The News on Sunday: What does the Pakistani community in the US worry most about?

Adil Najam: Pakistanis abroad have the same concerns as Pakistanis here. More than anything else, they worry about the state of things in Pakistan. Sure, they also have lots of immediate concerns especially when things like the Faisal Shehzad case happens, but most of all they worry about Pakistan and its future. Personally, I am most concerned about the blanket of discontent that we Pakistanis have imposed on ourselves. It feels like we have just ‘given up.’ Not only do people think that things are bad, it seems that they have convinced themselves that things can’t ever be better. This pessimism is very detrimental for our national psyche and it is pervasive amongst Pakistanis abroad as much as amongst Pakistanis in Pakistan.

TNS: How has the Pakistani community reacted to the election of Obama administration?

AN: Most of them supported Obama against Bush and most still like him. The big challenge for Pakistanis in America is not the US government, but US society. US society today has less and less trust for Pakistan and that shows up in their attitude towards Pakistanis. Today it is more difficult being a Pakistani in America than being a Muslim in America. Right after 9/11 my friends used to ask "how hard it is being a Muslim in the West," now they ask "how hard is it being a Pakistani abroad."

This is because Pakistan’s reputation and image has been taking a lot of hits. A lot of it may be because of media biases in the West, but ultimately Pakistan’s worst enemy is Pakistanis themselves. No one is more interested in lecturing you on all the things that are ‘wrong’ with Pakistan than Pakistanis themselves. This goes back to the sense of national negativity I was talking about. The media -- in the West as well as in Pakistan -- merely becomes a reflection and barometer of the negativity in the society.

TNS: Do you think the WikiLeaks has harmed the US or Pakistan?

AN: Not really. WikiLeaks has fed the news cycles greatly, but I have not seen anything yet that has been really surprising or earth shattering for either the US or Pakistan. At best, things we already knew have been reconfirmed. What WikiLeaks has changed is the nature of diplomacy.

Diplomats will now be much more careful, much more hesitant about what they say or write in their memos. Things they used to say quietly will now be said in whispers; things that used to be whispered will not be said at all. The implication is that even though the purpose of WikiLeaks was to give more transparency, the final result will be less transparency: because diplomats will become more careful, even paranoid, about what they put to paper.

TNS: In your opinion, can the US withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014?

AN: Wake me when that happens. Right now what we have is slogans meant for US domestic politics. What does ‘withdrawal’ really mean? What will it really look like? Too early to say anything on this, but I am not holding my breath. Right now these slogans have more to do with point-scoring in US domestic politics rather than real international relations.

TNS: Has the US role in Pakistan improved since Obama’s arrival?

AN: Unfortunately not. In some ways -- for example in the number of drone attacks -- it has progressively grown worse. What is truly sad is that the US has started giving up on Pakistan and Pakistan has started giving up on the US. Right now, the situation is similar to when a relationship is about to break and a divorce is about to happen; both the parties try hard to make mends, but nothing works. This is sad because both the countries need each other and could truly benefit from a strong relationship. No one in Pakistan really trusts the US just as no one in the US really trusts Pakistan.

TNS: If you could give one foreign policy advice to Pakistan, what would it be?

AN: I wish it was that simple. But two words would help: "self-confidence". In practice, this will mean at least three things. First, make our foreign policy multi-polar. Unfortunately, we have moved from an India-centric foreign policy to a US-centric foreign policy. Second, give foreign policy back to the Foreign Office. Because our foreign policy tends to be run by the military, it tends to focus only on defence and security. Those are, of course, very real concerns for Pakistan, but they are not our only concerns. Finally, also look at foreign policy from a human security and economic development lens. View foreign policy not only as an instrument to make our borders ‘secure’ but also as a means to make the lives and livelihoods of our people ‘secure.’

TNS: Coming to the environment, do you think capitalist economies allow environmentalism?

AN: Capitalism is not what we thought it was and environmentalism is not what we think it is. Especially after the recent financial crisis, it is clear that cowboy capitalism does not work. But that does not mean the system is about to die. Capitalism has changed, and so has environmentalism.

