What the Gulf Crisis Means For Pakistan By Shahzaib Khan: New Age Islam's Selection, 01 July 2017
New
Age Islam Edit Bureau
01 July 2017
• What the Gulf Crisis Means For Pakistan
By Shahzaib Khan
• The Loss of Reason
By Kamila Hyat
• More, Not Less, Democracy
By Dr Ejaz Hussain
• The Muslim Ban
By Lauren Carasik
• Jumping Ship
By Irfan Husain
• ‘Dawn’ In the Shadow of La Giralda
By Abbas Nasir
• Pakistan’s Professor Mafia
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
• Vikings of Qilla Abdullah
By Mehboob Qadir
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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What the Gulf Crisis Means For Pakistan
By Shahzaib Khan
July 1, 2017
Having pulled off a diplomatic recovery, Pakistan is now being forced to navigate the increasingly troubled waters of the Gulf. The Gulf, Pakistan’s neighbour beyond the sea, is in crisis, perhaps the most serious one in recent history. It is Qatar versus the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). For reasons that are avidly debated, the Saudis along with the Emiratis and other regional countries have resorted to blockading the richest country on earth by sea, air and land. Rarely has such a blockade been seen in situations that do not qualify as hot conflicts.
The latest crisis stems from mounting tension between Qatar and the rest of the GCC and resulted in the blockade when Saudis along with the rest of the GCC and Egypt accused Qatar of financing terror outfits in the Middle East and meddling in the internal affairs of its neighbours. The accusations were met with counter-accusations and soon the crisis escalated into what is now being referred to as a “potentially years-long rift.” As expected, the crisis evoked responses across the international community with clear lines often being drawn and sides being taken by major influencers such as the US.
In this environment of searing tension and real time developments, Pakistan is also expected to take sides. Ties between the Gulf, including Qatar, and Pakistan are classified as “brotherly,” and are based on energy supplies, trade routes, billions of dollars’ worth of bilateral trade alongside a shared sense of history and vision. Pakistan therefore simply cannot afford to alienate any of its gulf allies. This is where, perhaps, one of the most successful aspects of Islamabad’s foreign policy comes into play. For most of its history now, Pakistan has adopted a policy of non-alignment in international conflicts involving predominantly Muslim states. It has never been so important that this policy prevails now, because the number of conflicts involving the Muslim states has never been so high and their intensity never so extreme.
With regional tensions and international agendas clashing, the Middle East has become a hotbed of conflicts, almost all of them involving two or more Muslim states. Pakistan’s manoeuvring of these clashes has been in line with its long held policy on the matter. Case in point: Syria. The Syrian conflict is host to an alarmingly high number of international stakeholders, which has not only contributed to the unprecedented internationalised mudding up of an internal conflict, but has also resulted in the development of previously non-existent tensions between international players that got dragged into Syria. And yet as most of the influential international community dived in, Pakistan wisely chose not to engage. The same thing happened in Yemen, where the conflict internationalised overnight, drawing most of the region into it and further entrenching long standing rivalries. Here too, Pakistan implemented its long standing policy of non-alignment.
But Pakistan’s handling of Yemen was starkly different than its handling of Syria. Even as Islamabad successfully rescinded itself from the Yemeni crisis, what was troubling was the increased difficulty of the said recension and thus the increased difficulty of staying non-aligned. Pakistan’s involvement in Yemen came to be debated, even in parliament, and scenarios were entertained which involved significant departures from the country’s policy of non-alignment. With Syria, Pakistan had easily looked the other way; when it came to Yemen, however, this proved much harder to do. Perhaps this was due to the proximity of the conflict. With Syria off in the distance Pakistan easily afforded looking the other way without compromising on long-standing and important alliances with particular Muslim states. But as the conflict moved close to home, the difficulty of maintaining a non-aligned stance was for all to see. Perhaps, if Pakistan had a different internal security and political situation, the nation would have been forced to intervene in one form or another. With rivalries moving eastward from Syria, the pressure on Pakistan to pick favourites was much greater.
And this is why the current Gulf crisis is so important and even more troubling, the tension has now reached Pakistan’s neighbourhood. While it is a much colder and inactive crisis than those in Syria and Yemen, the gravity of the Gulf crisis, especially for Pakistan, is immense. With not just past friendship but future cooperation at stake, the pressure that Islamabad will face from said allies is bound to be more tremendous.
