides minced no words in labelling Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism.
As in 2013, Rouhani’s 2017 victory had a resounding effect and precluded a second round face-off with the hardliner Ebrahim Raisi. The outcome of the presidential race is an affirmation of the electorate’s trust in his stance – represented by the July 2015 nuclear deal – on the twin problems facing Iran: reintegration with the world after years of isolation and achieving economic revival through openness.
Iranian society has for years been caught in the throes of a tussle between the forces of moderation and freedom on the one hand and those of conservatism and totalitarianism on the other. Underlying this tussle is a glaring contradiction: while the people of Iran are, by and large, liberal and outward-looking, since the 1979 revolution they have been ruled by a clergy-led establishment wedded to secrecy and suppression as the major instruments of state policy. As a matter of principle, all post-revolutionary governments – such as those in France (1789), Russia (1917) and China (1949) – tend to be despotic and strive to steer the country out of the grave instability triggered by the overthrow of the erstwhile regime.
In the case of Iran, matters were made worse by at least two implications of the revolution. First, the revolution ousted absolute monarchy in a region where this form of government was – and still is – the norm. As a result, other countries in the Gulf suspected Iran of exporting the revolution to its neighbours to their detriment. Those suspicions were not unfounded as Tehran had backed resistance movements in Lebanon (Hezbollah, in particular) and Palestine (Hamas) and sought to shore up its influence on Shia populations residing not only in the Arab states but also in countries like Pakistan. The Arabs, led by Saudi Arabia, responded by intensifying the propagation of their own brand of Islam and cashed in on their petro-dollars rather lavishly for that purpose.
Second, pre-revolutionary Iran was a staunch ally of the US and a linchpin of the Washington-sponsored regional security system. Therefore, the revolution was seen by the Americans as a challenge to their strategic interests in the region. The views of those at the helm in Iran towards the US were equally hostile. This gave rise to the Washington-Tehran antagonism, which persists to date. Iran ended up being billed as a pariah state by the West and its Gulf allies and faced multilateral and bilateral sanctions for its nuclear programme. The sanctions badly affected the economy, particularly foreign trade. Tehran reacted by adopting a more intransigent posture.
Internally, discontent with the regime ratcheted up, strongly expressing itself in the disputed 2009 presidential election. Although it was put down by the regime, the discontent found its next, and finally successful, expression in the 2013 race for the office of the president. Rouhani’s victory embodied the message that Iran was willing to open up and do business with the West. The latter, on its part, reciprocated Iran’s overtures. This led to the deal between Iran and major world powers on limiting Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for lifting most of the international sanctions.
More important than the letter of the deal was the underlying spirit: that the West was willing to welcome Iran back to the comity of nations and that Tehran was prepared for a fundamental shift in its foreign policy. Rouhani’s re-election embodies the message that the country is well on its course to do away with the contradiction between social aspirations and state policy.
Be that as it may, the message from the other side is rather discouraging. The Iranian nuclear deal was opposed by Israel, the Gulf States and hardliners in the US because of what it signified. The election of Donald Trump, a staunch opponent of the agreement, signalled that the opposition to it would grow to the point where Washington might even walk out of the agreement.
At the May 21 Arab-Islamic-American Summit hosted by Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and the US were united in condemning Iran for what they called ‘spearheading’ global terrorism and vowed to confront the common adversary together.
The strongly worded speeches by President Trump and King Salman should leave no one in doubt that in the eyes of the US and its Gulf allies, the major threat that the world faces as it combats terrorism is not Daesh or Al-Qaeda or similar brands, but Iran. As a result, the ‘Iranian threat’ needs to be neutralised as a matter of priority rather than the danger posed by the apocalyptic militant outfits. Nothing can be more reassuring for the terrorist organisations and nothing can be more damning for world peace. Not only that, in a region where sectarianism has been one of the principal drivers of conflicts, gunning for one country – given its peculiar demographics – will further fuel the sectarian strife. The major beneficiary, again, will be terrorist organisations.
