The lawyers informed that for the first time a court was approached questioning the role of government of Pakistan in these attacks.

Addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club, Foundation for Fundamental Rights (FFR) Legal Director Shahzad Akbar announced that two petitions have been filed to the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against the federation of Pakistan, ministry of foreign affairs and ministry of defence. One of the petitions is filed by FFR on behalf of a large number of victims of the drone attack on a jirga in North Waziristan on March 17, 2012, while the second petition is filed by Noor Khan, the surviving son of Malik Daud Khan, the head of North Waziristan Loya Jirga who was killed along with about 50 other tribal elders in the same attack.

The Reprieve UK Founder and Director Clive Stafford Smith, Malik Zada Khan and Malik Jalal Khan and Akbar claimed that most of the people killed in drone attacks were innocent and that they were gathering details of the victims.

Akbar said that it was the first case of its kind from victims of drone attacks. He said that they have questioned what steps the government took for stopping of drone attacks, besides passing resolutions.

“We have asked the court to order the government to approach the United Nations Security Council and human rights bodies for relief from drone attacks,” Akbar said, adding that they also wanted an independent judicial commission to investigate who was falling prey to these attacks.

He said that they have asked the court to clarify what was the Pakistani government’s role in these attacks. “About 3,000 people were killed on mere suspicions,” he said.

Being a US citizen himself, Smith apologised to the tribesmen for deaths resulting from drones.

Smith said that the people campaigning against drones were not too powerful, but they were progressing in their struggle.

“If my child was killed by a predator in the English countryside, I would expect very serious and immediate consequences. A Pakistani child should enjoy the same protection,” Smith said.

He claimed that the western people wanted to help Pakistan and urged the people to come forward with evidence to pile pressure on concerned authorities.

“A vast majority of people in the US believe that the war in Afghanistan has been lost and the US cannot win it by killing people in Waziristan,” Smith said, adding that tribesmen can bring peace to their area themselves.

Malik Zada Khan, a tribal elder said that some of his relatives were killed in a drone attack. He said that drone attacks have caused widespread mental illness amongst the local population. “The fear of attacks has made tribesmen mentally sick,” he claimed.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2012. 

His beloved Pakistan, the land Ajmal Khattak wished to see prosper and bloom, is in the midst of bloody and brutal turmoil, where sectarianism, intolerance and militancy has reached unprecedented levels.

Awami National Party (ANP), which he was whole-heartedly associated with throughout his life, is on the hit-list of Taliban militants.

Khattak, who was a former president of the ANP, is buried in a simple, non-descript graveyard, close to the GT Road in Akora Khattak of Nowshera district. One has to walk just a stone’s throw away to approach the white marble octagonal structure, located in the middle of the graveyard.

The scene inside reveals a shocking picture: concrete walls are pockmarked with shrapnel, debris litter the interior and mangled iron that once supported its dome precariously dangles on the sides. The grave itself suffered heavy damage, and labourers piled up earth over it.

The black marble tombstone lies broken in two pieces. One half carries Khattak’s name and the other has the day he died and a couplet-“O Pakhtuns don’t forget this austere Khattak, you may need such a rebel in the future again.”

Sacrilege and anger

Akora Khattak is a small town on the banks of River Indus on the GT Road, close to Attock crossing. Its name is traced back to Malik Akor Khan, grandfather of Pakhtun warrior and legendary poet Khushal Khan Khattak, who led an uprising of Pakthun tribesmen against Mughal Emperor Aurganzeb.

Of late, however, the town has received widespread attention for the wrong reasons in the international media as the birthplace of the Taliban movement.

This comes after many prominent militant figures studied at the local Jamia Haqqania. The seminary is situated across the road from Khattak’s mausoleum.

Commenting on the heinous attack, an office bearer of the local ANP chapter Tahir Mohmand told The Express Tribune that “to me it is like Baba died twice today.” Tahir was lost for words on the grisly incident. “Baba was not like any other politician, rather, a dervish in its true sense,” he stated.

Locals are also mulling a unique response, as on Saturday a Khushal Literary Jirga, an organisation formed by the late poet was deliberating to hold a poetry recital in protest against the attack. The jirga’s General Secretary Khan Mohammad Tanha told The Express Tribune that they can resist militants, but the poet’s message of peace and tolerance does not allow them to do that. “How can these people lack respect for hujra, mosque and grave?” he questioned.

Alternative discourse

Prominent analyst Khadim Hussain contextualises this attack as an attempt to eliminate cultural symbols. “It is meant to change the basic discourse with an alternative one, he stated. Hussain claimed that the onslaught was aimed at eliminating cultural diversity, destruction of symbols and the emotional bond that Khattak had with his homeland and everything attached to it.

