Pakistan Press On Anti-Rape Ordinance, Shades Of Fascism And Global Order Under Biden: New Age Islam's Selection, 31 December 2020
By
New Age Islam Edit Desk
31 December 2020
• Anti-Rape Ordinance
By Alefia T. Hussain
• Shades of Fascism
By I.A. Rehman
• Impact of UK Deal with European Union and Pakistan
By Yasmeen Aftab Ali
• Remaking Of Amultilateral Global Order Under Biden?
By Syed Qamar Afzal Rizvi
• Criminal Behaviour Needs More Attention Than The
Crime
By Waiza Rafique
• Jinnah’s House Is Burning
By Engineer Khurram Dastgir-Khan
• Is Trump Deluded Or Determined?
By Harlan Ullman
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Anti-Rape
Ordinance
By
Alefia T. Hussain
31 Dec 2020
THE global
campaign, 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, from Nov 25 to Dec
10, is behind us. So, what did Pakistan gain from it this time? Easily the best
bit extracted is the anti-rape ordinance of four months, after which it awaits
parliamentary approval.
President
Arif Alvi promulgated the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Ordinance, 2020,
on Dec 15, 2020, which creates special courts and a national sex offender
registry with the help of Nadra, promises speedy justice, sets up a crisis cell
for medico-legal examination within six hours of the incident, and makes
disclosing the victim’s identity a punishable offence.
The law
introduces chemical castration as punishment for rapists — an immature response
to a grave offence such as rape. It misses the point that rape is not merely a
physical act and that it is triggered by many serious social and psychological
conditions. More stringent measures are required to deter sex crimes; it may
indeed be a step in the right direction, but why be inspired by such
punishment?
The
solution to sex offences lies in strengthening the system — more evidence-based
investigations, where the victim has easy access to competent prosecutors to
ensure a fair, speedy trial. But, in most rape cases in Pakistan, prosecutors
fail to prove the case in court for lack of police evidence. The police fail to
gather credible evidence because the medico-legal officers (MLOs) conducting
physical examinations do not back them competently. At the end of this vicious
circle, credible evidence is lost, which takes the conviction rate down to
three per cent across the country.
The MLOs
undergo short training during the third year of their degree course and provide
the first line of support to survivors. They conduct a physical examination of
the complainant, collect chemical and biological evidence, seal the evidence
for chemical/DNA testing, provide first aid, issue a medico-legal certificate,
and refer the case to the police for registration and testifying in court.
However,
studies conducted by legal experts and women’s rights activists have identified
many lacunae in the medico-legal practice at public-sector hospitals. Doctors
are disinterested in joining this specialised department; they are
insufficiently trained in forensics and pathology, and often absent in
hospitals at the THQ and RHC levels which limits access to their services in
rape cases.
Although
there are SOPs for the examination of rape victims, few are followed because
MLOs are not trained in collecting and preserving evidence, especially DNA, and
using equipment, such as rape kits.
Dr Arif
Rasheed Malik, who oversees surgeon medico-legal duties in Punjab, says that
although the Primary and Secondary Health Department prohibits ad hoc medical
persons from undertaking medico-legal work, there is rapid induction of regular
doctors in the teaching cadre as inexperienced post-graduate trainers.
Medico-legal work then is conducted by newly recruited medical persons through
the Punjab Public Service Commission after training for one to three months
only.
The
Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Ordinance, 2020, prohibits the two-finger
test for the purposes of the medico-legal examination of a survivor. It’s a
positive change. But implementation of the ban will require a corresponding
focus on the training and capacity building of MLOs. It will be interesting to
see how the new ordinance and its associated rules interact with the revised
guidelines for medico-legal examination issued by the Specialised Health Care
and Medical Education Department, which reportedly retains other invasive
processes.
Fatima
Yasmin Bokhari, who authored The Accountability for Rape — A Case Study of
Lodhran, points out that a hymen check at the provincial level will inevitably
give some probative value to the two-finger test, as the two are interlinked.
A pertinent
question is whether it is enough to make new laws. In Pakistan, laws don’t
always translate into practice.
In 2012,
the Supreme Court observed that “DNA test provides courts a mean of identifying
perpetrators with a high degree of confidence”. However, the court also held
that “consent of victim is necessary and she cannot be subjected to DNA or
other medical test forcibly for prosecution purposes because that would amount
to infringement of personal liberty of such persons”.