If Iran is the epicentre of global or regional terrorism, the military alliance of Muslim countries set up in December 2015 with the avowed purpose of defeating militancy in the Muslim world must logically be directed against Tehran and its allies like Syria. The coalition was put together amid mounting criticism that the Arab states – particularly those in the Gulf – were shying away from taking on Daesh. Iran, Iraq and Syria were not invited to become part of the alliance. This strengthened suspicions that the alliance’s real target was not Daesh, but Iran and its allies, and that it represented only a particular sect. Pakistan didn’t formally join the alliance. However, the country allowed its recently retired army chief – who made a name for himself by fighting terrorism – to head its troops on the ground to ensure that the coalition was geared up to serve a noble purpose.
The Riyadh summit, with its unequivocal condemnation of Iran, has put Pakistan in a more awkward situation than it was in before. Pakistan has been one of the spectacles of the proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which sharpened the sectarian schism in the country. So it is vital for Islamabad to not take sides in the Tehran-Riyadh conflict – whether it is played out in Syria, Yemen or elsewhere. But with its former army chief commanding the coalition’s troops with the consent of the government and the coalition’s sponsors vowing to take on Iran, Pakistan needs a devil’s advocate to assure the world as well as its people of its neutrality.
Source: henews.com.pk/print/207910-From-Tehran-to-Riyadh
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US-Europe Divide Grips NATO
By Syed Qamar A Rizvi
SEEN from President Trump’s perspective, unlike his predecessors, he is not an ardent advocate of endorsing the futurity of the sixty-eight years old trans-Atlantic partnership. Though he may now have reversed his position on Nato’s obsolescence, yet he tends to redefine the scope of this relationship with Europe by means of transactionalism. But today most of the Western strategists feel alarmed at the proposition that, with its lost political and strategic unity, Nato’s power is waning. This thesis gets prompt validation by German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent remarks: “Europe must take its fate into its own hands faced with a western alliance divided by Brexit and Donald Trump’s presidency.”
Addressing the Brussels Summit on May 25, Trump said: “Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defence. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States’’. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded in 1949 as a united mission to protect a war-shattered Europe from Stalin’s Soviet Union. In view of General Hasting Ismay, the first Secretary General of the Nato Alliance, the main function of the Alliance was “’to keep the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down”. Strategically, the NATO Alliance vitally served US-Europe interests during the Cold War period. Yet in the post Cold War era, the transatlantic relationship undergoes a shift.
While today Europe is quite capable of shaping and paying for its own security; NATO’s structure remains unchanged. For the Europeans, America should remain politically close to European countries but stop telling them how to defend themselves. Left to their own devices, they might pull back from the snarling confrontation with Russia into which NATO is leading them. For NATO’s hardliners, repositioning of Nato’s role— as Europe’s principal provider of military security is necessary to warrant the viability of the Alliance by having a firmed stand against Moscow. But there is growing discomfort in Alliance’s European partners at the protection racket approach Trump is applying to NATO, Trump’s advocated give and take approach is stimulating divide in the Alliance.
Furthermore, France, Germany and Italy are unhappy at US proposals to give NATO a greater role in the anti-IS coalition, and there’s little interest outside Washington for expanding NATO’s role in Afghanistan. And yet the US is also unlikely to drop its beef with the problems of burden-sharing. The secretary general Jens Stoltenberg reported in March that while 16 NATO allies had seen real increases in overall defence spending in 2016, only five – the US, Estonia, Greece, the UK and Poland – were meeting NATO’s defence spending target of 2% of GDP.
Even though Turkey, Romania, Latvia and Lithuania are expected to hit that target in 2018 or 2019; but Germany, Italy and Canada, three of NATO’s biggest hitters, have been showing little enthusiasm to do the same. French President Macron has suggested, will not meet mark until 2025 at earliest. Talk deficiencies have become macroscopic with evolution of strategic situation in Europe.
European security experts of the ESDP don’t fully agree with NATO’S reforms introduced by Nato’s former Secretary General Fogh Rasmussen (a Denish reformist). Rasmussen tried to achieve the goal thereby transferring a series of vital functions— to member states —that mainly come from Nato’s Command Structure, NATO’s Force Structure (NFS), and the affiliated agencies whose control is not linked to Allied Commander in Europe (SACEUR), such as NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA).
Politically, Nato’s house is divided into three camps: one- representing the US-centric security system imbibed in US-controlled or monitored European security paradigm(the US, Estonia, Greece, the UK, Poland and Czech); second – representing a Euro- centric independent security system envisaged by both France and Germany; and the third camp- representing those European states(Austria, Netherlands, Italy, and Spain) who are cautious over the question of their security policy vis-à-vis Russia. Besides, Europe’s leading populist parties— AKEL, Die Linke, FPO, Gloden Dawn, KSCM, and Jobbic— are opposed to the Nato Alliance.