The challenge is to identify policies that can control the excesses and externalities of blind capitalism while using the power of markets and economic drivers to meet environmental (and developmental) goals. The two have to happen simultaneously. The issue is not if environmentalism can survive with capitalism but if environmentalism has learnt to live with development. We have to learn to look at the environment not just as a ‘cute and cuddly’ issue, but as an issue of water, of health, of food production, of disease prevention, and so on.

TNS: Has environmental policy in Pakistan improved?

AN: I started working on environment policy in Pakistan some 20 years ago. If I look back, I realise that we have not achieved as much as we had hoped to achieve but also that we have probably done more than we give ourselves credit for. The National Conservation Strategy (NCS) was a landmark. So were the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS). Environmental education has increased. So has environmental awareness. The media writes about these issues. Conferences, seminars and meetings are being held nearly every week.

TNS: Was there a connection between the recent Pakistani floods and climate change?

AN: One cannot conclude that the climate was solely responsible, but the possibility that climate change might have been one of the many factors that created the conditions leading to the scale of these floods cannot be ruled out. I am not trying to hedge. The fact is that science is not willing to give us the simple black and white answers that journalists demand. What we do know is that climate change adds layers of variation and variability to weather systems and extreme events -- including floods -- are likely to become more frequent as well as more intense. Smart societies are beginning to prepare for those possibilities.

TNS: What suggestions do you have for Pakistan to battle climate change?

AN: Best policies for Pakistan to combat climate change are the exact same policies needed for Pakistan’s development. For countries like Pakistan, development -- not just economic growth -- is the best defence against climate change because it increases the resilience of the poor to deal with the impacts of climate change. This means we should focus on issues like energy, water, health etc. in the context of climate change.

When I speak of development I am looking at social equity, distribution and access to wealth and poverty. All over the world, and especially in Pakistan, climate change will hit the poor first, will hit the poor hardest and will hit the poor most disproportionately. It is the poor that we need to focus our attention on.

TNS: If you could attribute your success to one thing, what would it be?

AN: The education that I got in Pakistan. I do not mean to sound cheesy, but that is the truth. I had great teachers and got a great education in Pakistan. I studied in government schools all over the country, then at the Islamabad College for Boys (ICB) and then at the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore. I got an education that has served me well in the best institutions in the world.

As with everything else, we need to start by recognising and celebrating that which works -- especially our teachers -- and then build upon that.

The recent arrest of the Jundallah chief Abdulrauf Rigi by the Pakistani security forces, hardly six months after the June 2010 execution of its founding ameer Abdulmalak Rigi by Tehran, has come as yet another major setback to the insurgent Sunni sectarian-cum-militant group which claims to be fighting for the rights of Iran’s Sunni Muslims and operates not only in the Sistan-Balochistan province of Iran but also has presence in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

Jundallah or the Army of God, which has already been renamed as People’s Resistant Movement of Iran (PRMI), was founded in 2003 and is known for carrying out terror attacks against high profile Iranian targets, especially the government and the security officials, in a bid to pressure Tehran for the secession of Sistan-Balochistan province of Iran from the countries it is actually divided among (Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan) and to create their own unified country.

The Sunni majority of Sistan-Balochistan maintained the unity of its lands for centuries, until it was divided between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan after the British invasion. This led to the establishment of Iranian, Pakistani and Afghan Balochistans. Nevertheless, the Baloch in the three areas maintained their allegiance to their ethnic identity as well as their language, culture and Sunni/Salafi version of Islam.

While narrating Jundallah’s agenda in an October 2008 interview with Al-Arabiya television, Abdulmalak Rigi had stated that the Iranian Baloch were not interested in independence from Iran, but only seek to achieve a better life for the Baloch minority, within a state that respects their human rights, culture, and faith. "We are ready to lay down arms and enter the Iranian politics, but only if we are allowed to practice our rights in full. The only thing we want from the Iranian government is to be citizens. We want to have the same rights as the Iranian Shia people. That’s it".

