Pakistan: Now or Never?
Perspectives on Pakistan
from India Insight:
Is Kashmir’s protest leader gaining popularity?
Separatist militancy has waned over the years in Kashmir, but now a radicalised young generation which has grown up in over two decades of violence and strife is driving the massive anti-India demonstrations across the disputed region.
Who is leading months of freedom demonstrations in Kashmir, a fresh unarmed uprising that is proving a huge political challenge for the Indian government?
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the 80-year-old hardline Kashmiri politician who is hated by India and backed by Pakistan, has emerged as the leading face of the present separatist campaign in the region.
Since the crisis started on June 11 when a 17-year-old student died after being hit by a tear gas shell during a protest, Geelani weekly issues a protest calendar that calls for protest marches, strikes and sit-ins.
More than 100 people have now been killed in more than 100 days of protests, the biggest since an armed revolt against New Delhi’s rule broke out in 1989.
The death toll so far includes children, women and teenagers, nearly all killed by police bullets.
Many Kashmiris are not happy with Geelani's protest plans because the continuing cycle of strikes and government curfews has shut down schools, colleges and offices, made food and medicine scarce and has brought untold misery to the people.
Rumours of “regime change” choke Pakistani airwaves
Few in Pakistan believe that the army is going to make a grab for power at this time, but it hasn’t stopped speculation over the fate of the civilian government, widely seen to have to failed to mount an effective response to the nation’s worst floods since its creation.
The powerful military which is fighting a full-blown insurgency by Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda has raised its standing in the eyes of Pakistanis by spearheading relief efforts. It is unlikely to exploit the vulnerability of the weak civilian government led by President Asif Ali Zardari to itself get bogged down in Pakistan’s enormous problems by staging a coup.
But rumours abound that the military, which ruled the country for better part of its 63 years as a nation, and has always exerted vital influence over state affairs such as security and foreign policy, is weighing its options to “save the nation” through an indirect intervention, the weekly Friday Times wrote in its latest edition.
Some conspiracy theories suggest the present government could be toppled by causing dissentions in the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and a new government made up of turncoats and smaller parties could be installed. Others say a new government comprising “technocrats” could be appointed by getting the present regime disqualified from the increasingly assertive Supreme Court on charges of ineptness and massive corruption.
Rumours of change in the government were set into motion last month after a coalition partner of Zardari and self-exiled head of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Altaf Hussain, called on “patriotic generals” to take revolutionary steps against corrupt politicians.
Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister and main opposition leader, strongly opposed Hussain’s suggestion but recently said a “change” could be brought out through constitutional means if the present government did not rectify its wrongdoings.
@KFisher
I like your wait and see for the next steps for good or worse. Here is one of the Nostradamus prophecy, which I find very appropriate too:
They shall be driven away without putting up a long fight.
They shall be harried more strongly through the countryside, Town and city shall put up stronger resistance.
Carcassone and Narbonne shall have their courage put to test.
Rex Minor
Pakistan, India and the value of democracy
Of the many comments I heard in Pakistan, one question particularly flummoxed me. Was democracy really the right system for South Asia? It came, unsurprisingly, from someone sympathetic to the military, and was couched in a comparison between Pakistan and India.
What had India achieved, he asked, with its long years of near-uninterrupted democracy, to reduce the gap between rich and poor? What of the Maoist rebellion eating away at its heartland? Its desperate poverty? The human rights abuses from Kashmir to Manipur, when Indian forces were called in to quell separatist revolts? Maybe, he said, democracy was just not suited to countries like India and Pakistan.
The question surprised me, in part because I had never really been forced before to defend democracy, possibly because in the West we take it so much for granted that we have forgotten why it matters. It also surprised me for the sheer conviction of the sentiment.
In Pakistan, this is not a mere academic debate. Just last week, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said there was no threat to democracy and the army had no intention of taking power. Yet the very fact he had to say so at all spoke of deep disquiet in the country over the civilian government’s handling of Pakistan’s floods, which with it has brought new mutterings of an eventual return to military rule.
“Why the prime minister needed to hammer this point home once again could be anybody’s guess,” the Daily Times said in an editorial. “The diminishing returns of a corrupt and incompetent democracy are leading to the inescapable suspicion that something is in the air, in the possible shape of an anti-democratic intervention.”
To be clear, there is no sign of an imminent military coup. The army neither wants to, nor needs to take power, since it already calls the shots on the issues that matter to it — foreign and security policy. But equally, the army’s lead role in flood relief has increased its clout and encouraged misgivings about the value of democracy which could act as a slow-burning fuse if the civilian government is not able to improve its performance. And according to some, it is a slow-burning fuse lit by the military itself — or by what Dawn columnist Cyril Almedia calls the 800-pound gorilla of Pakistani politics, the army.