Bokhari
found that MLOs often do not collect and forward samples for DNA testing of
victims and DNA tests of the accused are also not consistently done. Greater
reliance is placed on the presence of semen on the victim as opposed to other
means through which DNA evidence may be collected.
We may have
improved our approach to victims of sexual violence but still must rethink our
attitudes and approach to a horrific crime, besides ensuring that the laws we
have are enforceable.
-----
Alefia
T. Hussain is a freelance journalist based in Lahore.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1598830/anti-rape-ordinance
-----
Shades
of Fascism
By
I.A. Rehman
31 Dec 2020
ONE of the
latest charges against Donald Trump is that as president of the United States
he has been inclined towards fascism. The evidence presented to justify this
qualification includes the outgoing US president’s attempts to undermine the
sanctity of the American electoral system, contempt for some movements such as
Black Lives Matter, and his decision to pardon some notorious criminals,
including the murderer of a nine-year-old child, and rumours about his desire
to grant pardon to himself as well. This shows that one doesn’t have to
formally proclaim adherence to fascism and unfurl a swastika banner or
something like that; the title could be acquired by simply behaving as a
fascist.
The
essential features of fascism as revealed in Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s
Germany were revanchism, that is, celebration of a glorious past (Aryan origins
in the case of Hitler’s Germany and ancient Roman glory in the case of
Mussolini’s Italy) after greatly magnifying it, denunciation of socialism or
projection of the self as genuine socialism blended with nationalism, promotion
of a cult figure to lead the community and the need for total obedience to him,
invention of enemy figures who had to be liquidated, and frenzied playing up of
a persecution theory. The most important objective, namely, creation of
barriers against a community’s progress towards democracy and an egalitarian
order, and preservation of an exploitative system inspired by a supposedly
benign capitalism, was rarely allowed to enter the public debate.
In countries
gaining nominal freedom from colonialism, techniques resembling fascism have
been adopted to suppress popular stirrings for democracy and social justice. In
South Africa, the entire edifice of the apartheid system was dressed up as a
holy crusade against communism. Similar justifications were employed to bring
many countries including Pakistan into military blocs to achieve purposes far
removed from their national interest. The techniques adopted to force the pill
of subjugation down the throats of unwilling peoples were often copied from
fascist textbooks. In quite a few countries, religion and traditional culture
have been used to establish and sustain regimes that fit the definition of
fascism except for the employment of a different nomenclature.
Twentieth-century
authors of fascist theories presented their prescriptions as effective
antidotes to spurious democracy just as the high priests of Hindutva claim that
they are fighting sham secularism and that the potion they are selling is
secularism in its purest form.
The Muslim
faith too has not escaped exploitation by more than one militant organisation
engaged in war to capture an existing state or to use the debris of a failed
state to establish a new state-like entity. Muslim states have made themselves
particularly vulnerable to fascistic influences by virtually discarding the
fourth source of Islamic law, namely ijma (consensus). The Hasba bill of the
theocratic government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (then NWFP) some years ago, which
was mercifully struck down by the Supreme Court, was an unfortunate and crude
attempt to enforce religious injunctions by state power, which is quite
contrary to the spirit of Islam as the latter firmly rejects compulsion in
matters of faith.
Indeed,
Muslim societies have a particular reason to guard against the use of religion
as a cover for making inhuman, cruel and degrading laws and regulations. If a
Muslim state commits the blunder of presenting an inhuman or degrading law on
the presumption that it is in accordance with religious injunctions, the common
citizens will place themselves under double jeopardy if they resist it. One
finds it difficult to imagine how Pakistan’s coming generations will be able to
defend inhuman and degrading punishments, such as chemical castration, that
have recently been introduced into the country’s Penal Code.
The
founders of fascist states in the last century did not put on democratic garbs
to sell their stock; they explicitly denounced advocates of democracy as
purveyors of extra-democratic formulas draped in democratic-sounding words, and
claimed to be offering genuine democracy.
Another
detestable feature of fascism is that it undermines the principle of equality
of human beings. It refuses to give equal citizenship to all classes of the
population and adopts all kinds of devices to put a variety of individuals and
groups outside the category of full citizens. As pointed out earlier, fascists
reserve heaviest penalties for groups and classes they identify as enemies of
the establishment and the theories on which it is based.