Thus, therein lies the complexity of following non-alignment during the current crisis. The support of a previously non-aligned Pakistan will be invaluable to either of its allies involved in the conflict in winning the ongoing international narrative. The risks and rewards of participation will be massive for Pakistan, providing finally, perhaps, the nudge that was missing during Yemen. The question that is then being asked of Pakistan is, will it be able to stay non-aligned, especially when the crisis has hit the neighbourhood, and if so, how?
The answer is a sustained diplomatic effort instead of the diplomatic withdrawals we saw during Yemen and Syria. Now, however, in the wake of the Gulf crisis, for Pakistan’s well-advised policy of non-alignment to prevail, a monumental and, more importantly, proactive, diplomatic effort will be required from Islamabad.
Pakistan’s diplomatic corps will have to make a case for, not just its lack of desire to pick one side against the other, but also, and more importantly, its inability to intervene in light of a protracted conflict of its own. As one of the increasingly few parties that maintain alliances with both sides in the crisis, Islamabad has the perfect opportunity to not only navigate its way out of the crisis without taking sides, but to further strengthen its current alliances and its policy of non-alignment in such confrontations. Again, this can only be achieved through a sustained diplomatic push that legitimises Pakistan’s policy of non-alignment not as a bystander but as a mediator.
Source: tribune.com.pk/story/1447387/gulf-crisis-means-pakistan/
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The Loss of Reason
By Kamila Hyat
June 29, 2017
The horrific tragedy which marred Eid celebrations, at least for those directly affected, even if the rest went ahead with festivities – almost oblivious to the pain felt by the families of the at least 149 people who died near Ahmedpur East – was almost entirely manmade. Precisely for this reason, it could have been prevented.
Yes, we now have an enquiry ordered by the prime minister into the overturning of the oil tanker and the events which followed. But such inquiries have occurred before. So too have very similar tragedies, in Jhang, Karachi and other places.
There are several aspects to what took place. The first is why people, who if they had utilised their power of reasoning must have understood that approaching an oil tanker was dangerous and potentially foolhardy, chose to do so anyway. Was it desperation? Was it ignorance? Was it the mentality of the herd which leads so many of us to simply follow what is said or posted on social media or discussed in other places without so much as considering whether it can possibly be true.
This loss of reason, or the ability to think through matters, has serious implications. The people who collected spilled petrol lying ankle-deep close to the oil tanker were warned by police to stay away. They chose not to do so. But was real choice available to them? Was their need to get whatever they could drive them on despite the fear of death? Did they feel their deprivation was so acute that they needed whatever little they could gather in their plastic containers, tins, and even saucepans? The question should make us think about what factors dominate the lives of people and why they seem to function beyond the bounds of what would appear to be common sense.
Linked to this, there are of course other questions. There have been arguments put forward that as a people, we have simply developed blind opportunism or greed, gathering, snatching or collecting whatever we can regardless of any thoughts of morality, ethics or the good of others. This certainly is a point of view worth considering. But do people who live lives where even basic food is not guaranteed have the luxury of being able to keep in mind such thoughts? Perhaps the answer is no. The blindness with which people act is however often terrifying. Surely, even individuals with no education would have figured out that lighting up a cigarette near a huge amount of oil could create an inferno. Did they not stop to think or has human life become so valueless that others are unconcerned about it unless death in some way affects them directly?
Certainly, we have learnt to forget death quickly. On Eid day and the night before it as Eid greetings, electronic cards and messages flashed across cyberspace and hundreds thronged markets to buy all the accessories and goodies required to celebrate the occasion, few thought about the 55 or so persons killed in a terrorist attack in Parachinar two days before, or the others who died in Quetta and in Karachi. One impact of militancy has been to harden us to the loss of life. We take calamity as a part of life. It no longer shocks and it no longer moves us except perhaps for very limited periods of time.
There is good, too, in people. As has been consistently the case when other disasters occur, ordinary people – some at the time using the National Highway – attempted to offer what help they could, carrying screaming people with charred bodies to the nearest hospitals in an area where there are inadequate facilities to treat the critically injured or even those who suffer ordinary sicknesses. After major road accidents or disasters, young people line up to donate blood or give what they can. Their generosity and willingness to help is quite extraordinary. Many do so despite the hardship caused to them.
In the case of the oil tanker disaster, some delayed their return to their own homes for Eid in order to offer any assistance they were able to. But these acts of generosity, these acts of thoughtfulness, do not translate into a wider pattern. They occur only when tragedy has already taken place and there is immediate need. The same is true at the level of government. Investigating why this oil tanker was on the road, if it was in a fit condition, and how the catastrophe took place, seems now somewhat pointless. After all, many other such accidents have claimed lives before, followed by almost identical statements to the ones we here now.