Democracy must deliver or else, seems to be the refrain currently gripping Pakistan. So far, however, few have spelled out the value of democracy, nor for that matter said precisely what they mean by “or else”.
Democracy in India does not compare with that in the developed Western nations. It has its own unique flavor. I can compare the roads in India to those in the developed West. In Indian roads one sees pedestrians, bicycles, bullock carts, cows, old trucks, motor bikes, cars, beggars and everything is on a slow move with constant honks filling the background. In Western roads, one finds clean and spotless quality with honks seldom heard, modern vehicles going much faster. Both are transportation systems. But they appear vastly different.
What matters is the exercise. India has not achieved full maturity in democracy. It will probably take a couple of centuries to get to that level. But the exercise cannot be given up because it does not resemble that in developed nations which have dabbled with it for more than two hundred years.
For democracy to thrive, all one needs is wisdom. One does not have to be literate or elitist. The poor man in India has enough political wisdom to throw out candidates. Through a persistent exercise, Indian democracy has reached a somewhat elementary school level from kindergarten. Until about twenty years ago, one family and one political party dominated the Indian political scene. It was much like Pakistan being under military rule and a preference for it by Pakistanis for lack of alternatives.
I’d say that the Nehru dynasty simply mothered Indian democracy until it could crawl and move on its own. Now there are regional parties that have taken on the stage at the center and coalition governments have become the norm. In the 1970s, regional parties had no clout at the center. At the state level, dynastic politics still continues. But with more economic progress, this should change.
India has vast variation in terms of development on one side and utter backwardness on the other. The Maoist issue has arisen mostly due to political neglect and utter backwardness in those states. Like Arundhati Roy says, the barrel of the gun will not subdue it. But it is all part of the overall mosaic.
Democracy in India has gained some kind of momentum. No one can take away people’s right anymore. Many oppressed communities like Dalits and Muslims have realized the power of voter blocks. They vote en masse and politicians want their votes.
In Pakistan, cold war geo-politics wiped out the roots of democracy. The US always prefers dictators in other countries for quick returns. Its business like attitude has destroyed many small countries. Pakistan became a victim of American geo-politics. The US encouraged and supported Pakistani military generals, showered them with state of the art weapons, turned a blind eye to their regional ambitions and never helped democracy take root. A military that had become blood thirsty will never allow any other system to take its power away.
Pakistan has the same type of people as India does. If India managed to keep its democratic system alive all the way through, Pakistanis are fully capable of the same. It is just that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sixty years later, one cannot simply plug in democracy there and expect it to mature fast. The foundations for that have been destroyed. Though Pakistan sports a democratic government, it is its military that is the real power.
Corruption is a big menace in Indian politics. But we have not given up on our democracy. It definitely has become better compared to before. We’ll run along this road filled with bullock carts, cows, bicycles, pedestrians, beggars, luxury cars, auto rikshaws, buses and old trucks. We know there are many pot holes everywhere. But with time, things will improve.
A shoddy democracy is better than no democracy at all.
The skewed narrative on Pakistan flood aid: “help me or I’ll kill you”
One of the arguments that comes up frequently for helping the victims of Pakistan’s floods is that otherwise Islamist militants will exploit the disaster, and the threat of terrorism to the west will rise. It’s an argument that makes me wince every time I read it.
It implies that wanting to help people simply because they are suffering from hunger, homelessness and disease is a hopelessly outdated concept; that until these hungry, homeless and diseased people turn up at a bombing near you, then there is no reason to give them money. (For a great take on this, do read Manan Ahmed’s “I am a bhains” at Chapati Mystery).
Perhaps I am caricaturising a bit – many well-intentioned people who have urged the international community to give more aid to Pakistan’s 20 million flood victims have tried to give their appeals added urgency by lacing them with dark warnings of what might happen if they don’t.
But I’d like to ask readers here whether they think people are more likely to give money out of fear or out of kindness.
First some comments.
The Pakistan floods have been a slow-developing disaster, yet on a scale which defies comprehension, and as such have had relatively little television coverage, particularly in the United States. The aid given has lagged far behind money provided, for example, for the earthquake in Haiti.
You might argue, therefore, that ringing alarm bells about the threat from Islamist militants is necessary to get people to pay attention. But does aid-giving work that way?
“But I’d like to ask readers here whether they think people are more likely to give money out of fear or out of kindness.”
II think there is too much over complicated high falutin analysis going on over basic human responses. The question, unconsciously, does injustice to the victims. Fear has nothing to do with it as far as I am concerned.
If the response has been below expectations, I think it could be said that people have have not donated because they see no reason to help those who generally act against their interests. If the response is along expected lines, then it is because they have donated, not out of fear, but out of basic human decency and compassion.
Donating out of fear is a response to blackmail. That is surely not applicable in this context.