Although the residents of Akora Khattak recoil in revulsion over the attack, they think that all is not lost. They express hope by garnering belief from one of the poet’s verses: “When layers of earth were burying a seed, I heard it saying tomorrow will be my turn to blossom.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2012.

PESHAWAR: Highlighting the security mindset prevalent in the province, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) assembly was told on Monday that 883 police guards had been assigned for VIP protection during the past four years.

Details submitted to the assembly, in response to a question by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) parliamentarian Noor Sehar, showed that 171 police guards have been assigned at the chief minister House in Mardan, while 21 police guards have been assigned to Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali Khan.

Interestingly, many unknown individuals who are neither lawmakers nor government functionaries have been provided official security according to the list. Lawangeen Khan, a nephew of Asfandyar Wali has been provided 26 guards, Emil Wali Khan, his son, holds seven guards.

Sulaiman Khan of Rajar, brother in law of the chief minister has been provided with 18 guards. Bashir Sherpao, president of the Pakthun Student Federation (PSF) has also been provided with a police guard.

This list also shows that some privileged former lawmakers and bureaucrats are still availing official escorts including former chief secretaries Raiz Noor and Major Naeem, with two guards each. Former lawmakers Anwar Kamal Khan Marwat and Amir Muqam have two and four guards each. Fazal Elahi, a former judge and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Pervez Khattak have two police guards each.

Legislator Noor Sehar said the public exchequer was being “wasted” by the provision of guards to former government functionaries.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2012.

Students from all over the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and the tribal areas gathered at a week-long artists’ camp titled ‘Face Off’, jointly arranged by Hunerkada and Directorate of Culture K-P. The aim of this fiesta was to enable youth to express their opinions through paintings, films, music, dance, theatre, sculpture and other types of creative activities.

The overall activity was divided into three sections. It kick-started on May 7 with a two-day discourse, during which panellists discussed roots and panacea of intolerance and in its second stage, a training workshop was launched in Nishtar Hall from May 9 to May 15. The third and the final stage is a two-day exhibition of art work produced by students which will be exhibited from May 16 till May 18.

Afra, a student of textile designing at the Iqra University who attended the workshop, said that it was a lively event and a welcome change for the people of K-P. She received training on landscape painting at the camp and did a project on terrorism along with her teammates. “It was really inspiring to brainstorm ideas and channel them through art,” she said. Afra adds that this workshop received such an overwhelming response because there is a dearth of art-promoting platforms in Peshawar and people are hungry for arts and crafts. “I want such classes and sessions to be held as regularly in Peshawar as they are held in Karachi and Lahore,” she adds.

British photographer Edmund Clark was one of the attendees who were overjoyed to see the positive side of Peshawar. He said that international media portrays Peshawar as a city of crisis, but after visiting it personally, Clark realised that there is so much more to the city than just war and bombs. “I found people of this city friendly and life seems to be normal. What I saw here is quite opposite to what the media shows us,” he said.

The time is now

Prominent Pakistani drama artist Jamal Shah, who is also the supervisor of the event, told The Express Tribune that intolerance and radicalism has grown considerably in Pakistan and now is the time to unite and discuss these issues. “The aim of this workshop is to make people question themselves and decide what they have to do in the future,” Shah said. He added that prominent artists, intellectuals and journalists were invited at this event and the first two days were reserved to discuss the issues prevalent in Pakistani society.

Shah said that the response to the event was positive as 40 per cent of the participants were from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), who came to the fore and showed how much they wanted to do for their region. “Initially about 180 students were trained in visual art, film-making, journalism and other parts of arts, but later the number increased to 250,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2012.

One of the participants told The Express Tribune that another caricature of the JUI-F chief was already removed earlier on the insistence of some political figures.

The 10-day programme, titled ‘Face Off,’ aimed at countering growing intolerance and radicalism, concluded on Wednesday.

The work that was removed depicted the JUI-F chief emerging from a lamp. It was removed on the order of a senior bureaucrat. The artists, Nida and Saima from the Department of Fine Arts, University of Peshawar, were disheartened.

“We portrayed him the way we saw him and there was nothing extraordinary about it,” Saima said.

“It was an artistic attempt and everyone should have at least some guts to accept it,” she added.

Syed Saifuddin, another student of the same department, told The Express Tribune that the organisers removed another such caricature that he had drawn a day earlier.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2012.

Dabbling with a sketch of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in a gallery in Nishtar Hall, Feica reminisced about Peshawar of the mid 80s, when he used to work for the Frontier Post. “Peshawar used to be dusty those days and it’s remained almost the same after all these years,” the cartoonist quipped. “When I was here back in 1986, there was construction going on and 12 years later, I still see a lot of construction,” added Feica who ventured into the profession of sketching cartoons 32 years ago when he started making caricatures that embody a revolutionary impulse.