The statements are simply intended to appease and gain political mileage for the particular persons in charge. The compensation handed out, even if it does reach the affected families, can do nothing to prevent further deaths or to reach the root cause for them. Poverty, ignorance, whatever realities in our society cause people to risk their lives in search for a little gain. Is it greed or is it necessity? Perhaps we cannot know for sure. But certainly, the presence of necessity and the temptation to gain whatever is possible from a state or from giant corporations which are seen as holding everything in their hands and giving nothing out to the people is very, very real. The impact of the constant feeling of inequity and unjust distribution on the lives of people needs to be analysed and assessed much better.
Then, of course, there is the other truth. One that has been pointed out over and over again, after every tragedy, every mishap. There are simply not enough hospitals to cater to the needs of people. This was clear in Parachinar where bodies once again lay strewn on the streets. Again, it was local people who attempted to move them to the nearest available place of medical care. There is simply no major facility to cater to the health needs of people south of Peshawar. There is only one hospital bed for every 2,179 people in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas; only one doctor for every 7,670 people. In Bahawalpur district, hospitals able to treat burn injuries of the kind seen Sunday are few. On the whole, there is less than one doctor for every 1,226 people.
In other words, even in ordinary times people do not receive what they need from the state. Perhaps this is why they are so willing to take what they can whenever the opportunity arises. Sanctimonious preachers have been appearing on television, calling the attempts to collect oil theft. But is it theft? That oil would have drained away into crevices and ditches and the earth, while perhaps of greater significance is the fact that it is the people who are being stolen from as a result of official policies. They rarely get the opportunity to steal, and perhaps they are simply attempting to seize back what they believe should belong to them.
There are many philosophical and ethical factors to consider. But these are of relatively low significance given the need to look at the ground realities. We need to keep at the first position in our minds the need to ensure human safety, to give people what they need and by doing so make them a little less vulnerable to calamity – in whatever form it comes.
Source: thenews.com.pk/print/213165-The-loss-of-reason
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More, Not Less, Democracy
By Dr Ejaz Hussain
July 1st , 2017
The masses, on average, are conceptually obscure on the origination, evolution, meaning and utility of democracy in the post-colonial states from Africa to Asia. There are multiple factors and forces at play behind such ambiguity. The authoritarian state structure, for instance, in the post-colonial state of Pakistan, dominated popular aspirations for freedom, justice and democracy and on the other hand, the collusion between state and clergy compounded the puzzle by presenting a singular nationalistic and ideological narrative through structured curriculum and controlled media.
Consequently, concepts of constitutional rule, equity, justice and democracy were branded as “corrupt” ideas of the Christian and colonialist west. In addition, the pan-Islamist (post-) colonial movements and their ideologues vowed to return to the “pure” and thus, decreed democracy, among others, to be un-Islamic. Unsurprisingly, the pro-religion political parties in Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt and, of course, Pakistan view democracy as un-Islamic and the electoral exercise, as a lesser evil, which they have accepted as means to gain power to establish Islamic state in its purest form and frame.
Interestingly, the religious political parties such as JUI-F remained unable to outdo its rival parties, i.e. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), at the national level throughout the country’s electoral history. Since such parties and forces found it hard to gain state power, they supported coups and martial laws. The military dictators, always in need of political and electoral legitimacy, embraced these elements who, in ideological unity with the regime runners, presented democracy in derogatory terms. Moreover, the dictator-cleric nexus demoted mainstream politicians and political parties for being corrupt and incompetent.
PML-N won the 2013 general election massively and formed government in the centre. However, the PML-N’s arch rival, Imran Khan and his party refused to accept the electoral results because PTI failed to win enough seats to form government on its own. It instead alleged the elections to have been rigged by Nawaz Sharif and his party. In order to pressure the Prime Minister to leave office, Khan staged a long sit-in in Islamabad in 2014. He along with a cleric, who heads a small pro-religion political party (PAT), urged the then army top brass to topple the government.
Since religious parties and forces found it hard to gain state power, they supported coups and martial laws
The vast majority of the pseudo TV-based political analysts, whose majority is pro-PTI and anti-democracy, made false arguments to discredit democracy and the civil government. The anti-democracy televangelists and the their social media cohorts, in summary, argued: 1) democracy is not the solution to problems Pakistan is mired in, 2) our democratic system is controlled by the corrupt, incompetent and cruel politicians such as Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari, 3) democracy is a western concept and thus unsuitable to Pakistani culture, 4) democracy is against the spirit of Islam, 5) Pakistan comes first and the constitution and democracy come later and 6) there is no harm in removing the government through unconstitutional means since corrupt and cruel politicians have ruined the country and make it vulnerable to (external) threats.