Giving a voice to Pakistan’s flood victims
If you were to give the flood victims in Pakistan a voice, they would tell you that they need seeds to replant the crops destroyed by the water and enough emergency relief to tide them through the winter. After that the land, newly fertilised by the floods, could yield bumper crops in the years ahead.
The children would tell you that the floods hit so powerfully that the memory of feeling in panic while loudspeakers broadcast warnings from the mosques will be forever etched on their minds. They don’t blame the government for a disaster so big that not even in the tales of their ancestors had they heard stories of such floods. They just want enough help to rebuild their homes so they don’t have to sleep in half-destroyed buildings with sunken floors, worrying about them collapsing on top of them in the night.
In the villages, people would tell you they don’t mind who helps them — whether the army, the government or Islamist charities — as long as they provide food and medicine for their families. They don’t care about politics, or Islamist militants, or the “right” interpretation of Islam. And again and again, they would stress that they don’t want to survive on handouts, but want to rebuild their lives.
It is ordinary, sensible stuff. Travelling in Pakistan, and particularly to flood-hit areas, you are left thinking that if only ordinary people had a bigger say in the running of the country, it might be a considerably better place.
Yet for all its latest experiment in democracy which began in 2008, Pakistan has yet to find a way of devolving power properly down to the people. Politics is dominated by feudal elites and family dynasties — from the Zardari-Bhutto family which runs the ruling Pakistan People’s Party to the Sharif brothers in the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).
The civilian government has been severely criticised over its slow response to the floods. Corruption is so endemic that even the government has been forced to admit that it might be better if international aid were channelled through other hands than its own.
It is hardly surprising then that given the devastation of the floods, people are looking for answers on the most efficient way to rebuild Pakistan.
It is good if dredging can be done in these rivers so that the bed is deep, excessive rains do not breach banks easily.
from India Insight:
India offers fresh peace talks to Kashmir
New Delhi has expressed its willingness to hold talks with "any group" from Kashmir where protests against Indian rule have mounted in recent weeks and government forces have killed at least 65 people, mostly stone-throwing protesters.
The civilian deaths have fuelled anger in the disputed Himalayan region where anti-India sentiments run deep though militant violence has gone down.
"We hope to restart the dialogue process. We will talk to any group, any political party which is willing to talk to us," Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.
According to Hindustan Times, the government will soon come out with specific meaures to address some issues which may bring relief to the people of Kashmir.
A nearly three-month-long separatist strike, curfew and security lockdown has kept the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley on the boil, shutting down much of the scenic region.
"Few days means few days...government hopes that it will be able to re-start the process of dialogue in the near future," Chidambaram said.
After several failed rounds of peace talks between moderate separatists and New Delhi in the past decade, locals say India is only buying time and is not serious about resolution of the dispute.
basic problem with Delhi is what to offer Kashmiris politically & whom to offer when it has failed to reach to the external dimension of problem Pakistan,with now China pin-pricking India (Indian PM statement TOI)Indian state think-tanks further confused regarding restoration of autonomy/self-rule to J&K????only time will tell……what Indian state’s next move is going to be……
Down the River: What Is To Be Done?
On Friday, Sept 3, a boy stands outside a house destroyed by flood waters that swept through Mehmood Kot a month ago. Residents of Mehmood Kot have been waiting a month for relief aid, which they say they have not received. (REUTERS/Chris Allbritton)
After three days traveling the flood path down the Indus River Valley, from Nowshera in the northwest down to Multan and to the confluence of the Indus and Pakistan’s other major rivers, it’s clear the devastation is as great as everyone feared.
A month ago, angry flood waters scoured clean the land in some places, leaving only muddy bumps and piles of rubbish where villages once stood. Stagnant waters still stand in the south, breeding mosquitoes, disease and preventing the planting of crops.
Some 17 million people were affected, 6 million made homeless and 10 million are in immediate need of humanitarian aid. More than 100,000 women are due to give birth in horrible, unsanitary conditions in the next 30 days. Tens of thousands of children are at risk of acute diarrhoea, cholera and malaria.
But today, a month later, the worst damage, I think, is the damage Pakistanis have done to one another.
In Peshawar, international aid is being stolen and sold in the street markets. Bandits from Dera Ghazi Khan, separated from Punjab by the mighty Indus, are raiding abandoned villages and stealing whatever they can carry, from jewellery to juicers. And in at least one case, villages and areas that weren’t at risk were flooded because rich landowners persuaded local authorities to divert flood waters away from a posh game preserve.
What is to done?
Show mercy to all living entities specially humans. Shakespeare said in his play merchant of Venice “The quality of mercy is not strained, it blesses one who gives and one who receives. In the name of Islam do no injustice. Take the name of God just as a baby cries for its mother. And continue doing all the necessary work to help the distressed and see how the lord reciprocates.
These are age old principles. As Gandhi said I have nothing new to teach the world Truth and non violence are as old as the hills.