Feica was in Peshawar as an art instructor at a workshop on understanding intolerance through artistic activities, jointly arranged by Hunerkada and Directorate of Culture Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). “Honestly speaking, it seemed a bit odd to me to come to Peshawar when artist Jamal Shah asked me to attend this workshop,” he said, citing concerns regarding the recent bomb explosions. However, on Shah’s insistence, Feica had no choice but to pack his bags and come.

During the week, he had been teaching a group of students the intricacies of caricature and cartooning. Praising their talent and abounding enthusiasm, Feica said it was refreshing to teach arts. He was particularly pleased that young girls from Mardan had also come to the workshop to take lessons which, he said, they will disseminate to others in their villages.

When asked how teaching arts to a dozen students will affect those tens of thousands of people who look down upon art and scoff, Feica said that “art could bring change in people. Those who are fighting do not know arts; an artist is not a jahil and does not go on blowing up schools,” he said while citing the surge in attacks on culture and arts. “I fell ill after watching destruction of Buddhas of Bamiyan on television.”

Meanwhile, about the general ignorance and apathy towards art in the country, the veteran cartoonist was of the view that it’s the responsibility of the elders of the country to instill an interest and passion for art to the younger ones. “A society cannot exist without art. A society without art it is like a paratha without ghee.”

However, he sees a silver lining for arts and artists in the country. “Artists have shone in difficult times and have taken inspirations from ordeals and sufferings to create work for peace,” he said, with a hopeful smile.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2012.

PESHAWAR / KARACHI: For a left-leaning party battling for its political life in an election year, the Awami National Party included, surprisingly, little populist spending in the Rs303 billion Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa budget for fiscal year 2013.

In the budget speech delivered at the provincial assembly on Friday, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Muhammad Humayun Khan essentially listed off some of the government’s political achievements before essentially reading out the entire budget document, numbers and all.

Far from the political drama and fistfights on the floor of the National Assembly during the federal budget, the K-P budget session was more akin to a particularly boring, corporate annual shareholders meeting.

There were at least a few populist items on the finance minister’s agenda. The provincial government announced that it would follow Islamabad’s lead and provide an ad-hoc bump of 20% in the salaries of its employees, a move that had been a foregone conclusion since provincial bureaucrats work alongside federal ones in provincial capitals and a pay disparity would cause tension.

And taking a page from Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s book, the K-P government announced its own Rs1 billion free laptop scheme – named Naway Sahar (New Dawn) – for students in the province, saying it would hand out 25,000 such laptops to top-performing students.

Peshawar will also be spending close to Rs2.5 billion subsidising wheat, though this policy is rarely trumpeted by any provincial government since it is essentially a mandate that the federal government forces on the provinces.

The budget includes about Rs97.5 billion for development spending, about 24% of which will be funded by foreign governments. The single biggest donor to the province is the United Kingdom, followed by Japan. The United States, by contrast, is among the smallest foreign donors to the province.

Education and health

Like Sindh, K-P allocates most of its education and health spending at the district level rather than at the provincial level. Hence, education appears to account for less than 11% of the total provincial budget. Yet a closer look shows that well over 99% of the province’s education department staff is in fact at the district level and is accounted for in the lump-sum transfers to the districts.

Health, similarly, appears to account for just 5.7% of the total budget, but again, most of the spending takes place at the district level. K-P transfers about 28.2% of its total budget – the largest chunk allocated to any category – to the districts, a level surpassed only by Sindh in previous years.

Like most other provinces, K-P complains that the overwhelming majority of its budget ends up getting spent on salaries, with little left for development expenditure. Nonetheless, the province has allocated just over 9% of its budget – or about Rs27.5 billion – to expenditures such as building roads, improving the province’s water supply, developing urban infrastructure, etc.

By contrast, the districts spend are expected to spend about 83% of their budget on salaries, with just one-sixth left over for non-salary expenses – and that includes such needs as paying their utility bills.

The largest chunk of the budget, however, goes to public safety, unsurprising in a province wracked by a militant insurgency and sporadic violence. The province expects its public safety budget to go up by 24% this year, to Rs34 billion.

Spending efficiency

Yet K-P – alone among the provinces – has also decided to get innovative with its project. It introduced “output based budgeting” for education and healthcare in two districts. Having successfully tested the pilot project where it asks provinces to meet specific targets for which the province allocates money, the province now wants to roll out the unique methodology – designed to get more efficiency in its spending – to twelve districts.

Revenues

On the revenue side, Peshawar admits to being largely dependent on Islamabad for much of its revenues. Federal transfers to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa account for about 75% of its total budget, and on foreign donors for another 7.7%. The remainder – which comes to about Rs52 billion – comes from the province’s own tax receipts, though even these are collected by the federal government, which charges a 1% service fee.