Since the majority of our populace prefers TV to newspapers and books, such attacks on constitutional rule, fundamental human rights and democracy do influence them, and indeed our youth seems to have accepted this otherwise unconstitutional and illogical rhetoric.
Pakistan came into being as a result of a democratic struggle pioneered by constitutionalist Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Indeed, the 1945-46 elections and subsequent referenda in various places mark the democratic and constitutional foundations of Pakistan. The 1956 and 1973 constitutions strengthened parliamentary form of government. It was the Ayub, Yahya and Zia dictatorship, the 1990s subjugation of democracy by the non-elective institutions and ultimately the Musharraf martial laws (1999 and 2007) that further de-shaped democracy in the country. Secondly, corruption is a relative term and to prove someone to be financially corrupt, one has to empirically prove so in a constitutionally constituted court of law, where law is applied fairly and squarely.
Thirdly, what we call Pakistan becomes Pakistan through the 1973 constitution. In the constitution, no person, group or any entity has the right to abrogate or suspend the constitution and remove/topple the government. Indeed, such an act amounts to “high treason” and this is why the “doctrine of necessity” was coined by the Dogar courts and the illegal and unconstitutional acts of martial law regimes were provided with “indemnity” by the controlled parliaments and compromised political parties, i.e. PML-Q and MMA.
An arbitrary rule of any kind is exploitation of human rights. It is also immoral to rule over a person or a nation without their willingness. Finally, democracy has been arbitrarily projected as un-Islamic by various Muslim monarchs, colonial-era Muslim liberationists and modern-day mullah, military and bureaucratic mindset.
But in fact the Qur’an says, “Their affairs [political order] are based on their mutual consultation” (42:38) and “there is no compulsion in faith” (2:256). Thus, in Islam, it is a big sin (Gunah-E-Kabira) to violate the will of the people, which is summarised in our constitution, by either toppling a government through unconstitutional means or imposing a system on them without their genuinely ensured consent.
Lastly, to survive as a viable state and society, the panacea for all post-colonial authoritarian states lies in more, not less, democracy – and Pakistan needs it in large quantity now than ever.
Source: dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/01-Jul-17/more-not-less-democracy
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The Muslim Ban
By Lauren Carasik
June 29, 2017
On Monday, the US Supreme Court partially revived President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban, agreeing to hear arguments in October and allowing the administration to suspend travel for some foreign nationals and refugees until it decides the case. Trump immediately took to Twitter to declare triumph, but many travellers he hoped to ban can still enter the US, claiming their own victory.
And the Court has not reached the merits of the case that pits executive power on issues of immigration and national security against prohibitions on religious discrimination. That, along with a host of other legal issues, are weighty determinations the Court may be eager to avoid.
Until the Court issues its final decision, the ban ‘may not be enforced against foreign nationals who have a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States’. That connection would allow those with familial ties and students and employees to enter. But for those who cannot satisfy the requisite connection, the Court held, “the balance tips in favor of the Government’s compelling need to provide for the Nation’s security”.
The stay, which is likely to take effect on June 29, elicited concern about how the standard would be interpreted and implemented, leaving some foreign nationals uncertain about whether their connections to the US would suffice.
Trump issued his first immigration order in January with little advance notice, barring travel from seven Muslim-majority countries - Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya - for 90 days, and suspending the refugee programme for 120 days, with an indefinite restriction on Syrian refugees. The initial order, implemented while some travellers were already en route, led to chaos at airports. Following protests and court challenges, the administration issued a second version of the order on March 6, which removed Iraq from the list, lifted the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees and exempted those with valid visas.
The revised order was crafted to deflect criticisms that its predecessor was motivated by bias, not national security concerns, by outlining its justification that the designated countries ‘present heightened threats’ because ‘each of these countries is a state sponsor of terrorism, has been significantly compromised by terrorist organizations, or contains active conflict zones’. Trump later disparaged the revised ban as a ‘watered down, politically correct version’.
Trump claimed the travel ban was a temporary pause necessary to allow his administration time to review its internal procedures and develop ‘extreme vetting’ protocols without the burden of processing ongoing travel applications. But Trump’s national security urgency is belied by his administration’s delays in developing the safeguards whose absence it claims imperils the country and justifies the ban.
The orders ignited a firestorm of outrage at the logic underpinning the ban. Critics swiftly pointed out that none of the perpetrators of terror in the US hailed from listed countries and that the ban failed to include countries from which they originated.