He described his group as an Islamic awakening movement but denied any ties with al-Qaeda or the Taliban. He also told the interviewer that despite the fact that many of his aides have been martyred ... he was prepared to reach an understanding with the Iranian government.

However, Abdulmalak Rigi was arrested in February 2010 while he was spotted on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan. Iranian warplanes subsequently forced the commercial aircraft to land in Iran. "Get Rigi" operation could not have been possible without help of the Pakistani security agencies which had passed on some vital information to Iranians about his travel plans as soon as he had left a US military base in Afghanistan after holding a secret meeting with the Nato military chief there.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi subsequently described Rigi’s capture as a great defeat for the United States, while showing pictures of Rigi taken inside an American military base in Afghanistan.

Abdulmalak was succeeded by his younger brother Abdulrauf as Jundallah chief in June 2010 after he was sent to the gallows by the Iranian authorities on terrorism charges following a brief trial. But the Pakistani authorities arrested him barely six month later [on December 22, 2010] after tracking him down through his wireless set while he was making a phone call from his Pak-Iran border area hideout in Balochistan. The Pakistani agencies were making frantic efforts to track him down following the December 15, 2010 killing of 40 people in a suicide bombing in the Iranian city of Chabahar. His arrest came the day the Pakistani and the Iranian presidents were in Istanbul to attend the Economic Cooperation Organisation’s summit.

Rigi is expected to be handed over to Iran shortly after being interrogated by the Pakistani security and intelligence agencies for his group’s alleged links with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

Besides the Iran-based group of the same name, another Jundallah operates in Pakistan which is believed to have close ties to the Iranian outfit. Initially patronised by Commander Nek Mohammad, the late commander of the local Taliban in South Waziristan, the Pakistan chapter of Jundallah usually draws its cadre from anti-Shia jehadi and sectarian groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

Lt Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat, the former Corps Commander of Karachi, was one of those high profile personalities to have been targeted by the Pakistan chapter of Jundallah on June 10, 2004, killing 11 people including seven army personnel when his convoy was ambushed near the Clifton Bridge in Karachi.

Interestingly, however, there are those in the establishment circles who insist that Jundallah was actually created by the master planner of 9/11 terror attacks, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad. He was arrested in March 2003 from the garrison town of Rawalpindi and handed over to the Americans, following which Jundallah went wild and carried out several terrorist activities.

After the Karachi attempt on the corps commander, the police were able to apprehend a group of Jundallah terrorists headed by an Arab, Musab Aruchi, who eventually turned out to be a nephew of Khalid Sheikh with a million dollars on his head. One of the Pakistani’s Jundallah’s most wanted operative in Karachi is Qasim Toori.

It’s customary to greet every new year as ‘happy’ and so we did with 2011. For a vast majority of Pakistanis though, my poor self included, the only happiness we were to get this year is already gotten: in the form of text messages and emails. The inbox is the only abode left for outlandish concepts like hope, health and happiness.

From this second day of the year onwards, there’s only going to be more of what tormented us in the year gone by, just like last year was worse than the one before… all the way back to 1948. Ours is a steady progression -- from bad to ugly to rotten -- and we are marching on, celebrating each turn of the year not for the one to come but for the one ending. ‘Here’s to 2010, the worst year of our lives, but better than all the years to come. Cheers.’

If there is one thing we Pakistanis can be sure of, it’s that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

And there’s plenty that can go wrong in this land of wonders. Out of the mysterious blue we suddenly find out that our gas reserves that were to last for ever have depleted, water sources have all but dried up, and oh yes, we forgot to make enough electricity for all our needs. Of course there is tonnes of coal buried under Thar desert, but we don’t know how to transform it into energy. So here is what we do: we raise the electricity tariff and then stop supplying electricity to the bill-paying public. Bingo. In one intelligent move, the state makes billions of rupees selling a non-existent service, and at the same time there is enough electricity saved up to service a few thousand non bill-paying households, offices and industrial units.