UK’s vote to quit the European Union has trigger a torque in EU-Nato politics. The exposed cracks in EU’s transnational unity and the ongoing cleavages in Nato’s supranational camp have some inseparable connection. Therefore, some hold the caution: as EU has been shocked into reality, the next jolt might be NATO’s. With UK’s exit from EU, many Americans fear that Washington’s role in Brussels’ affairs will become secondary.
In view of some Western pragmatists (as they also disapprove Georgia’s entry as a part of Nato’s eastward expansion), Russia threatens none of America’s vital interests. On the contrary, it shares US’s eagerness to fight global terror, control nuclear threats, and deter other urgent challenges posed to global security. Depending on European nations’ respective perspective, Russia might be seen as a destabilizing force in Europe. Either way, it is a challenge for Europeans, not for the United States. While NATO has become America’s instrument in escalating its dangerous conflict with Russia, some still argue that they need less NATO, not more.
Today, however, a shifting Weltanschauung about NATO is that it is becoming more centrifugal than centripetal, expanding rather than concentrating power. Nato’s Article 5 has been losing its centrality. Its supranational power is declining. The real breach in Nato’s unity started with George W Bush’s insane decision of invading Iraq in 2003 when German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder rejected any support of a US-led military campaign against Iraq. Nevertheless, the brewing cleavages in Nato’s expanded club surfaced by horizontal and vertical polarization are fundamentally based on European governments’ security and economic expediencies entailed by the priorities set in their domestic or national policies. The geo-political truth is that Europeans cannot annoy Russia.
Source: pakobserver.net/us-europe-divide-grips-nato/
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A Question of Priorities
By Adnan Adil
June 1, 2017
The utilisation statistics of the Punjab development budget tell the same old story of how education and health are neglected for the sake of building roads and buildings.
During the first 10 months of FY 2016-17, the Punjab government utilised only around Rs252.9 billion (57.9 percent) out of a total development outlay of Rs436.6 billion provided in the annual budget. This information is available in official documents of the provincial finance department.
With only two months remaining till the end of the fiscal year, the provincial government did not utilise more than 40 percent of the development outlay allocated for most sectors – with the exception of the roads, transport and buildings sectors.
Till the end of April this year, the provincial finance department released Rs369 billion (85 percent) of the total amount of Rs436.6 billion allocated for development projects in the annual budget. This implies that there was no shortage of funds to provide the allocated amounts to the social sector, including health and education. But the government opted for infrastructural projects instead.
Out of the total allocation for school education, only 43 percent were spent from July 2016 to April 30, 2017 – around Rs20.6 billion out of Rs47.6 billion. Even the released amount for development schemes for school education has not been fully utilised so far. According to insiders, funds for education were, as usual, released towards the end of the year so that they could not be used.
In the health sector, the budget promised a development outlay of Rs42.3 billion but the government has, so far, spent only Rs19.4 billion (46 percent). The annual budget for 2016-17 allocated Rs6.2 billion for youth affairs, tourism and sports. But the government actually spent merely Rs2 billion.
In the energy sector – where the government claims to have made herculean efforts to end power outages – the provincial government has spent only Rs1.7 billion out of a total allocation of Rs7.9 billion (21.5 percent). Officials believe that the funds for these sectors have been diverted to transport projects, including Lahore’s Orange Line Metro Train project.
Water supply and sanitation also remained a low-priority area, with Rs20 billion utilised out of a total allocation of Rs45 billion – less than half of what was promised in the budget. However, we keep hearing a great deal of official propaganda about saaf pani (clean drinking water).
As usual, roads remained the top priority of the Punjab government. Out of a total allocation of Rs77.2 billion, it has already spent Rs66.2 billion (86 percent). Like previous years, expenditure on the development of roads is likely to surpass the original allocation this time around.
For the transport sector, the government has spent almost double the promised budget – Rs13.8 billion as against the allocation of Rs7.3 billion. Similarly, the government has consumed the entire development allocation for the construction of new buildings – Rs10.9 billion out of a total of Rs11.7 billion.