The
European fascists of the 20th century differed from one another in various
ways. While the German Nazis practised austerity, the Italian fascists indulged
in extravagance. The Nazis did not promote family members in politics but
Mussolini’s cabinet was dominated by his kith and kin. While the German Nazis
challenged big powers for a share in world leadership, the Italian fascists
targeted a poor and ill-equipped African state (Ethiopia) to prove its martial
strength. What was common to German Nazis and Italian fascists was their love
of spectacular, mass rallies, held at the slightest pretext, at which the
Fuhrer or Il Duce was hailed as the nation’s saviour and a symbol of its
collective wisdom and physical strength.
Fascists
have a tendency to swear by the law but how unjust their laws can be is
nobody’s business. In the first phase of their life, fascists depend on their
street gangs to hound and beat up their political rivals, but once in power
they use their secret service, such as the Gestapo of Nazi Germany, and
compliant courts to crush dissent. The fascists justify any excesses against
their people in the interest of the state. The advocates of national security
states are country cousins of fascist theoreticians.
In the
post-colonial world, many newly independent countries have followed the fascist
route. Even today, if you find a political leader swearing by an old model of
governance and rising as a cult figure you can safely conclude that he is not
far from embracing fascism.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1598833/shades-of-fascism
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Impact
of UK Deal with European Union and Pakistan
By
Yasmeen Aftab Ali
December
31, 2020
What
intrinsically this means for U.K is that their produce, may it be medicines,
cars, groceries and so on, will not face tariffs as they export them to
European Union. Boris Johnson, in his announcement of the deal says:
“It is the
first ever trade agreement based on zero tariffs and zero quotas that the EU
has ever agreed and its fantastic news for families and businesses in every
part of the UK. Businesses will be able to trade smoothly and people will
continue to buy goods from Europe tariff-free.”
So in a
nutshell; no quotas, no taxes on goods crossing borders [tariffs].
It may
create irritants at borders, for traders who are not used to checks of
documents, however, the opportunities this deal provides far supersedes these
irritants.
The deal is
the beginning. First, U.K will become an ‘outsider country’ to EU. The question
whether or not London will continue being the focus of European financial
transactions will hang in balance till they gain access to the Single Market.A
single market is basically allowing trade [like the European single market]
allowing free trade between member states.]
The
downside of such a single market as the European Union is that the sovereignty
of a nation may take a back seat and power to devise laws may be lost. There is
unrestricted labor movement, allowing greater access to cheaper labor leading
to loss of jobs. Some industries may suffer due to others and the decision is
of the common market-not one nation having the right to decide over its
industries, laws [EU Law, European Court of Justice] so on and so forth.
However,
U.K has its work cut out for them. They need to set it place bilateral agreements.
This will in all likelihood depend upon kind of services, products etc offered.
The exit allows U.K space to enter into deals with other countries at their own
terms.
Pakistan
High Commissioner Moazzam Ahmad Khan had shared with the business community
that Pakistan would continue to benefit from the UK’s trade preferences scheme
at par with the EU GSP Plus facility after Brexit, while speaking at a key-note address at a webinar on
“Post-Brexit UK’s GSP Scheme and Potential for Pak-UK Trade.”
Pakistan
needs to put some smart heads together to come up with a proper plan how to use
this wonderful opportunity for benefit of both countries. It must not be
allowed to slide by.
Pakistan
exports to United Kingdom was US$1.68 Billion during 2019, according to the
United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.
It states:
Pakistan exported Cotton for value of $41. 86M, articles of leather, animal
gut, harness, travel good for value of $41.12M, optical, photo, technical,
medical apparatus for value of $37. 06M, edible fruits, nuts, peel of citrus
fruit, melons for value of $22.75M and other ingredients. Our oranges and
mangoes are the best and can rival any other from the globe.
At this
point in time, owing to COVID 19, reduced production and related issues,
Pakistan should seize this opportunity with both hands. As it is, U.K is the
fifth largest market for Pakistan’s exports. Imports from U.K are much higher
though.U.K exports among other goods like machinery, chemicals, metals and
electronics to Pakistan. Essentially this means the goods imported and exported
between both nations are not in competition with each other and the trade is
therefore inter-industry. This gives both a better and a broader base to expand
upon.