Source: thenews.com.pk/print/213170-The-Muslim-ban
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Jumping Ship
By Irfan Husain
July 1st, 2017
THOSE loud squeals you hear are the sound of rats deserting the sinking ship. And if it’s not going under immediately, the PPP is certainly leaking members at a rapid rate.
The latest deserter from PPP ranks is Babar Awan, and he joins a longish list of mid-level and senior members to have made a beeline for parties that appear to have better chances of winning in next year’s elections. By voting with their feet, they have made it clear that they think their old party will get hammered at the polls yet again.
Co-chairman of the party, Bilawal Zardari-Bhutto, says he doesn’t “give a fig” for the leaders who have recently switched sides to Imran Khan’s PTI. Bilawal declared that he only “cared for the jiyalas”, and with their support, would see the party back in power.
Dream on, Bilawal. Or rather, wake up and smell the coffee. The stark reality is that Pakistan’s political landscape has changed a lot since the PPP was the party of the young. That title has now gone to the PTI: after several stints in office at the centre and in Sindh, few people now believe the PPP has anything to offer, apart from enriching senior members.
The saga of switching parties at the drop of a hat has a long history.
As somebody who has supported the party for much of my adult life, it gives me no pleasure to write it off as a political force. But any illusions I might have had about the PPP have evaporated over the last decade of watching Asif Zardari at the helm first at the centre, and now in Sindh. Unfortunately, the prospect of young Bilawal being in charge at some point in the future does not fill me with optimism.
The saga of switching parties at the drop of a hat — or the whiff of power — has a long and discredited history in Pakistan. In fact, the practice has placed the humble lota — the familiar container used for ablutions — at the centre of our political discourse. Before a constitutional amendment forced turncoats to resign their parliamentary seats, members would routinely sell their votes and their loyalties.
Who can forget the 1989 no-confidence motion moved against the government when the ruling PPP allegedly flew its MNAs to Swat to prevent them from being bought by the opposition? Or, the PML sequestering its representatives in an Islamabad hotel where a citizen with a mordant sense of humour delivered a truckload of lotas.
But while we may rail at political opportunism, we need to recognise that some politicians leave a party because it has drifted away from its stated objectives. Of course, everybody jumping ship says this, just as Babar Awan stated he has joined the PTI because he “seeks justice”.
Over the years, few of these deserters have fared well. Partly, this is because they are understandably mistrusted by their new colleagues. And if they are denied tickets before an election, they move on, seeing no benefit in remaining loyal.
Thus, many of our politicians have switched parties multiple times, justifying each move as ideologically motivated. In reality, of course, it’s mostly down to thwarted ambitions. Generally speaking, it’s the party with the greatest prospect of getting into power that attracts the biggest number of lotas.
By this calculus, it’s Imran Khan’s PTI that appears to be the refuge of choice for deserters. Despite opinion polls indicating victory for the PML-N next year, it’s the PTI that seems to have the wind in its sail. With the Sharif family’s political fortunes hostage to the judiciary, many punters are placing their bets on Imran Khan.
But this influx of so-called ‘electables’ is upsetting many old members in PTI ranks. They fear these newcomers will gain favour with the Great Khan, displacing the old guard. Already, these tensions have produced open warfare within the party.
Unfortunately, most of our political parties — with the exception of the Jamaat-i-Islami — are one-man shows, or family affairs where leadership is hereditary. Thus, the PTI would splinter tomorrow without Imran Khan, just as the PML-N would without the Sharif brothers. And the PPP would virtually cease to exist without the Bhutto name.
Party leaders do not wish to elevate senior members for fear of a coup. Thus, when in exile they choose to micro-manage party affairs from afar rather than delegate authority to senior party figures. A prime example is Altaf Hussain who ran the feared MQM by telephone for decades from London until his downfall.
One reason leaders avoid genuine elections within their parties is that the results might go against their own preferences for the top slots. This insecurity and distrust of the judgment of party workers undermines any prospects of institutional foundations.
As long as politics is seen as a way of making money and protecting vested interests, lota culture will continue to thrive.
Source: dawn.com/news/1342491/jumping-ship
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‘Dawn’ In the Shadow Of La Giralda
By Abbas Nasir
July 1st, 2017
NO matter how far you happen to be from home, you are never too far, not at least in terms of reminders and stories from and of your beloved land.
And I am not talking about smartphones, news websites and social media that bring you the latest developments from home, whether it is politics, legal battles, bomb blasts or the havoc that rain can bring to the country’s largest metropolis in a matter of seconds.
I am talking about people. On a week’s break in Andalucía, we have already been to the mountain town of Cazorla in Jaen province, with its imposing fort and its ramparts standing guard over the town and with neat rows of olive trees running up and down mountains till the eye can see.