In three years we have seen the electricity bill double while not having electricity for most part of the day, and night. The next round of long power outages is already upon us and the next tariff raise is round the corner.

Oil prices in the international market hit rock bottom exactly two years ago. But Pakistanis never found out about the price crash and continued to pay not only a much higher price at retail outlets, they were also dishing out a fuel surcharge on air travel levied God knows when to offset higher fuel price. We are still paying that darn surcharge, and meanwhile every little increase in oil prices is promptly passed down to us. There is another increase on the cards. Stay tuned.

We are an agricultural society. And a damn good one at that. But when we have a bumper crop, we invariably run short of that particular commodity. It has happened with sugar, it is happening with cooking oil and it is soon to happen with wheat. Go figures.

We are also a terror-prone society. When it’s not the state terrorising the population, it’s the so called non-state actors doing the job. Going by the nonsense uttered by the civilian security establishment and too much sense pumped out by the military establishment, no one really knows who is killing us and why. We, the ordinary citizens, have come to believe it’s a plot to die for. There has been a lull in the past few months, but if it’s a toss up between the performance of our security agencies and that of terrorists, I bet it’s the latter taking it easy. A thaw in the cold snap may be all the half wit, would-be suicide bombers are waiting for.

And then there’s the Zardari factor. It’s really unfair to call the man corrupt. It’s not his fault if he is a magnet for money. Anything he says or does, translates into X amount of money deposited in an offshore bank account. The man has more money than his able offspring will ever figure out a way to spend in their lifetime. He obviously doesn’t need any more. It’s the money that keeps following him.

And those who want to wish him away this year will do better to remember what happened when we got rid of the pathetic soldier president, Musharraf. Yes, we got Zardari. And what if Zardari is succeeded by Fazlur Rehman, hain ji?

And if you are still looking for hope in this most hopeless of scenarios, my dear countrymen, I give you this brand new column in a brand new year.

Has the female suicide bomber finally arrived in Pakistan? The answer is yes if one were to believe the civil and military officials in Bajaur Agency where a bombing on December 25 in its main town, Khar, killed 47 people and caused injuries to many more.

Unidentified security officials in Bajaur have already confirmed that the deadly attack close to the World Food Programme (WFP) distribution centre was carried out by a woman. They said investigators had collected legs of a woman from the site of the attack along with a ladies’ purse.

Bajaur Agency’s political agent Zakir Hussain Afridi went a step further and said hair, hand and feet painted with henna had been found at the site of the bombing and it left no doubt that the bomber was a woman. He said investigations were now being conducted to find out the tribe and area to which the woman belonged.

His deputy and the assistant political agent, Mohammad Jamil, also said that the suicide bomber was a woman.

Personnel of the Bajaur Levies, the government’s law-enforcement force drawn from tribesmen in Bajaur Agency, said they had noticed the movements of the woman but thought she might be a schoolteacher. The bomber, it may be added, had struck near a Bajaur Levies checkpoint located outside the WFP food distribution centre.

The government officials in Bajaur also claimed that the woman came from Swat and had stayed for two nights somewhere near Khar. This was, however, a bit unusual as a Swati woman would have preferred attacking a target in her native Swat instead of coming all the way to an unfamiliar place like Bajaur for her suicide mission.

Apart from the eyewitness accounts and bits of evidence that prompted the civil and security officials to claim that the bomber was a woman, one more reason in support of their contention could be the recent disclosure in a videotape by the Swat Taliban Chief Maulana Fazlullah that his group was training 300 suicide bombers including women to attack the security forces, government installations and political opponents.

Fazlullah, who is in hiding apparently in a tribal area, had a large number of female listeners when he used to impart religious education and discuss social issues on his FM radio channel in Swat prior to the military operation against his group.