The
relationship between U.K and Pakistan can be government to government as well
as organization to organization. Looking ahead, MrMobinRafiq, a U.K based
businessman created the CEC [Commonwealth Entrepreneurs Club (CEC). The purpose
of this platform is to encourage and facilitate trade between organizations of
different states. MrRafiq is co-founder and chairman of Global Trade
Partnership (GTP).
U.K has
entered into deals with India, Australia and New Zealand striking the new path
it has decided to follow. Pakistan must
offer benefits to U.K for FDI (foreign direct investment). Pakistan must also
increase awareness within its business communities that developed nations are
becoming extremely conscious of its labor laws. Therefore under paying labor
will not work. Sustaining a clean environment is another major concern.
Business ethics needs attention. Big time. They want transparency in the chain
from production to delivery.
The test
for Pakistan’s government will be to select the best not from the party, but
from the country to form a proper strategy that takes onboard interests of both
nations which will be a win-win situation for both!
To quote
Boris Johnson,” “The deal secures on our pledge to protect and boost our
economy and provides for continued market access across a broad scope of key
service sectors including professional and business services, supporting new
and continued investment between businesses.”
----
Yasmeen
Aftab Ali is a lawyer, academic and political analyst. She has authored a book
titled ‘A Comparative Analysis of Media & Media Laws in Pakistan.’
https://dailytimes.com.pk/707861/impact-of-uk-deal-with-european-union-and-pakistan/
-----
Remaking
Of Amultilateral Global Order under Biden?
By
Syed Qamar Afzal Rizvi
December
31, 2020
The
outgoing US president Donald Trump is going to leave a legacy of US’unilateral
approaches toward global affairs, thereby denting the rule of global law,
justice and human rights. US
President-Elect Joe Biden has vowed to restore America’s leadership role in the
world by weaving global partnership— pragmatic revivalism of the longstanding
international alliances. True, a proactive US role in the global affairs would
be positive in several sectors and certainly would be welcomed by other
international actors as multilateral diplomacy is a key to aprosperous and
peaceful co-existence.Though Biden’s resolve to revive the JCPOA with Iran and
the Paris Climate Accord are worth mentioning in this regard, a justice-based
approach toward the Kashmir and the Palestinian crisis should also be adopted
in the US foreign policy.
Since
January 2017, when Trump officially took office, the dents/ruptures in American
diplomatic engagement globally have been mounting. Among the components of the
UN system or related institutions stripped of US membership and financial
contributions are the Population Fund, the UN Human Rights Council(UNHCR),
Unesco, the Universal Postal Union(UPU), an open skies treaty, agreements on
climate change and an international deal for forestalling or limiting Iran’s
nuclear weapons ambitions and ability.Biden says his administration will
elevate diplomacy and lead by the power of example, rather than the example of
power. The incoming Biden-Harris
administration could undertake several, quick U.N. policy and funding steps
that will help the U.S. restore “good will with other leaders,” according to
Richard Gowan, U.N. director of the International Crisis Group.
The
President–elect Biden earlier announced that he plans to reverse the Trump
administration’s decision to withdraw from WHO, which would have taken effect
from July 2021, and to rejoin the Paris Agreement. Trump announced his decision
to exit WHO following allegations of its allegiance to China, and its poor
response to COVID-19. The U.S. also said that the Paris Agreement went against
its economic interests. The UNFPA, which the U.S. defunded shortly after Trump
took office, has been largely averting the funding losses that could have come
with splitting from its third-largest country donor.
Yet, two
important developments that are expected to be taken place under the Biden
administration are:Washington’s rejoining of the Paris Climate Accord and
reviving the JCPOA, the Iranian nuclear deal that was concluded during the
tenure of the Obama administration.Trump regularly denounced the JCPOA, more
commonly known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, as “one of the worst deals in history”
and pulled the US out of the accord on May 8, 2018. He penalized Iran via
reinstating sanctions against it Iran’s
nuclear deals-signed with China, France, Russia, the UK, Germany and Iran by
the Obama administration in 2015—had given a diplomatic passage to monitor
Iranian nuclear programmein return for economic relief.