Down the River: Memories and livelihoods gone forever
By Rebecca Conway
Along a sun-scorched Indus River, fishermen point to the low-lying sandbanks banked by a swollen, drifting current.
They tell of whole crops, houses, small villages even, submerged below a flood that came a month ago and has not left.
Deep below the water’s surface are livelihoods and homes, childhood memories and hard-fought agricultural plots, easily lost in what has been termed Pakistan’s worst natural disaster, in terms of the sheer scale and the numbers of Pakistanis affected.
The long-term effects of the flooding in southern Punjab are becoming starkly apparent.
As people start to rebuild their homes, their attentions are turning to how they will pay to replace what has gone forever.
Huge swathes of land will not yield a harvest this year – and planting for the next harvest may not happen either in the floodwaters do not dissipate.
The ancient wisdom of the vedas state that there are three kinds of miseries. Miseries that arise from the body and mind. Miseries that arise from other living entities and miseries that arise from natural disasters. As long as we continue to inflict unload miseries by slaughtering innocent animals in slaughter houses nature will continue to torment humans in the form of natural disasters.
Down the River: Behind the Images
For three days members of the Reuters Pakistan bureau are traveling down the Indus River valley surveying the extent of destruction from Pakistan’s worst ever natural disaster. Photographer Faisal Mehmood shares his thoughts:
When the water started coming, I started going out for two or three days at a time, and working. I saw people who had left their homes. Some families who had left one or two people behind to guard their houses and land; they said they were waiting for help from the government
Many people went to live with relatives or to the camps, and were living in tents.
I started shooting in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, in areas like Nowshera. People were complaining then about the aid – they were saying, “The government is getting money from around the world, but the money is going to the government and not to us”.
They were saying that after other disasters before, like the earthquake, they knew money was coming from around the world, but that the government didn’t give all of it to the people.
We’ve just spent a few days shooting in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa – mainly in Nowshera, and I’ve visited the camps where people who have lost their homes are now living.
People are suffering disease and they say they want help to rebuild their homes, and that the government should help them to leave the camps. People want to go home.
I have heard from people asking when they can leave – they say in some of the camps food has stopped being provided. Children are suffering with disease and with facilities in the camps.
People are uncertain– if they have food for one day they still want to get more because they don’t know what’s going to happen to them.
When I am working, personally I feel I should do something to help these people, but I have limited resources. When I see people, they think we can help but I can’t do anything for them. I concentrate on work and taking pictures, and on listening to what they are saying to me.
People are mainly complaining about the government. They have lost everything and they are asking for help.
I just go and try to make the best pictures. I feel that when I’m shooting I’m able to show what is happening.
Women and children most at risk from Pakistan floods
By Rebecca Conway
Women in flowing burkas carrying tiny children flood the entrance halls of the noisy, hot Pabi Satellite Hospital. Scores of children linger on steps and lean on railings, and crowds form around the doorways of doctors’ offices and wards. The hospital’s Diarrhea Treatment Centre, though, seems a world away from this – a quiet and spotlessly clean ward. The scent of disinfectant lingers – something not always true of small, rural Pakistani hospitals – and a compulsory anti-bacterial spray applied to the shoes of anyone entering the ward was a surprise. Here, doctors have been dealing with hundreds of cases of an illness that in Pakistan can mean death. Run by British non-governmental organisation Merlin and the World Health Organisation, the ward is an example of the drive by NGOs to reach out to flood victims with tangible efforts and high-quality care. Eleven days ago, the wards were four feet deep in mud, but a team of doctors and cleaners worked overnight to ensure the ward could open the next day to the victims of Pakistan’s flood disaster. The result has been a centre where, despite treating 1180 sufferers since it opened on August 21, has seen no fatalities. Dr. Asad Ullah says he has seen severe cases among the 120 – 130 patients that have come in every day. “The first two people we treated on that first morning shocked us because they were so malnourished and dehydrated,” he said. As he surveys the ward, the exhausted-looking doctor warns dehydration and diarrhea pose an extremely serious risk. “In Pakistan, diarrhea and dehydration are enough to kill you. And we’re not yet seeing a leveling-off of the numbers coming here for treatment.” Those that do though – and they are mostly women and children under the age of five – are led to one of the narrow beds that line the wards and hooked up to drips. Family members sit alongside patients, cooled by ceiling fans. Treatment here, Dr. Ullah says, will continue around the clock. Both the drive by the organizations that provide the medicines and materials to run the treatment centre and doctors dedicated to non-stop care seem single-mindedly fixed on helping as many flood victims as possible recover from what was Pakistan’s biggest killer among the under-fives before the flooding, and that is now spreading among people who have already lost so much.
The INGOs and especially the United Nations and its allied agencies have always stepped in to provide quality health care for suffering populations. The way it has been described in the article, it seems that everyone is doing a great job.