Of its own revenues, the single largest chunk of Rs25 billion, or about half the province’s own collections, actually comes from other provinces paying royalties for the hydroelectricity generated by dams located in K-P. Despite promises made at the 7th National Finance Commission Award and at the passage of the 18th Amendment to the constitution, K-P appears to join the other provinces in not having built up the capacity to collect its own taxes.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2012.

PESHAWAR: In protest of ‘increasing’ drone strikes in the province, Difa-e-Pakistan Council announced countrywide demonstrations starting June 15.

Provincial leaders of the DPC made the announcement at a press briefing held at the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) provincial headquarters in Peshawar on Sunday.

Talking to reporters, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam- Sami (JUI-S) provincial ameer Maulana Yousaf Shah said that drone attacks have increased in tribal areas and the DPC will launch a series of protests, which will begin from Peshawar.

Shah said that their conglomerate of 40 parties will stand against US atrocities world over. “DPC protested against American involvement in Balochistan when no one dared to raise the Pakistani flag there,” Shah said.

He added that another protest will be organised at Lal Masjid in Islamabad on June 17, while conventions will be arranged in all provinces with a two-day programme in Muzaffarabad on July 14-15. He said that in Peshawar the DPC rally will start from Ashraf Road at around 9am and will assemble and protest at the Qissa Khawni Bazaar.

He claimed that the country is under US control and the DPC wants to liberate it. There is no moral justification for drone attacks and military operations in K-P must end immediately, he said, adding that dialogue with militants can resolve problems.

JI provincial ameer Professor Mohammad Ibrahim Khan said the DPC is opposed to resumption of NATO supplies as it is tantamount to US slavery.

Khan said the parliament had asked for ending drone attacks and demanded that the US apologise over the Salala attack, but so far neither of the two has happened.

He also called for media access in tribal areas to investigate who is being killed in the US strikes, adding that the DPC wants to put pressure on the Pakistani government, which is killing its people to please Americans.

JI Secretary General Shabbir Ahmed Khan, Secretary Information Israrullah Advocate, JUI-S General Secretary Ikramullah Shahid and leaders of other parties were also present at the news conference.

PESHAWAR: In Imran Rashid’s death, Peshawar has lost a chronicler of this city’s illustrious past.

Imran died of cardiomegaly (enlarged heart) on Monday at the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC). He was 42.

Hiss writing career spanned over a decade during which he penned three voluminous books on Peshawar’s history. His first book Peshawar Saddar Tarikh Ke Ainey main, (Peshawar Cantonment through the ages) was printed by the Sarhad Conservation Network back in 2002. In 2006, he wrote Baghat-e-Peshawar (Gardens of Peshawar) and earlier this year he published Peshawar Faseel-e-Sheher aur Darwazy or Peshawar’s city walls.

“It was back in 2001 when I first come to know Imran, while we were setting up the Sarhad Conservation Network (SCN) following the demolishing of Deans Hotel,” Dr Adil Zareef, a founder member of the SCN, told The Express Tribune. Zareef recalled the writer’s columns on the city’s history and culture in local Urdu dailies.

Imran had stressed himself out while working on his last book. “He was diagnosed with enlarged heart, but he continued to work on his book tirelessly,” Zareef said, adding “Peshawar was his love and he lost his life and health for it.”

“His death is an irreparable loss for Peshawar. He was an encyclopedia about the city,” Zareef said. He added that SCN will translate his books into English for their immense archival value.

However, Dr Zareef regretted that the writer was not accorded due patronage from the government. “He wanted the tourism corporation to support him in his latest writings on the city’s wall, but he was given a cold shoulder.”

Kamran Rashid, his elder brother and a mathematics lecturer at Air Force Inter College, said that his father immigrated to Peshawar following the creation of Pakistan from Jalandhar, India.

Imran received secondary and higher secondary education in Peshawar after which he went to the University of Peshawar for a Journalism degree. After graduation, he joined a local newspaper but later left the profession to devote himself to fulltime research and writing. “He was inclined towards writing from his school days and was the school’s magazine editor,” Kamran said.

He added that Imran was diagnosed with a heart problem some six months back and hospitalised two weeks ago.

“If fate had permitted him to live longer, Imran could have made a huge contribution,” Zareef said. He was the only person in this city who devoted himself to explore and write about the city’s glorious past. “Some people only live in legends and Imran will remain alive through his work.”

He leaves behind a widow, three daughters and a son.

PESHAWAR: A week after the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) budget was presented to the provincial assembly, lawmakers have managed to approve less than one per cent of the total spending outlay.