The world
according to Joe Biden is a much more traditional take on America’s role and
interests, grounded in international institutions established after World War
II, and based on shared western democratic values. Joe Biden says he’s prepared
to rejoin another international accord abandoned by President Trump – the deal
that gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for scaling down its nuclear
programme.As for the Climate Change Accord, the U.S. is the world’s
second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. President-elect Joe Biden will
revive the Paris Climate Agreement via Washington’s poise entry into it. The Paris Climate Pact—was forged five years
ago among nearly 200 nations to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Consequent upon rejoining, the US would be expected to provide a climate target
that is updated from the Obama administration’s goal and a plan to reduce
domestic emissions from the power and energy sector.
Unfortunately, Trump’s single term cemented someunilateral
orientations within US foreign policy: (a) a pronounced preference for alternative
normative instruments in lieu of multilateral treaties requiring approval by
either or both houses of Congress; (b) a more hostile approach towards China;
(c) deep skepticism of the world trading system; (d) reliance on punishing bad
actors through trade sanctions; (e) circumspection towards UN system
organizations;(f)) avoidance of most international courts and tribunals; (g)
aversion to never-ending wars and resistance to humanitarian use of force (RIP
for R2P); and (i) ever more prompt and glaring commitments to Israel’s
security. And yet objectively and pragmatically, a Biden’s administration could
be expected to transform these trends, and adopts a more measured diplomatic
tone with respect to all of them, it is
likely that all these perceived factors will get resettled via US actions in
international law space since respect
for legitimacy and human rights are the hallmarks of democracy.
Understandably,
the global defense of human rights is only possible when the United States
joins with others to promote and protect them. Although US policymakers often
espouse human rights and humanitarian values, the United States has been
inconsistent in defending human rights abroad and has been complicit in or has
committed serious abuses in its foreign policies and engagement. Needless to
say, as for the Trump administration legacy in terms of international law, the
Trump presidency has had a consequential—and generally negative—impact on
international law and US compliance with it that will last for years to come.
Nonetheless,
Biden’s resolve to make a multilateral world order cannot be completed without
addressing the two biggest global conflicts—the issue of the Palestinian and
the Kashmir freedomPromotion of peace cannot be done without peaceful
settlement of international disputes. While President-elect Joe Biden, looks
set to take the official charge at the White House next month, there is a
rising optimism that he would pragmatically reverse his predecessor Donald
Trump’s approach towards the Mideast region, particularly in Palestine.
Pragmatically, Biden’s presidency offers the hope that the US will turn to
traditional diplomacy, where the embassies and official emissaries take center
stage, unlike the personalized or WhatsApp diplomacy driven by Trump. But this
also means the return of rivalries between US agencies over foreign policy
issues, particularly related to the Middle East.
In all
likelihood, it appears that anera ofpragmatic optimism-a reflection on benign
globalism- is returning under the Biden rule. The only way is to adopt a
people-centric approach and find ways to settle the Palestinian and the Kashmir
issues as these conflicts are at the heart of global and regional
instability.Some analysts, quoting both Biden and Harris, have argued that India
will come under increased pressure from the Biden administration on issues such
as secularism, human rights and Jammu & Kashmir. The fact that Biden had
fleetingly referred to each of these in another campaign document titled ‘Joe
Biden’s agenda for Muslim – American communities’ has been quoted as proof.
Official statements on the Biden–Harris Transition Website refer to both
Kashmir and the Citizenship Amendment Act protests. Both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been
strongly critical of the Modi government’s human rights record in India and
Kashmir.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/707860/remaking-of-amultilateral-global-order-under-biden/
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Criminal
Behaviour Needs More Attention than the Crime
By
Waiza Rafique
December
31, 2020
Pakistan
has deep-rooted systematic issues with respect to implementation of laws. The
issues are even crucial in the criminal administration of justice as this is
the area of law where justice and human rights are compromised the most. Crime
is a complex phenomenon that exists in multiple layers. Mitigating crime does
not simply require passing a new legislation or an amendment and distributing
it among law enforcement agencies of the country. Especially with the current
legislative approach in Pakistan that is reactive rather than proactive or
preventive in nature, it has become almost impossible to address criminal
behaviours effectively.Crime has social roots that need particular attention
and care. We need to undergo necessary intellectual exercise before formulating
strategies to nip a criminal behaviour in the bud rather than ‘reacting’ to ‘a
particular offence’ by taking punitive measures and passing a new legislation
that never serve any practical purposes.