So far, the government has spent only Rs758 million on population welfare schemes as against the original allocation of Rs1.3 billion – nearly 57 percent of the total allocation. The funds for women’s development that have been utilised stand at Rs377 million from the total allocated amount of Rs629 million – nearly 60 percent of the total allocation.
A paltry amount of Rs185 million was allocated for environment-related development projects. But the actual utilisation during these 10 months was nil. This is despite the fact that the environment protection department is short of staff and necessary equipment to monitor pollution. Punjab’s area has less than three percent of tree cover. And yet, forestry is among the most neglected area – out of a meagre allocation of Rs2.2 billion only 919 million were utilised to plant trees.
In the 2016-2017 budget, the government had promised Rs650 million for labour and human resource development. But so far, it has spent Rs242 million – or 37.2 percent – of the total allocated amount.
The government makes tall claims for the welfare of farmers. Statistics speak for themselves. Out of a total allocation of Rs16 billion for the development of agriculture only Rs6.5 billion were utilised.
Source: thenews.com.pk/print/207913-A-question-of-priorities
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False Hopes
By Andre Vltchek
June 1, 2017
More films are coming – more and more… and more! Feel good; feel very good about the world! Drop a few tears as you are departing from the cinema. Utter under your breath: ‘Everything is possible’. Collaborate with the establishment. Forget about the revolution, think ‘positively’ (the way the system wants you to think) and above all, think about yourself!
A film about a real Ugandan chess player Phiona Mutesi , created by the Indian director Mira Nair, Queen of Katwe, is a tour-de-force of true individualism. And again, if you think you are actually watching a Ugandan or even Indian film, you are squarely wrong: it is supposed to feel like an African one, but it is a US movie, produced by Walt Disney Pictures. And it is actually intended and even proudly promoted as a ‘feel good movie’.
The plot is simple and predictable: a little girl grows up in total misery, in one of the toughest slums of Africa – Katwe, at the outskirts of Kampala. Her father has already died of AIDS, her mother is unable to pay the rent, and her older sister is barely surviving as a prostitute. Phiona, just 10-years old, is forced to drop from school.
Her life is approaching total collapse. But then, suddenly, a miracle! Hallelujah!
Phiona enrolls in a state-sponsored chess program. She is talented. She climbs and climbs, soon travelling to Sudan by a plane, and few months later, even to Russia.
It is supposed to be a ‘true story’. And yes, there was a poor girl, growing up in a Ugandan slum. She was talented although she never reached the zenith, and never won any gold medal. In the film, she wins tournaments, makes loads of cash, and buys a villa (looking like a palace), for her family.
Is this what young poor girls watching the film in the Katwe slum should be aiming at? Would such a dream be realistic, or is this an absolute mirage?
Who benefits from such films? Definitely not the poorest of the poor, and definitely not Indians or Africans!
It appears that the only beneficiaries are those people who are trying to uphold the status quo, in the West and in the colonies. They don’t want people to realize: that there is almost no hope left, and only some radical change, a revolution, can reverse and improve things in their plundered countries.
A revolution is a ‘communal’ event. It is never about one person suddenly advancing, or getting ‘rescued’ or ‘saved’. It is not about one person or one family ‘making it’. It is about an entire nation fighting for its rights, for progress, and it is about social justice for all.
Little ‘success stories’ actually divide communities, offering false hopes.
Phiona’s story coming from pro-Western, turbo-capitalist Uganda, has nothing in common with the great communal projects in Venezuelan slums: like the classical Youth Orchestras, or cable cars, childcare centres, public libraries, community learning centres, and free medical posts.
No matter how ‘lovely’ is Mira Nair’s cinematography, winning the lottery, or getting lucky here and there, is not going to change the entire country. That is exactly why those small individualist acts and triumphs are being celebrated and glorified in the centres of Western imperialism. There, no real change is ever welcomed, whether it takes place at home or in the colonies. On the other hand, all selfish little victories are treated as sacred. One should live for himself or herself, disregarding the context.
Source: thenews.com.pk/print/207914-False-hopes
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Resolving the DL Dispute
By M. Ziauddin
June 1, 2017
The first step towards ending for good the dispute over the Durand Line is not by sealing the border with Afghanistan or militarily defending the physical divide that Pakistan believes is the actual boundary line between the two countries.