There is some circumstantial evidence that the suicide bomber could be a woman. Some of the wounded men, including the Bajaur Levies soldiers, have been quoted as saying that a woman wearing the all-enveloping burqa first hurled three hand-grenades and then blew herself up near the crowd of displaced people waiting to be frisked at the security checkpost before entering the WFP distribution centre. There was a media report about an injured man claiming to have heard her female voice and even her last words, "Ya Allah khair," (Oh Allah, be merciful). However, the eyewitness accounts are sketchy and vague as most have conceded that all they heard was a deafening blast.

Militants on a number of occasions have been captured wearing the women’s veil, invariably the shuttlecock burqa. There have also been reports and claims that a man wearing a burqa carried out suicide bombing. Many people would, therefore, argue that the Bajaur suicide bomber too could be a man wearing the burqa to gain access to a heavily-guarded place.

The place where the suicide bombing took place in Bajaur was certainly the most tightly guarded. Khar, a Pashto word which simply means a city, is the headquarters of Bajaur with maximum security. The WFP distribution centre is outside the Civil Colony, a fortress-like place where the offices of the political administration, government’s line departments and the military are located. For a suicide bomber to reach there was certainly a security lapse. But a bomber wearing a burqa could have easily breached security by mingling with the reported 300 or so tribespeople crowding the place to receive their weekly food rations.

It was Saturday, the day reserved for the people of Salarzai tehsil to get their share of rations. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants in Bajaur had targeted the Salarzais in the past as well with suicide attacks, roadside blasts and ambushes to punish them for raising an armed lashkar against them with support from the government. This was a perfect opportunity for the TTP to inflict harm on the Salarzais. The Bajaur militants rather than those in Swat had scores to settle with the pro-government Salarzai lashkar active against them in Bajaur Agency. Therefore, one finds it difficult to believe that the female suicide bomber was from Swat.

If the bomber was indeed a woman, she could be from Bajaur. One remembers a young woman from Bajaur who gave a statement to the police in neighbouring Lower Dir district and was interviewed by sections of the media including the BBC in which she claimed that she and some other women in Bajaur Agency were being motivated to become suicide bombers. Should one dismiss it as drama enacted by the police or take it seriously?

This wasn’t the first time that mention of would-be female suicide bombers was made. There have been reports in the media about existence of female suicide bombers and police officials have been warning that the threat was real. As no incident of a suicide bombing by a woman was reported, such a possibility began to be downplayed.

The last time that there was mention of a female suicide bomber was in December 2007 when a burqa-clad woman blew up near a roadside security barrier manned by Pakistan Army soldiers in Peshawar Cantonment. However, intelligence agencies later concluded that she wasn’t a bomber and was carrying explosives that were blown up with a remote-control device by someone else.

If conclusively confirmed, the Bajaur bombing on December 25 would be the first proven case of suicide attack by a female bomber in Pakistan. This would mean a change in tactics by the militants and a far bigger challenge for the government as women in their all-enveloping burqas could easily breach security. The woman’s burqa, or for that matter the woolen shawl used by men in winters, are perfect in concealing explosive devices and even suicide jackets. There aren’t enough female cops to carry out body search of women.

There should be no doubt that militants would not hesitate from using females to launch suicide attacks, particularly in places difficult to penetrate. They have tried every conceivable tactic to harm whoever they consider an enemy. If there were no female suicide bombers until now in Pakistan, it doesn’t mean that the militants and terrorists didn’t make an effort to recruit and train women to do the job.

Not long ago there were no suicide bombings in Pakistan and it was unimaginable that mosques and other places of worship, funerals or marketplaces with women shoppers would be bombed. All this has happened and such incidents no longer cause surprise. The female suicide bomber too has come to Pakistan or is waiting to strike.

Imran Latif, 22, a resident of Lahore, was sitting in his house near Pir Makki shrine on the sunny afternoon of November 11, 2010 when the doorbell rang. On opening the door, reportedly, two men armed with pistols asked Latif to accompany them. A few yards from the house, they pumped five bullets into Latif’s body before escaping on their motorbike. The bullets killed him on the spot.