Criminal
behaviour is a result of many factors including economic conditions, family
environment, educational opportunities, community life and psychological
tendencies. People commit crime not simply by choice, but due to several
deep-seated social problems that require careful attention. Consequently, in
order for governments and enforcement agencies to be able to permanently
address the perpetrator’s behaviour, due attention and consideration must be
paid to its underlying causes rather than the apparent offence. For instance,
to curb child pornography it is important to delve deep into the reasons of why
this offence is happening at all, why is this behaviour prevalent and what
factors are mainly contributing to children being vulnerable and mafias operating
in the manner they are operating. If
the requisite attention and consideration is provided under the system, this
might not only control crime as a social and legal problem but would also lead
to curing perpetrators as a long-term solution that might not even require
persistent ‘enforcement’ in the longer run. Thus, it is high time to shift the
focus from enforcement of laws to preventive approach aiming to target the real
causes of breach.
The
objective of government should be reformative, rather than passing new pieces
of legislations after an offence has been committed and then getting into a
perpetual and superficial race of trying to implement those laws without any
strong footings. It is evident that a purely enforcement-led approach may be a temporary
solution to tackle crime but not a long-lasting remedy as the enforcement or
policing strategies clash with inherent structural issues within the legal and
social framework of Pakistan. Long-lasting solutions to criminal behaviour
involve a complex interaction between social, economic and political realities
as well as policing priorities.
This could
be achieved by increasing opportunities for education, recreation and building
community cohesion. Such opportunities can be generated by looking at crime
from multiple approaches instead of a punitive approach towards offenders.With
a purely punitive and enforcement-based approach we tend to only increase the
criminal population and push wrongdoers to social marginalization or, according
to O’Malley, ‘social ostracisation’. On the contrary, if the same population,
if rehabilitated, can be utilised to productive social activity.
In addition
to a multi-disciplinary lens to study the concept of crime, another important
move to combat criminal behaviour could be devolving the responsibility of
crime control from state alone to various other agencies including private
sector organisations. This is also identified as ‘responsibilisation strategy’
by various criminal law experts and scholars. The responsibilisation strategy
could be used as a helpful tool to involve various state departments, actors
from private sector and private community to for crime management and crime
prevention.
The very
nature of crime is multi-layered and hence requires multi-dimensional and
multi-disciplinary approach to tackle it. There is a serious need to sensitise
legal as well as policing system of Pakistan in favour of preventive approach
rather than a punitive approach. Crime regulation involves a diverse range of
work that requires a comprehensive knowledge and skill set. Such comprehensive
knowledge and skillset cannot be attained by merely making new laws and seeking
their enforcement through punitive measures. Therefore, in addition to
enforcement procedures , multi-layered strategies involving responsibilisation
and processes of restorative justice can mutually form a better blend to
actually attain a declining graph of criminal activity.
The aim of
the whole process should not primarily be to just identify and punish the perpetrators
because this will keep on bringing more perpetrators to the system as long as
the root causes of the criminal offences are not addressed. The process should,
therefore, aim to reform and rehabilitate those who behave in criminal manner
and take into consideration a holistic picture of crime connecting it with
social, political and economic factors rather than mere enforcement of laws
that hardly seems to happen in any case.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/707859/criminal-behaviour-needs-more-attention-than-the-crime/
------
Jinnah’s
House Is Burning
By
Engineer Khurram Dastgir-Khan
December
31, 2020
Declan
Walsh’s ‘The Nine Lives of Pakistan’ augments a veritable genre – books on our
embattled homeland by anglophone Western journalists. A layered title, unique
biographical approach, and acute observation make this the most insightful
among recent works of reportage on the land of the pure.
Books of
reportage on Pakistan were few and far between before the 1990s. Pakistanis had
to content themselves either with reading history or huddling with a
medium-wave radio to hear the BBC’s legendary Mark Tully.
Emma Duncan
commenced a new genre with ‘Breaking the Curfew’ in 1989, followed in 1991 by
Christina Lamb’s ‘Waiting for Allah’. The return of the US and Western forces
to Afghanistan after 9/11 began another round of publication that has not
abated two decades later.