On Friday, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly approved grants of up to Rs2.2 billion under three demands for different departments after a speech by Provincial Finance Minister Muhammad Humayun Khan.

To catch up with the schedule and wind-up the budget debate, the meeting was held at 10am ahead of the scheduled time of 5pm.

The demands included Rs79.5 million for the assembly itself, Rs1.4 million for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa establishment and development department and Rs0.6 billion for the finance department.

One demand, presented in the house by Pakistan Peoples Party Sherpao’s Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao, was put to vote for after he refused to withdraw it.

Earlier, in the debate, the finance minister said: “The ongoing budget is very balanced. The estimated budget was Rs249 billion but the revised budget touched Rs254 billion with a Rs5 billion increase.”

“When the government came into power, it was given Rs10 billion and after investing in treasury bills with profit, the amount is now Rs30 billion,” said Khan, responding to members’ queries about net hydel profits. “As per the federal government’s suggestion, the provincial government allocated Rs25 billion for development. Utilising this money in development schemes, targets have been achieved in one-and-a-half years instead of three years.”

Highlighting subjects under the provincial government’s domain, Khan said that even though the 18th amendment had given provinces the right to collect General Sales Tax (GST), except Sindh, all provinces had given back this authority to the federal government due to a weak taxation structure.

Speaking of provincial subjects, he also added that Capital Gains Tax (CGT) should be with the provinces and the provincial government will take the issue to the federal government.

In the assembly, Khan also answered many questions about ongoing development projects and their progress.

When a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) lawmaker disclosed that the Balambat Irrigation Scheme was still incomplete, Khan said that investigation into the matter will be started immediately.

Earlier, ruling Awami National Party’s Bashir Bilour and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazlur Rehman (JUI-F) lawmaker Mufti Kafayatullah had claimed in the house that the scheme was complete.

On this issue, PPP’s Zameen Khan said that the bureaucracy was not respecting the assembly by providing it with misleading information.

In reply, Speaker Kiramatullah Chigarmati said that the standing committee on agriculture will investigate the matter.

Similarly, Khan said that construction on both phases of the Hazara Expressway (E-35) was in progress. However, the second phase which would connect Havelian to Mansehra was delayed due to army’s refusal to build a highway near Kakul.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz member Sardar Aurangzeb Nalhuta in his speech asked the government to suspend the Association for Development of Pakistan (ADP) and divert all funds to power generation. Nalhuta also called for starting work on Hazara Expressway.

In his speech, PPP Excise and Taxation Minister Liaqat Shahab denied PML-N lawmaker Shazia Aurangzeb’s accusations that he had shifted a heavy transformer from Kheshgi area to Kohat. Shahab defended himself by saying that he had done so on orders of Governor Masood Kausar.

The session was adjourned till 10am on Monday.

Eleven days after the budget was first presented, the assembly has approved a total of seven out of the 59 grant demands. The session on Monday approved only Rs1.2 billion in demands, which account for less than 0.4% of the Rs303-billion budget. The amount approved was for the planning and development department, science and information technology, revenue collection, and the excise and taxation department.

Provincial assembly members continue to have a lackadaisical attitude about the budget, the only bill that the assembly is constitutionally required to pass every year. The debate was supposed to start at 10am, but instead started at 2pm due to a lack of quorum.

During the four hours that the debate lasted, the assembly approved only four grants, since most of the time was spent in the heated argument between the education minister and Sherpao, who is the parliamentary leader for the Pakistan Peoples Party Sherpao.

Sherpao had been asking questions from Planning and Development Minister Rahimdad Khan about proposed cuts in the development budget when Babak rather unexpectedly veered the discussion towards poor law and order in Malakand, and blamed it on former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, Sikander’s father.

“When terrorists were building tunnels, dumping ammunition and running FM radio stations, where were those so-called champions of Pakhtuns,” said Babak, referring to the PPP-S’ recent attempt to position itself as a protector of Pakhtun rights.

Sikander responded by attacking the ruling Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan. “While Pakhtuns are being killed and maimed, he is not here,” said the PPP-S parliamentarian. “We have been facing these bomb blasts since the 1970s and are not afraid of attacks,” he said, referring to his uncle Hayat Mohammad Khan Sherpao, who was killed in a bomb blast in the 1970s.

Sikander then taunted Babak with the fact that his own family members had joined the PPP-S in Babak’s hometown of Buner. He went on to accuse the entire provincial government of corruption.

“If you were not corrupt, why would people start labelling you ‘Easy Load’?” he thundered.

The cabinet members present at the session tried to respond to Sikander’s allegations by interrupting his speech, which turned the budget debate into a veritable shouting match about the family political histories of the assembly members.