Latif was on bail from a local court against charges of burning the pages of Holy Quran -- blasphemy, as is commonly said. He was arrested six months ago and was acquitted in November.

Media reports, quoting police investigators, term the murder a possible ‘consequence’ of the blasphemy case. Police have yet to trace the killers. "We cannot say anything… until we arrest the murderers," investigating police inspector Rafique Ahmed tells TNS. He does not rule out the possibility of Latif being a victim of extrajudicial killing over charges of blasphemy.

In the last 30 years, incidents of extrajudicial killings of blasphemy accused have been common. This year in July, two Christian brothers accused of disseminating a blasphemous letter were shot dead outside a court in Faisalabad. Then a Christian woman Aasia Bibi was awarded death sentence for blasphemy by a local court in district Nankana Sahib.

Supposedly, judges face immense pressure while deciding these cases. Take the case of Lahore High Court Judge, Arif Iqbal Bhatti, who was assassinated in his chambers after retirement at Lahore High Court in 1997. The killer said he targeted the judge because he was on the bench that acquitted two Christian men, Salamat and Rehmat Masih, accused in a blasphemy case.

"About 40 blasphemy accused have been killed extrajudicially since 1986," says Joseph Francis, Director CLAAS (Centre for Legal Aid Assessment and Settlement), a non-government organisation working for human rights.

According to record compiled by the organisation, out of these 40, 16 were Christians, 14 Muslims, five Ahmadis and two Hindus.

"Extrajudicial killings in blasphemy cases are not pursued by the victims’ families out of fear of being further victimised," Francis adds. "It should be the state’s responsibility to follow up such killings. Unfortunately, such killings are put under the carpet by the state and the court as it invites wrath."

According to press reports, the first such extrajudicial killing took place in 1991 when blasphemy accused Naemat Ahmad was shot dead by some unknown persons. Later, a Muslim Farooq Sajid was beaten to death by a mob in Gujranwala. Similarly, Manzoor Masih was gunned down outside the District and Sessions Court after a hearing in 1990s.

Accused have also fallen victim to extrajudicial killings inside jails. Naseem Bibi, Muhammad Yousaf, Samuel Masih (shockingly killed by a policeman), and another old man were killed in detention while facing the trial or after being convicted by courts.

"This is unfortunate that trials of persons involved in extrajudicial killings are hardly followed up by the state or decided by the courts," says Mahboob Ahmad Khan, a researcher with Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. "There are only two cases in which the killers of blasphemy accused have been awarded sentence," Khan adds, recalling his office record. "One of them had killed a blasphemy accused in Kasur and the other in Faisalabad."

Many blasphemy accused, even after acquittal, live in isolation and cannot mingle with their families because of life threats. "A political will is required to resolve such cases," adds Khan.

The phenomenon takes a horrible turn when a charged mob targets a specific community, locality or a group by burning their houses, looting their valuables and resorting to mass killing. Two years ago angry Muslims set afire two localities of Christian community in Gojra, Punjab, and a nearby village to punish a blasphemy accused. Again, a few years back, a similar incident happened in Sangla Hill, Punjab, where a mob burnt dozens of houses of the Christian community and two churches over the charges of blasphemy.

"This is up to the state and the administration to control such emotional mobs," says Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman, a Karachi-based senior Islamic cleric, who thinks that English media is toeing the western agenda by writing against the blasphemy laws. "Extrajudicial killings can be stopped if people like Salman Taseer stop supporting accused persons like Aasia Bibi."

"We have repeatedly proposed that immediate police report must be lodged against any accused and the matter should be directly referred to the Federal Shariah Court. We are against the misuse of this law but not against the law," he says.

"People killing the accused or the acquitted persons must be tried and dealt with according to law," he asserts.

Former Federal Law Minister and senior advocate, Dr Khalid Ranjha, believes extrajudicial killings happen due to weak state mechanism. "The solution lies in educating the society and controlling this provocation."

He also blamed the government for encouraging trends like fake encounters in Punjab that create a mindset for extrajudicial killings.

vaqargillani@gmail.com