The works
of Mary-Ann Weaver, Owen Bennet-Jones, Pamela Constable, Nicholas Schmidle, Kim
Barker, Steve Inskeep, Carlotta Gall, Kathy Gannon, and Isambard Wilkinson
might not have caused much of a stir in Western capitals beyond
Pakistan-watchers, but each created a short-lived sensation among the
English-speaking elite in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad.
These books
not only explain contemporary Pakistan to the West, they also explain the
country to its elite – a cohort as distant from its poor, innumerable,
fissiparous, illiterate, and religious compatriots as the foreign correspondent
him/herself.
Declan
Walsh covered Pakistan for far longer (2004-13) than most foreign
correspondents. Reporting first for London’s ‘The Guardian’ and later for ‘The
New York Times’, he has distilled his nine Pakistani years into profiles of
nine Pakistanis. The profiles are rich in perception, history, and insight. Seven
of the nine subjects are dead; four from bullets or bombs.
Some might
call the book dated because its last events occurred seven years ago. Quite the
contrary. “The past is never dead”, Faulkner wrote, “It’s not even past.” As
the seeds of jihadism sowed by Gen Zia’s dictatorship in the 1980s and nurtured
by his successors bore gory fruit, Walsh has borne necessary and eloquent
witness to the most lethal cloudburst of terrorism in our history.
There are
lessons to learn from those blood-drenched years. We have not even begun. Most
Pakistanis, including the academia and the media, would rather forget the dark
years when each day brought on average a half dozen incidents of terrorism
across the land; electricity blackouts of eighteen hours; dozens of target killings
in the economic hub of Karachi; and rising double-digit inflation and a
stagnant economy.
We would
also rather disregard that the 2013-18 government – elected the day before
Walsh’s deportation – grappled with these deep crises and triumphed over them
all, despite being under siege for four out of its five years.
The author
has chosen wisely to illuminate those dark times through biography, though
there is much from those years that does not find space in the Walsh menagerie.
The nine personalities are mutually reinforcing allegories. Instead of
explaining extremism, ‘Pashtunwali’ and jihadis, Walsh profiles Abdul Rashid
Ghazi of Lal Masjid, retired ISI officer Sultan Amir Tarar aka Col Imam, and KP
MPA Anwar Marwat Khan. Karachi’s murderous troubles find human shape in the
(late) police officer Chaudhry Aslam Khan.
Balochistan’s
insurgency takes human form in Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti; our ever-fledgling civil
society is illustrated through the late Asma Jehangir and tycoon/governor
Salmaan Taseer; and the role of intelligence agencies comes to the fore through
a pseudonymous former Pakistani spy ‘Ashraf’, Col Imam, and Walsh’s narrative
of his own deportation. Pakistan’s larger tragedy – its unmooring from our
founding ideal of a constitutional, pluralist democracy – imbues the profile of
the nation’s founder, M A Jinnah.
Walsh gets
the big picture right, regarding the ‘glue’ that is said to be “holding the
place together” and at the same time seems to be “tearing it apart”. He also
rightly realizes who it is in the country that always wins in the end.
Despite his
long years in Pakistan, the author falls prey to the cliché of Pakistan being
“more concept than country…. strained under the centrifugal forces of history,
identity, and faith. Could it hold?” Every issue in Pakistan seems an
existential issue. It is not. The country has survived a traumatic break-up in
1971, decades of authoritarian rule, and the bloodiest onslaught of violent
extremism in world history. But it is here and – as Pakistanis have proven with
extraordinary resilience – here to stay.
A haunting
incident concludes the book. A month after Walsh’s deportation, militants
attacked the Quaid-e-Azam residency in Ziarat, killed a policeman, tore down
the national flag, and destroyed the historical building as well as all
mementoes inside the house where Jinnah spent his last days.
The
residency was rebuilt promptly, but the mementoes are lost forever. So are the
ideals that Jinnah enunciated in his August 11, 1947 speech to the Constituent
Assembly, address to Gazetted Officers at Chittagong, and to army officers at
Staff College Quetta.
Mere six
years after its latest retreat, autocracy began a renewed siege of democracy in
2014 and has not subsided since. The republic founded by Jinnah is still
burning, this time in the fire of hybrid tyranny. Declan Walsh’s work leads us
closer to identifying the arsonist. ‘The Nine Lives of Pakistan’ is the finest
general book on Pakistan published in 2020.