The monastery on one of the highest peaks is so far above the ground that you can barely make out its whitewashed shape; it is in Casoria that the over 650 kilometres river Guadalquivir begins its journey rather modestly as some mountain streams run down into the valley below.
An old friend visiting Spain recalled his family’s long association with this paper.
We also drove to the town of Linares and found the church where our daughters’ late grandfather was baptised more than 90 years ago. Funnily enough, the son of an anarchist and himself a committed Republican and an atheist, this was as close to religion our beloved Manolo may ever have come till his passing some six years back.
My own memories of him, since I first met him in 1993 in Madrid when I asked him for his daughter’s hand, were of a rebel and non-conformist to the core who had utter contempt for any form of exploitation — most abhorrent to him was the one in the name of faith.
He was a firm believer in human dignity and equality and a man who had to live through the nightmare of Franco’s dictatorship while being identified as the son of an anarchist, many of whose family members were communists (and incarcerated).
Our next stop was Cordova (Cordoba) and the inevitable tour of the Mezquita (mosque) dating back to the year 784. It became a cathedral after the expulsion of the Moors in the 1200s. Its columned prayer hall and Byzantine-period tiles present an amazing sight to this day.
The stay in a hotel converted from a huge mansion in the old town was an absolute delight as it had one of the most splendid, magical patios (even by Cordova standards, where proud home-owners leave their main doors open for all to marvel at their patios and the narrow lanes have one flower-bedecked balcony after another, vying with each other for the title of ‘most beautiful’ every step of the way.)
Having arrived in Seville (Sevilla to the locals), a quick check-in and depositing the car at the hotel car park, we were off for lunch near the La Giralda, one of the three minarets of its kind in the world with the other two predictably in Morocco belonging to the Almohad dynasty period.
Built in 1184-96, sadly the La Giralda remained a mosque minaret for a short period and a little over 50 years later was taken over by the Christians after the Reconquista. One of the references says that it was so venerated by the Moors that they wanted to destroy it rather than have it fall into Christian hands, but were dissuaded by Alfonso X who threatened to put all of them to the sword if any harm came to La Giralda. This was in 1248. In the next century, the tower survived an earthquake while suffering some damage and was converted to a cathedral in the early 1400s.
It was this last Thursday in the shadow of the La Giralda that we met an old family friend who went to school with my elder brother in the 1960s. Jamil Zubairi, who I grew up calling Jamil Bhai, considering him as close as my own brothers, is an international banker currently based in Dubai.
As we sat down to lunch off the square where La Giralda is, Jamil Bhai started telling my daughters about his father Hamid Zubairi, who was a senior journalist. He said during the Pakistan Movement he worked for a communist paper in Delhi while his wife was a school principal.
This was when Dawn was a weekly paper. Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah said something of importance to his followers and constituents but the press chose to ignore the statement. Hence, the need was felt to convert Dawn into a daily.
Jamil Bhai told us Liaquat Ali Khan called his father and invited him to join the Dawn team in Delhi. His father wanted to stay on but the violence of Partition (the vehicle which used to take him to the office and back was burned along with the driver in it) drove them to Karachi, where Hamid uncle joined Dawn on arrival and continued working till his retirement.
He told my daughters his whole family was pleased no end when I was named editor, Dawn, as their own association with the newspaper dated back to its initial days and they were so proud of how the paper became an independent voice in Pakistan, which was so badly needed.
As we finished lunch and the Zubairis hurried off to their hotel to collect their luggage and catch their train to Madrid from where they were headed back, I sat down in the square and asked myself whether speaking truth to power then invited such criticism and the wrath of different state institutions as it does today.
I have serious doubts that things were any better once, following the Quaid’s passing, all sorts of political shenanigans began, culminating in outright military rule in 1958 and then the promulgation of repressive press laws.
Maintaining freedom of expression has and will remain an uphill battle for the foreseeable future.
Source: dawn.com/news/1342484/dawn-in-the-shadow-of-la-giralda
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Pakistan’s Professor Mafia
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
July 1st, 2017
THESE days Pakistan’s professors are too busy to read books because they use their time publishing what are called ‘research’ papers and procuring PhD degrees for their students. For example, a world record of sorts was set last month by the Faculty of Management Sciences at the International Islamic University when five PhD degrees were awarded in quick succession in areas ranging from finance to psychology — all under the supervision of one person who had received a PhD from a local university (MAJU) five years ago.
