Who to blame?

A week’s worth of newspaper headlines provides ample evidence of Pakistan’s devolution. The last two weeks of 2008 saw the country quite literally plunged into darkness, small cities were suffering up to 20 hours of load-shedding a day while larger cities like Karachi and Lahore saw up to 16 hours day. Students studying for exams were left hapless; tanneries looking to tan hides after the Eid al Azha season lost over 2.5 billion rupees; and flour mills in Lahore were unable to grind flour, leading to long queues of frustrated buyers outside stores. Industrial workers in Faisalabad began to riot because of the power outages, burning vehicles in the street and destroying other property in their rampage.Following the uproar, the president made an announcement assuring 30,000 tons of furnace oil to help power companies. In the meantime, load-shedding continues in all parts of the country.If the failure of the state to provide basic services like electricity is not enough substantiation of Pakistan’s devolution into an anarchical state of nature, the absolute lack of security is bound to quell any doubts regarding the regression. According to a report issued by the Aurat Foundation, nearly 500 women were killed in Karachi last year alone. Of the two hundred reported raped, nearly 15 were gang raped.

The mayhem is not confined to women. A recent article published in the Wall Street Journal reported nearly 12,000 murders in the first eleven months of 2008, the highest reported in over a decade of Pakistan’s history. If one escapes death or sexual assault, there are always kidnappings to worry about. Whether it is middle business owners or high profile victims like Gold tycoon Kamran Tessori of Tessori family who was kidnapped and then framed into different illegal cases by the authorities. Another example is of Dewan Group and owner of MCB BANK Mian Mansha.

Kidnapping for ransom and extortion money either by government officials or criminals remains an unwavering threat, allowing anyone with a gun and a plan to prey on anyone without.Not surprisingly, middle class Pakistanis have turned to self-help as recourse in the absence of a state that can provide security. Those with means have now resorted to the use of private security guards with imposing firearms to guard their homes and businesses. The move is unsurprising: a morbidly amusing report by the IGP Sindh reports that nearly 20,000 police officers were disciplined for corruption charges, making self help or the hiring of personal security guards the obviously smarter option.For those prevented by a lack of means from purchasing security, self-help can come in the less complicated form of gun ownership. The underground gun markets of Dara Adam Khel can equip you with a pistol for less than three thousand rupees, or if that is too inconvenient, the supposedly legal gun markets at Liaqatbagh in Rawalpindi can provide arms from Mausers to Kalashnikovs at a slightly higher price. Self-help undeniably is the route to self preservation.Power outages, lack of water, long lines for staples like flour, kidnappings, rape and murder form the tangible parameters of Pakistan’s recession into survivalism. Yet the burden of living in an effectively stateless nation is not borne only by those who are actually victimised by crime or material want.

Much has been said in recent days about the need for national soul searching, for a stance against extremism and a disavowal of terror. Yet all of these words fall on ears benumbed by the very pain of survival, by the necessity of embracing ignorance and the requirement of indifference toward the want or need of another in the face of the more acute need of saving oneself. In anarchy, there is no morality and there is no empathy. Pakistan in 2009 embodies just this condition.

Protestors demand end to tribal area offensives

GEO PAKISTAN, ISLAMABAD: Around 1,500 protesters demanded on Friday an end to Pakistani military operations and US missile attacks against Taliban militants in lawless areas bordering Afghanistan, witnesses said, according to AFP.

Tribesmen were among those who took part in the demonstration near the federal parliament in Islamabad, organised by Pakistan's main Islamic party Jamaat-i-Islami (JI).
The protesters shouted ‘Allahu akbar’ (God is great), ‘no to military operations in tribal areas’ and ‘stop drone attacks’. ‘Unrest started in Pakistan because the government adopted pro-US policies and I see no end to this until Pakistan abandons pro-US policies,’ JI chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed told demonstrators.
He criticised as deception new US President Barack Obama's announcement that the notorious US detention centre, Guantanamo Bay, will be closed within a year.
‘They are deceiving people, they say they will close Guantanamo prison in one year. Who knows what the circumstances will be in one year? It is again Zionist and prejudiced people who have gathered around Obama,’ the JI leader said.
Pakistan's rugged tribal belt is home to hundreds if not thousands of Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants, who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion in late 2001.