------
Engineer
Khurram Dastgir-Khan is a member of the National Assembly.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/766818-jinnah-s-house-is-burning
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Is Trump
Deluded Or Determined?
By
Harlan Ullman
December
31, 2020
Whether one
admires or abhors Donald Trump, about one observation all can agree. Trump is the most transparent president in
the nation’s history. Wielding Twitter
as a machine gun, the president unleashes torrents of 140 letter commentary
about everything and everyone. The last
outburst was over vetoing the Defence Authorization Bill and after various
threats signing the Covid Relief Act.
But despite
his displeasure over both in his tweets, is the president deluded as some argue
and a modern day mad King Lear? Or, is
he determined in his efforts to maintain power and mad only in the sense he is
furious with the results of the election and a party that no longer bows and
scrapes to his every whim perhaps looking to 2024 to redeem his failure to win
a second term? Unfortunately, the
transparency of his tweets do not provide an answer.
Applying
rationality to these questions is undermined by a president whose
decision-making process and attention span are measured in micro-seconds. One of the most frightening and perhaps
unintentional revelations of former national security adviser John Bolton’s
book ‘In the Room’ Where It Happened was the lack of an apparent presidential
decision-making process. Even the term
ad hoc may be too clinical as Bolton describes
few high-level meetings with the
president in which decisions were carefully weighed.
With that
caveat, what may be driving the president?
Clearly, he refuses to accept defeat and the loss of a second term, only
the third time since the end of World War II that a sitting elected president
was not re-elected (Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush being the other two as
Gerald Ford succeeded Richard Nixon after his resignation).
More
likely, Trump is manoeuvring for a 2024 re-run and putting a final measure of
discipline and control on the Republican Party in his remaining three weeks in
office. By vetoing the Defence Bill,
Trump forced Republicans to vote against him in the override thereby providing
future leverage to attack any dissenting members. By threatening to veto the Relief Act and
calling for a $2000 vice $600 payment, Trump was aided by House Democrats who
passed such a bill and put great pressure on Senate Republicans to support him.
No matter the outcome, the president will cynically claim achieving a political
victory and blaming others if the bill fails.
How this
will affect the Senate run-off in Georgia on January 5th, 2021 is unclear. If Senate Republicans have enough members to
override the veto, then perhaps candidates David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler can vote to sustain the president having
already having committed to support the $2000 add on. For the moment, Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell has not allowed this spending bill to reach the floor as stand alone
legislation because a substantial number of his caucus are in opposition to
increasing the debt. All this could
redound against Republicans in the Georgia senate race as Loeffler and Perdue
are caught in this presidential crossfire.
Trump is
also playing to his base. The Defense
Bill is loaded with items that can be attacked, rightly or wrongly, as pork and
waste representing the worst in the Washington Swamp Trump is still trying to
drain. By so forcefully advocating more
relief money for Americans, Trump rallies his populist audience. And make no mistake. All this
keeps the president as the center of attention crowding out the president-elect.
Thus,
rather than seen as acts of delusion, a case can be made that President Trump
has made a determined effort to keep the public eye, build on his popularity,
seize the high ground for 2024 and tighten his grip on the party. Critics will reject this conclusion as too
logical for an often irrational president.
However, what has propelled Trump to presidency, and made him so dangerous,
is the ability to exploit the moment whether through a premeditated assessment
of conditions or a primal instinct that worked.
As Bolton
underscored, this lack of or ad hoc decision-making process made Trump’s
foreign policies ultimately self-defeating certainly with North Korea. And even
though the former national security adviser still claims that leaving the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran and the Paris Climate Change
Accord along with demanding NATO members pay more for defense and imposing
sanctions on China were the right choices, all have damaged American national
security and relations with friends, allies and adversaries.
How does
this end? At this stage, no one knows.
The best bet is that even a year or two from now, not even Trump will
know.
-----
Dr
Harlan Ullman is UPI’s Arnaud deBorchgrave Distinguished Columnist. His next book due out in 2021 is The Fifth
Horseman and the New MAD: The Tragic History of How Massive Attacks of
Disruption Are Endangering, Infecting, Engulfing and Disuniting a 51% Nation.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/707858/is-trump-deluded-or-determined/
-----
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