Babak and Minister for Science and Technology Ayub Ashari stood up and started interrupting Sikander’s speech. Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid MPA Nighat Orakzai sided with the PPP-S leader. Babak asked Speaker Kiramtullah Chagarmatti for permission to speak. However, he was denied the floor.

“The budget is government business and if you make this house into Jinnah Park or Chowk Yadgar, it will affect government business,” an angry Chagarmatti told Babak.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2012.

Talking to reporters at the party’s provincial headquarters, Fazl said that there will be no third PM  in case contempt proceedings are initiated against Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.

The JUI-F chief said that elections may  be held before schedule, but added “It is difficult to be certain at this stage.”

The new chief election commissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim is an able and honest person but it will be difficult, even for him, to arrange fair elections under the prevailing circumstances, he added.

Fazl was of the view that some hidden hands behind the lawlessness in the country are trying to malign politicians and make the public against them.

He said that there can be no peace in areas where military operations are carried out, adding that in tribal agencies political agents have been made subservient to brigadiers.

He further said that the  encroachment of civilian authority is at its peak, adding that even governors and chief ministers are powerless about the matter.

“Agencies and government themselves are creating schisms between religious sects and are funding sectarian outfits and jihadi organisations.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2012.

PESHAWAR: Participants of a seminar held on Monday asked the government to setup an elected Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) assembly.

The seminar, titled “Fata issues, problems and solutions,” asked for the government to create the assembly and handover powers to the people of the area to ensure lasting peace in the war-battered region. It was attended by tribal elders, politicians and analysts.

A declaration quantifying their aims was presented at the end of the seminar. It called for an end to military operations in the tribal belt and said that issues should be resolved through dialogue.

The seminar also concluded that it was necessary to create conditions so that tribesmen could return to their homes peacefully.

Participants said that the United Nations (UN) should be contacted in this respect. They also called for an end to US drone strikes and stressed that the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) and Action in Aid of Civilian Power (2011) be abolished.

An apology from Pakistani government for what it had done to the people of the region over the past 65 years was also sought.

Speaking at the seminar, former Jamaat e Islami (JI) chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed said that establishing peace was the most important thing in the tribal areas. He said that politicians and other leaders need to chalk out a favourable plan to bring lasting peace to the region.

He said that at present around 1.5 million tribesmen were displaced from their homes and that they should be rehabilitated. “Pakistan’s cooperation with the US on war on terror is a big obstacle to obtain peace. Pakistan must pull out of this coalition,” he said.

“Military operations have ruined the peace and political structure of the area. A tribal assembly should be set up to formulate the future strategy for the region.”

The police and local residents have confirmed the firing incident but they were not sure if any casualties had occurred.

The crossfire took place within the limits of Arandu Police Station in southern Chitral – a district which shares borders with the Nuristan and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan.

“The incident took place at around 9:00 am, when Taliban militants attacked Langurbat check post with mortars,” said an Arandu police officer, adding that security forces returned fire, and the exchange continued for around five to six hours. Three security personnel were also injured in the attack, officials said.

Surprisingly, District Coordination Officer Chitral Rehmatullah Wazir expressed ignorance about any cross-
border raid to have taken place in the district. He said he was not in a position to confirm the incident as access to information was limited owing to the remote location and mountainous terrain of the district.

A local resident requesting anonymity said that this attack started at around 9.00am, when around 150 rockets were fired on Pakistani check posts along the Pak-Afghan border. The local added that rockets targeted Langurbat, Akori and other check posts down to Arandu at the southern-most tip of this district. This invited a prompt reaction from the Pakistani side.

He said that in the aftermath of this attack, the Chitral-Arandu Road remained closed from Domail to Arandu for more than four hours, as security forces cordoned off the area. He also claimed that security personnel took a suspected woman into custody from near the Kavti check post. However, there was no official confirmation of this.

In August last year, about 35 security personnel were killed during a cross-border raid on Pakistani check posts by Taliban militants who were based in Kunar.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2012.

The internal bickering has given way to a war of words with senior party leaders criticising each other openly in the media.

The wrangling between former chief minister Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, Pir Sabir Shah and Captain Mohammad Safdar reached party chief Nawaz Sharif on Monday, when Khan and Shah rushed to Murree with Abbottabad MPA Javed Abbasi to discuss party affairs.

However, it seems PML-N’s bad spell in K-P is far from over. Certain leaders hint that all is still not well in the PML-N K-P chapter and efforts to overcome differences between the party leadership continue.

The issue stems from wrangling over Mansehra district – hometown of Sharif’s son-in-law and PML-N youth wing chief Capt Safdar. Safdar has locked horns with party stalwarts Sardar Mehtab Khan and Pir Sabir Shah, who have dominated party affairs in K-P for years.

Talking to The Express Tribune about the Murree meeting, Shah said the party strategy for the upcoming elections was discussed.