These steps would only add to the bitterness of a people who naturally cannot bring themselves to accept a line that divides houses, families and tribes.
What is needed and urgently is to make the other side mentally accept the irrelevancy of DL and treat the dispute as nothing more than a difference of opinion needed to be resolved through dialogue rather than mutual acrimony.
How do we do it? Simple. By creating a social order across the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) that would set the region clearly apart from life on the other side. Extending the writ of state and by improving governance at the grassroots in frontier region.
Before continuing this line of argument it would not be out of place to recall here a couple of pertinent excerpts from an article (Life in FATA amid Ongoing Conflict) contributed by Abdul Basit (He holds an M. Phil degree in International Relations from Quaid-i-Azam University and specializes in terrorism- related issues with special focus on the on-going militancy in the tribal areas) inDynamics of Taliban Insurgency in FATA, a book published in 2013 by Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS):
“Initially, the militants had seemed keen to ensure speedy justice for the disillusioned masses of the tribal areas against the strong criminal and tribal elements. However, once people accepted them as their messiah and an anti-dote to a corrupt and defunct political system, the Taliban showed their true colors. They created a state within the state by setting up parallel administrative and judicial systems in the tribal areas. They exploited the fragile tribal structure, the existing social injustices and the vacuum left by dysfunctional state institutions to increase their influence in these areas.
“The socio-economic indicators suggest that FATA is Pakistan’s most impoverished and economically backward area. No major development work has taken place here since the country won independence from British rule over six decades ago. This has resulted in political alienation, economic deprivation and fueled deep resentment and grievances against the center. The absence of an inclusive and participatory system of governance at the grass roots, a bias in favor of traditional feudal system of economy and a social hierarchy have created conditions for the perpetuation of a cycle of underdevelopment which is conducive for growth of militancy and religious conservatism”
As could be gleaned from the above the main challenge is to restore effective governance in FATA.
But an attempt to take the initial constitutional step towards this goal by introducing the recommendations of the Sartaj Aziz Committee which had suggested merger of FATA with the Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa province but to be governed under a Riwaj Act was foiled by the Pakistan Muslim League (N) government at the last minute on the advice of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the Chief of his faction of Jamiatul Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) and Mahmood Khan Achakzai of Puktunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP).
These two leaders as well as the PMLN have very little political influence in the FATA region notwithstanding their Parliamentary strength. Therefore, it is almost impossible to fathom what the three parties wish to gain from postponing the reforms.
Some quarters believe that since the PMLN and the JUI leadership are opposed to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), KP’s ruling party, they fear that the merger would enhance manifold PTI’s political influence nation-wide if another four to five million people are added to the province. Besides, the Federal Government would have had to increase the share of the KP under the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award by at least three per cent if the merger had taken place before the budget which the PMLN was not prepared to countenance.
Another reason quoted by quarters close to the PMLN is that it wants to bargain a trade-off with the interested parties in Parliament in lieu of their support for creating a Hazara province carving out of KP. The PMLN has promised a Hazara province in its election manifesto but most other mainstream political parties are opposed to the division of KP.
Also, one of the members of the Sartaj Aziz Committee, Senator Lt. Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch, Minister of State and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) is quoted to have said that the Army is opposed to introducing the reforms at this juncture, therefore the postponement.
The postponement appears to be at least until after the next general elections. This is a long time for such an important reform to be introduced. And the delay in social transformation of the people of FATA and improvement in governance is likely to further deepen the bitterness of Afghanistan over the DL dispute.
If it is actually the Army that is in the way of urgent reforms then those responsible need to understand that it is on the strategic front itself that FATA’s inhuman set of laws has failed to deliver, as despite the existence of these harsh laws all these years, the area has remained a lawless, no-man’s land for criminals, and a safe sanctuary for the militants waging war against Pakistan. So it would only be strategically helpful if opposition to the reforms, no matter who is actually behind it, is given up forthwith.
Only a nation with a dead conscience could have lived with such an obnoxious law specifically meant for a group of its own citizens, without feeling guilty. We howl and bawl for the beleaguered Kashmiris under Indian occupation, for the Palestinians and for the Muslims of Myanmar. But for the agony and pain that we continue to cause to these four million Pakistanis –– whom we credit for winning us half of Kashmir way back in the early days of our independence – we show no feelings at all. Shame on us.