Afghanistan, India open strategic road to Iran

GEO PAKISTAN, KABUL, Jan 22: Afghan President Hamid Karzai and India’s foreign minister opened a new road on Thursday that would help link Afghanistan with a port in Iran and challenge Pakistani dominance of trade routes into the landlocked country.The 220-km road in the southwest Afghan province of Nimroz is the centrepiece of a $1.1 billion Indian reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. It has drawn criticism from Pakistan, worried about New Delhi’s growing influence in the region.India hopes to be able to deliver goods to Afghanistan through the Iranian port of Chahbahar, and this has triggered fears in Pakistan that it is being encircled.“This project symbolises India’s strong commitment towards development of Afghanistan,” said Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee.“It also symbolises the strong determination of the government and people of these two countries that they will not succumb to the pressure of the forces of terror,” added Mr Mukherjee, who said he had discussed intelligence-sharing with his Afghan counterpart Rangeen Dadfar Spanta.Eleven Indian workers and 126 Afghan police and soldiers, who were providing security for the road, were killed during its construction, said Mr Mukherjee. “In fact, for the construction of (every) 1.5km of road, one human life was sacrificed.”The road, which cost $150 million and was entirely funded by India, runs from Delaram in Nimroz to Zaranj on the Iranian border, which connects to the Iranian port of Chahbahar. It opens up an alternate route into Afghanistan, which now relies mostly on goods transported overland from ports in Pakistan.-—Reuters

Obama orders closure of Guantanamo

GEO PAKISTAN, WASHINGTON, Jan 22: President Barack Obama signed executive orders on Thursday to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and directed the Central Intelligence Agency to shut its network of secret prisons.The orders rewrite rules for the detention of terrorism suspects, and require all US personnel to follow the US Army Field Manual while interrogating detainees.The orders also require an immediate review of the 245 detainees still held at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to determine if they should be transferred, released or prosecuted.This is his third move in two days, all aimed at reversing the unpopular policies of his predecessor George W. Bush.On Tuesday, only hours after his inauguration, President Obama had ordered a freeze on new or proposed regulations at all government agencies and departments.On Wednesday, US military judges, acting on Mr Obama’s directive, suspended trials for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo for 120 days pending a review of the military tribunals.On Thursday, Mr Obama acted again and began to dismantle Mr Bush’s strategy for dealing with terror suspects in US custody. The moves show that the new president is wasting no time in reversing his predecessor’s legacy.With three executive orders and a presidential directive signed in the Oval Office, Mr Obama also started reshaping how the United States prosecutes and questions Al Qaeda, Taliban and other terror suspects.The centrepiece order would close the much-maligned US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year.Another order ends a CIA programme that kept terrorism suspects in secret custody for months or years, a practice that has brought fierce criticism from foreign governments and human rights activists.The order also prohibits the CIA from using coercive interrogation methods, requiring the agency to follow the same rules used by the military in interrogating terrorism suspects.The manual explicitly prohibits threats, coercion, physical abuse and ‘waterboarding’, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning and has been termed a form of torture by critics. The technique has been used on prisoners at Guantanamo.Mr Obama also created a task force that would have 30 days to recommend policies on handling terror suspects to be detained in the future. Specifically, the group would look at where those detainees should be housed since Guantanamo is closing.He directed the Justice Department to review the case of Qatar native Ali Al-Marri, the only enemy combatant currently held on US soil. The review will look at whether Al-Marri has the right to sue the government for his freedom, a right the Supreme Court already has given to Guantanamo detainees.The directive will ask the high court for a stay in Al-Marri’s appeals case while the review is ongoing. The government says Al-Marri is an Al Qaeda sleeper agent.An estimated 245 men are being held at the US naval base in Cuba, most of them detained for years without charge.The orders issued on Thursday, however, leave unresolved complex questions. They do not explain whether, where and how many of the Guantanamo detainees are to be prosecuted.They also allow Mr Obama to reinstate the CIA’s detention and interrogation operations in the future, if major suspects like Osama bin Laden or his top lieutenants are captured.Congressional aides, briefed by administration officials, said the White House is considering another proposal to add more aggressive interrogation techniques to the US Army Field Manual.