“We are soon going to hold a meeting to discuss party’s electoral policy and then I will start visiting districts all over the province,” he added.

Shah said the party’s chief asked them to act in their respective spheres to avoid any issues that crop up. “At the same time some leaders are also trying to settle their issues amicably,” he added.

Senior PML-N leader Farid Toofan informed The Express Tribune that he was in contact with both sides to help resolve their differences.

Still, indications suggest the issue will continue despite Sharif’s intervention. A party official close to Capt Safdar’s camp said the status quo of PML-N affairs in the region persisted for the past two decades. He added the party leadership needed to open themselves to new ideas. Without naming Shah and Khan, the official said that some leaders have rendered many sacrifices for the party and should continue doing so without creating problems. Talking about Shah’s threat to expel some members from the party three days ago, he asked why they had not been fired yet.

“Sabir Shah should explain where he stands,” he maintained.

Observers view the internal bickering as Safdar’s attempt to create a power struggle. The availability of Amir Muqam to head the party’s K-P chapter has also provided him an opportunity to take on Shah and Khan.

PML-N had emerged strong after Muqam joined the party with a large number of his associates from all over the province. Previously, the party witnessed a revolt in Sharif’s presence, when former general secretary Saranajam Khan and his associates quite the party before the provincial general secretary’s election some months back.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2012.

Waqar Ali, a SACIRS employee and M Phil scholar at the University of the Peshawar (UoP) told The Express Tribune that it was a three-month certificate. Ali said that this course will be launched from October this year. He added that experts from UoP and foreign professors will also deliver lectures in this course.

When asked about why they introduced ITS, Waqar replied that they had previously arranged courses in conflict management and other disciplines.

“People need to know what terrorism is about,” he said, adding that people are keen on enrolling in the course.

“Officials from intelligence agencies and the Pakistan Army are also expected to join the course,” Waqar maintained.

SACIRS director Hussain Shaheed Soharwardi explained that people usually talk about terrorism without knowing what it is and the issues which are involved in it. He said increasing public awareness was the primary reason to launch this course. Soharwardi added that many have asked to him to start this course in Islamabad. But, since Peshawar and its neighbouring areas were worst hit by the violence, he started this course in the provincial capital.

About the contents, he said that they will teach the theories of terrorism and discuss different terrorist organisations. “Starting with the Irish Republican Army we will discuss Pak-US and Nato operations and strategies for the Af-Pak region.”

Arguably, Peshawar has withstood terrorism’s worst onslaught. The city has grappled with the worst terrorist attacks at the height of Taliban insurgency, and still carries scars from its past. Perhaps, it is a sign of changing times as terrorist attacks have dropped, security is lax and no more barricades are being made. More importantly, it is trying to make sense of terrorism by tackling it academically.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2012.

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) have emerged as exceptions however, by trying to formulate possible energy policies to tackle the country’s power crisis. PML-N was the first followed by PTI and JI. Other parties have yet to add concrete proposals for tackling the crisis to their manifestos, however.

PML-N’s energy policy, released in February this year, emphasised the development of natural resources while using existing energy sources more efficiently to tackle the crisis.

Following PML-N’s lead, PTI issued its energy policy in April, arguing for the replacement of furnace oil by coal to generate around 4,500MW. In addition to this, the party proposed governance reforms, reducing line losses and circular debt and improving the recovery of bills to cope with the energy shortage.

JI’s policy proposed ensuring regular payments and a consistent oil and gas supply to power companies while controlling line losses and thefts as a short term measure. As a midterm measure, the party proposed importing electricity and gas from Iran and the Central Asian states. JI also envisaged constructing five dams to generate around 50,000MW as a long term measure.

The parties’ initiatives have been criticised by Pakistan Peoples Party Sherpao (PPPS) leader Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao. He maintained that developing any such policy was impossible without comprehensively studying the country’s existing resources and alternatives available.

“It is beyond their (political parties’) capacity to estimate such a complex issue,” he added.

Meanwhile, Malik Ghulam Mustafa, Awami National Party’s (ANP) provincial spokesperson, said that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has planned more than a dozen hydroelectric projects across the province which will add about 2,100MW to the national grid in the coming years.

“Some of these projects are in the pipeline, while feasibility studies are being conducted for the others,” he said. Mustafa believed the K-P government could have completed many energy sector projects if funds were available.

The plan to construct hydroelectric units in K-P was part of the energy policy agreed upon by ANP and other parties in an all parties conference held soon after the formation of the new government.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2012.

On Monday, ANP announced intentions to hold the conference on August 9 to gather political forces and find a solution to growing power outages across the province.