Meanwhile, teaching standards continue to plummet. In the so-called hard sciences — math, physics, chemistry and engineering — this fact stares you in the face. Student performance indicators in these subjects tell of a train wreck. The best US science and engineering schools have graduate departments teeming with Chinese and Indian students but Pakistanis are a rarity. Most Pakistanis do poorly in the GRE tests required for admission.
Exceptionally talented students are, of course, smart enough to learn anything on their own anywhere. But the rest may equally well have stayed at home. Their professors have impressive degrees but poor subject knowledge and hence are poor teachers. That’s because the teachers who taught these teachers were also this way.
Our universities need to be reoriented towards teaching and moved away from so-called research.
This has a historical backdrop. Relative to India, for political and cultural reasons, the areas that currently constitute Pakistan were educationally backward. In 1947, Pakistan had only one university and just a few colleges. It lost its best faculty members, who were mostly Hindus, to the subsequent migration. Pakistan has no significant academic tradition to look back to.
Nevertheless, like other post-colonial states, Pakistan slowly cobbled together a modern university system. Although standards were generally low, there were occasional pockets of excellence. In 1973, when I joined Islamabad University (later renamed Quaid-i-Azam University) as a junior lecturer, some departments were comparable to those at a middle-level American university. Although few PhDs were awarded annually and research publications were rare, the graph pointed upwards.
A major setback happened in 2002 when, in a bid to boost research and production of PhD degrees, the Higher Education Commission hooked the promotion, pay, and perks of university teachers to the number of research papers they published. Teaching became irrelevant. Your salary was the same whether you taught brilliantly or badly, or how well you knew your subject.
Here’s how much productivity boomed: back in 1970-1980, along with 15-20 years of experience, one needed 12 papers to become a full professor. It was then considered a dauntingly high number. Many of my colleagues crossed the retirement age of 60 without being promoted. They were the decent, principled ones who read books.
But once people became aware of a huge pot of money out there, the old system and its ethics disappeared. No one raises an eyebrow today when a student at the same university publishes 10-15 papers or more during the course of his PhD studies. Academic crime was made highly lucrative by HEC’s new conditions.
Like drug gangs in Chicago, a medley of Cosa Nostra style families now controls much of Pakistani academia. Each mafia family boss is at least an associate professor, if not full professor. He has a defined territory, avoids fighting other bosses, and plays the patronage game expertly. Sometimes he has an underboss (chota) who supervises the factory labour, meaning PhD and MPhil students. The factory outputs fakeries that resemble actual research so disguised that you don’t get caught.
The impact on genuine academics — the ones who maintain professional standards and refuse to lie or cheat — has been devastating. In particular, many young ones lose heart when incompetent colleagues race ahead in promotions, receive wads of cash for publishing junk papers, rise to top administrative positions, and be nominated for national awards and prizes.
This scam is privately acknowledged by those connected to university education in Pakistan. I am told that HEC now regrets its 2002 policy but is paralysed by fear of the powerful Mafiosi that includes many university vice chancellors, deans, department heads, senior and junior professors, PhD students, members of HEC, academies of science, learned bodies, and winners of national awards. Some chair committees and make hiring-firing decisions, making sure that no one can rock the boat.
This crime syndicate cannot be dismantled by rewarding teaching competence instead of paper productivity. Judging even one individual’s teaching quality within a single department of a single university is difficult. Preferences based upon religion, sect, ethnicity, and friendships would make such selections meaningless and create new groupings. Similarly, determining who is fit to teach at the university level is controversial. Surely one size cannot fit all. From field to field, and place to place, the answers can be quite different.
But even if there is no perfect answer the bottom line is indisputable: a professor cannot teach what he doesn’t know and has no interest in. There has to be some system for weeding out those utterly unfit to teach.
Whereas ‘knowing’ is not easily defined in areas like anthropology or psychology, minimum (or base) competencies in the hard sciences are determinable. One could exploit the fact that there are plenty of excellent textbooks used internationally which have chapter-end problems and exercises with definite answers. Being able to correctly solve some reasonable fraction of these questions could be one criterion.
Still more robust possibilities can be explored. For example, HEC could insist that all applicants to a university teaching position pass the examination requirements of appropriate distance learning courses (MOOCS) such as those prepared by Coursera, Stanford or MIT. With biometric checking and proper exam proctoring, this may be a cheap, neutral, bias-free assessment of a candidate’s suitability. Local yardsticks must never be used.
It is time to reject the grotesque distortion of priorities and reorient Pakistan’s universities towards their major responsibility and purpose — teaching. Incentivising paper and PhD production has resulted in mega-corruption. HEC’s foolish policy must be reversed even though the professor mafia will bitterly oppose it. Else even duly certified degrees awarded by Pakistani universities will soon have the worth of an Axact degree.