The FATA people in order to express their sentiments against the postponement of reforms are planning to stage a protest march from their homes all the way to Parliament. The FATA members in Parliament are also said to have decided to boycott the President’s traditional speech to the two houses at the start of the next parliamentary year. This would surely cause an international embarrassment to the ruling party already under domestic political pressure because of the continuing saga of the Panama scandal.
Source: pakobserver.net/resolving-dl-dispute/
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Afghan Reconciliation — New Dynamics
By Saman Zulfqar
June 1, 2017
THE Trump Administration seems to complete the review of US Afghan policy. Sustaining the current administrative set up of Afghanistan has been a priority for new US government and in this regard new US Administration has decided about providing $ 23 billion annually to Afghan government. Contrary to Obama Administration, the new US administration has ruled out the option of giving timelines for withdrawal of US-NATO troops from Afghanistan rather it emphasized the ‘policy of surge’ by sending more US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
The new policy also called for an intra-Afghan peace process but to bring Taliban to a compromising position, it suggested increasing attacks on militant hideouts. Though apparently during election campaign President Trump seemed to differ with policies of Obama Administration but its actual policy towards Afghanistan resembles to Obama’s policy of surge and talking and fighting with the Taliban at the same time. These policies of President Obama proved counter-productive and could not help in resolving Afghan conflict. This realization made Obama Administration to resort to facilitation of intra-Afghan reconciliation process that so for remains a stalled process. Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) could not yield any positive results and had remained a stalled process due to Taliban’s refusal to hold direct talks with Afghan government and due to US preconditions regarding Taliban’s acceptance of Afghan government and constitution.
In recent months, Moscow took the initiative to facilitate Afghan reconciliation process in Moscow. After three decades, Moscow has emerged as an active player in Afghan affairs by facilitating Afghan peace process. In this regard, the first trilateral meeting was convened in Moscow in December 2016 and was attended by China and Pakistan along with Russia. All three countries agreed on the significant point regarding lifting of United Nations Security Council sanctions on Taliban leaders to enable them to join the peace process. It is the first time when such demand has been made by two major regional powers.
As the next step, in February 2017, the Moscow process was expanded with invitation to become part of the process to three more states – Afghanistan, Iran and India. Afghanistan criticized Russia for not inviting it in the preceding conference held in December 2016 and neglecting it while making a demand about lifting of sanctions. The Afghan government considers it its own prerogative to decide the issue of sanctions on any Afghan factions. On the contrary, it called for imposition of sanctions against Taliban chief while other parliamentarians criticized the participation of three states in Moscow talks as interference in Afghan internal affairs.
The meeting to facilitate Afghan reconciliation process in Moscow could not produce desired results. Apart from Afghan representatives and Taliban, United States also stayed away from the peace conference held in Moscow on April 14, 2017. Though, US is apprehensive of Russian objectives in convening peace conference but categorically it has not opposed the process and seems to keep its options open by announcing that US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson would discuss the issue with his Russian counterpart during his visit to Russia in April 2017. Similarly, Afghan Taliban has not participated in the talks. The reconciliation process cannot succeed or reach to its logical conclusion unless the most relevant stakeholders — Afghan government and Afghan Taliban, two parties to Afghan conflict become part of the process.
The recent Russian interest in Afghan affairs is driven by the threat posed by the so-called Islamic State of Khurasan (ISK) in Afghanistan and the fears that it may have spill-over effects on neighbouring states. The threat of IS has prompted the regional countries especially Russia to step in to facilitate the Afghan conflict resolution process and the growing IS threat has encouraged Russia to reach out to Afghanistan’s neighbours — China and Pakistan to become part of the dialogue process. The rise of IS in Afghanistan has further complicated the already complex situation of Afghanistan and has been a cause of concern for all neighbouring States.
The reconciliation between Afghan government and Taliban is an imperative to collectively face the rising challenge of Islamic State in Afghanistan. The neighbouring states – Pakistan and China not just participated in Moscow process but have been part of QCG to bring warring parties of Afghanistan to negotiating table to end conflict in Afghanistan. Though QCG has been a stalled process yet US can try to revive it to gain geopolitical advantages and to reduce the viability of Russian initiative.
Source: pakobserver.net/afghan-reconciliation-new-dynamics/
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/pakistan-press/the-isis-nazi-new-age/d/111363