ANP was represented by provincial president Senator Afrasyab Khattak while JI’s provincial amir Professor Mohammad Ibrahim Khan represented his party

Talking to reporters following the meeting, Khattak maintained the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) had failed to control the power crisis and should be abolished.  He said that instead of Wapda distributing power, the authority should be handed over to the provinces. He said that they will send suggestions agreed at the conference to the federal government.

“We will also hold a provincial assembly meeting and give the suggestions from the assembly as well,” Khattak said. He maintained that all political parties should come together to solve this problem.

Khattak claimed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) was generating electricity in excess of its demands.

“Power generation from Tarbela alone is more than K-P’s total energy demand,” Khattak said. He also said that power outages had been centralised, reducing their say even more.

In the meeting between JI and ANP, JI Chief Professor Ibrahim said they would make decision about attending the conference after consulting with all the parties.

However, he assured ANP leaders that JI was ready to cooperate to control the power crisis. Interestingly, Professor Ibrahim also announced that JI would hold province-wide protests against the outages.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) has refused to participate in the conference.

“The all parties conference is not the solution to the power crisis in the province,” PML-N central senior Vice-President Ameer Muqam said on Tuesday. He said the ANP government had all the resources and support at their privileges but they failed to conjure a durable solution.

Muqam predicted that the all parties conference would not achieve its aim of finding a tangible solution to growing power outages in the province.

Fareed Tufan, a PML-N provincial leader, said: “Both the federal and provincial governments did not take any remedial measures to overcome the power crisis over the past four-and-a-half years. They did not even provide alternate solutions to the energy crisis.”

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) also refused to participate in the all parties conference. They also said that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and ANP leaders were responsible for the power outages and energy crisis in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2012.

On Wednesday, three major opposition parties including Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), Pakistan Peoples Party Sherpao (PPPS) and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) said they will not attend the August 9 conference convened by ANP to formulate suggestions to control power cuts in the province.

ANP leaders had visited JUI-F provincial headquarters earlier in the day to extend an invitation for the conference.

Speaking at a press conference at assembly secretariat, opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani said: “We shall constitute a committee of all opposition parties to arrange protests across the province.” He said they had talked to Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to pressurise the government through protests as well.

Durrani criticised the ANP-led coalition government, saying it had done nothing to solve the load-shedding issue in its tenure and was rather preoccupied with changing the province’s name.

“We are not going to sit with the government at this moment and share the responsibility for their sins,” he said, adding that the opposition would frame its own strategies. Durrani also said it was strange that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was nowhere to be seen in the APC discussion.

PPPS Parliamentary leader Sikandar Sherpao said the ANP-led government was not serious about solving people’s problems. Terming K-P the province worst-hit by the crisis, he said that the prolonged electricity cuts were affecting the province’s economy as well.

Meanwhile PML-N general secretary Rehmat Salam Khattak maintained the power crisis was an issue for government to solve, not the opposition.

JUI-F spokesperson Jalil Jan told The Express Tribune that the power crisis issue should have been brought to the table four years ago. He said the proposed APC was of little interest to the people now and would be more of a ‘political show’.

PTI leader Shah Farman termed the APC a ‘political gimmick’. PML-N stalwart Rahmat Salam meanwhile, termed it a ‘post-dated cheque for a failing bank’.

On Tuesday, while ANP approached JI leaders to ensure their presence at the conference, both PML-N and PTI announced their intentions to not attend it. Following the K-P assembly session, it appears JUI-F and PPPS have followed suit. JI maintained it will decide after consultation with other opposition parties.

However, JI provincial spokesperson Israrullah said the party held ANP equally responsible with the federal government for the apathy shown towards the power crisis over the past four years.

PML-Q Information Secretary Nighat Orakzai said her party will attend the APC. However, she said that APC should have been called at the central level instead of a provincial level. Her party also believed that it should have been held earlier. Also Pakhutnkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUIS) said that they will attend the  proposed moot.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2012.

According to Haroon Sarab Dayal, leader of the Hindu community, the Hindu goddess Laxmi tied a ‘rakhi’ to King Bali, adding to the importance of this event. “Basically, rakhi is a thread… after tying it to someone outside of the family, a girl can enjoy the same status and treatment as that person’s real sister,” he said.

Ratan Kumar, a local who works with a marketing company said that Raksha Bandhan symbolizes the sister’s wishes for the brother’s long age, so that he could protect his sister well.

Peshawar Hindu Balmiki Mahsaba President Ram Lal said that the festival starts from mid July and for a month they engage in worship every day.

He said that at present there were about 437 Hindu families living in Peshawar and four temples across the city. Kalibari temple, however, was a major temple which is visited by Hindu community members from other parts of the province as well.

While praising the public for cooperating, he said the Hindu community was satisfied with the security arrangements and so far they have not faced any disturbance in performing their religious activities.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2012.