Source: dawn.com/news/1342483/pakistans-professor-mafia
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Vikings of Qilla Abdullah
By Mehboob Qadir
July 1st , 2017
On 23rd June, a traffic sergeant on duty at an intersection in a posh locality in Quetta was run over by a speeding Land Cruiser in broad day light.
There could be one or three reasons for this wilful murder; the driver was either drunk or he could not care less who he hit, or his brakes might have failed.
The Land Cruiser belonged to Abdul Majeed Khan Achakzai, an MPA in the Baluchistan Assembly and a member of the Achakzai clan in Quetta.
For those who may not know how much power Achakzais wield in our merit and justice starved country and in that unfortunate province, here is a fact sheet.
Their head and literally a lord is MNA Mahmood Khan Achakzai who is known for his theatrical appearance and brazen political opportunism. He heads the Pakhtunkhwa Mili Awami Party (PKMAP).
This party is a lesser cousin of the ANP and came into being more due to a sense of abandonment by their parent party in Peshawar than for any real concern for Pashtuns in Balochistan.
There is another more powerful historic reason behind the rise of the Achakzais. After the fall of Abdalites in Kabul, the Achakzais had nowhere to turn to. After the creation of Pakistan, a political void in Balochistan revived their hopes for power.
This also explains why Achakzai’s power base is in Afghanistan where Afghanis use him for pressurising Pakistan and provide him support. There is plenty of open source material available showing his relationship with the enemies of Pakistan who hate Punjabis.
His main constituency and voters are Afghan refugees living illegally with counterfeit or fraudulently obtained Pakistani IDs in the border belt along the apron of Toba Kakar Mountains.
The sagacious Mehmood Khan Achakzai is a favourite and adefender of Nawaz Sharif . However, he only helps NS to gain political advantage.
Balochistan has always remained on the wrong side of history in geopolitical terms. But Shawl Valley has been a particularly disadvantaged territory because it was never part of a kingdom or a civilization.
This pariah status changed slightly during the mid 19th Century when the Russian and British Indian Empires came uncomfortably close to each other in Central Asia. As a measure of precaution, the British occupied the Shawl Valley militarily with the main garrison at Quetta and linked it to cities like Multan and Lahore.
Had the MPA run over somebody belonging to other powerful tribes such as the Jogezais, we would have witnessed a great scramble for a pardon, diyat or plain submission to the decision of the jirga
This placed a check on the eastward expansion of the Russian Empire but levelled the field for the infamous Great Game. Its manoeuvres gave Balochistan and the Achakzais a false sense of self worth.
The creation of Pakistan dealt a severe blow to the territory’s illusions of independence, which even if it was granted would have been unsustainable.
The Achakzais were like the Vikings under the Abdalite Amirs of Kabul but were never trusted companions or partners of the throne in Kabul. They made good use of their fortuitous location by extracting immense sums from invaders.
MPA Majeed Khan Achakzai’s disappointing reaction and response may have astonished many but not those who are familiar with their history and their bland opportunism.
He wilfully ran over the traffic sergeant and then promptly escaped. Thereafter, a sorry sequence of events followed which laid bare the deep rot in the governance in Balochistan and the degenerate make up of these Achakzais.
There is an ugly tribal side to this narrative. Had the MPA run over somebody belonging to other powerful tribes such as the Jogezais, we would have witnessed a great scramble for a pardon, diyat or plain submission to the decision of the jirga.
Majeed Achakzai denied that he was in the vehicle and the police hesitated in registering a case even against his driver. Meanwhile, the video of the entire crime became viral on TV channels and the social media.
A case was initially registered against ‘unknown individuals’. When the protests mounted, the Quetta police took the MPA under protective custody. Moreover, the reluctant court took two hearings to grant a remand to the MPA.
The MPA arrived at the court in full arrogance and clearly showed no remorse for his actions. He hurled abuses at the press which struck back by producing the CCTV footage of the MPA driving the car which killed the sergeant.
One recollects his stammer, evasiveness and regal lack of concern when he was asked in a TV interview with Kamran Khan who really killed the sergeant.
The Quetta police never handcuffed the brute and have even provided air-conditioning in his detention cell. Despite a suomoto notice by the Supreme Court, in the prevalent environment of undeserved privilege and power, there are slim chances that the bereaved family will receive full justice.
Source: dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/01-Jul-17/vikings-of-qilla-abdullah
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/pakistan-press/gulf-crisis-means-pakistan-shahzaib/d/111732