Are We Really Winning The War On Terror?: New Age Islam’s Selection from Pakistan Press, 21 November 2015
New Age Islam Edit Bureau
21 November 2015
• Are We Really Winning The War On Terror?
By Uzair M Younus
• Another Palestinian uprising
By Sajid Aziz
• Terrorism and globalisation
By Dr Haider Shah
• Enough PhD’s, thank you
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
• Orange juggernaut
By Irfan Husain
• Karachi: City of lights that was
By Abbas Nasir
-------
Are we really winning the war on terror?
By Uzair M Younus
November 21th, 2015.
The ghastly attacks in Paris have brought to the fore fears about the presence of the Islamic State (IS) in Pakistan. The Foreign Office has ruled this out, with Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry stating that the country was winning the war on terror. The firm rejection of IS presence is wrong, and numerous reports can be cited as evidence that the group has a nascent presence in the country. More important, however, is the claim that Pakistan is winning this war. What defines ‘victory’ in a war against multiple non-state armed groups?
If victory is being measured by the effect of kinetic counterterror and counter-insurgency operations across Pakistan, then, surely, the country is winning. The number of terror attacks has fallen dramatically since the military went on the attack in North Waziristan. Karachi’s descent into the abyss has also been stemmed with both the Rangers and local police stepping up to the plate. We have not seen a high-profile attack on military installations for some time. All of this is evidence that terror cells have been disrupted across the country. This aggressive posture has thrown the enemy off-balance. Command and control centres have been eliminated in the tribal areas, militant leadership is on the run, and the grip of fear across Pakistan has receded.
A surge focused on increased kinetic operations can reduce violence. Without a suitable non-kinetic strategy, however, this reduction in violence is not sustainable, for it does not destroy the ecosystem of terror within society. We have seen evidence of this in both Afghanistan and Iraq, where violent groups hit back with a vengeance once military forces pull back.
In Pakistan, terrorists might be on the run, but the environment that enabled them to carry out deadly attacks continues to exist. This environment breeds on financing networks, extremist preachers using mosques and seminaries radicalising the youth, and an overall lack of capacity of local law-enforcement agencies. Victory, therefore, must be measured by the impact of both kinetic and non-kinetic operations on terror networks, as well as their impact on the ecosystem of terror in the country. Such a strategy demands a more long-term outlook. Inter-provincial cooperation, civil-military engagement and a consensus on strategic reforms is needed to achieve a permanent victory in this war. Three broad areas that require immediate discussion and consensus are curriculum and seminary reforms, measures to eliminate the shadow economy and enhancing inter-agency cooperation across the country.
While a large majority of seminaries provide religious education, a handful of seminaries continue to radicalise the youth. Instituting reforms and reaching a consensus with the religious lobby on the way forward has to be a priority. The past has shown how difficult madrassa reform can be, but this does not mean that the government gives up and turns a blind eye to this problem. In fact, the government must take advantage of public opinion and mount pressure on the religious lobby to accept much-needed reforms.
The shadow economy is where terrorists raise the money and resources to carry out their attacks. Some estimates place Pakistan’s shadow economy at 100 per cent of its GDP. This enables terrorists to raise large sums of money, while constraining the ability of the government to raise revenue, some of which could be used to increase funding for cash-strapped local law enforcement. While the enemy is free to raise large sums for advanced weapons, Pakistan’s local police forces have to fight with outdated weaponry due to resource constraints. This compounds civil-military relations in the country, as policymakers lean on the military to combat terrorists that outgun local law enforcement.
Finally, the enemy not only coordinates its attacks with other militant groups within Pakistan, it also collaborates with international terrorist organisations. Such an enemy cannot be defeated by a single institution of government. Greater inter-agency and inter-provincial coordination is a first step. Enabling law enforcement and intelligence agencies to collaborate with each other will aid in the development of a broader understanding of terror networks across Pakistan. Such coordination is necessary to ensure that intelligence gathered from raids in one part of the country leads to quick action against terror networks in other regions.
Besides claiming that “the back of the terrorists has been broken”, the government has been unable to showcase strong performance on these non-kinetic strategies. It has single-mindedly focused on eliminating terrorists, while ignoring the fertile soil upon which terrorists breed. Pakistan has been chipping away, successfully, at the ability of terrorists to operate in the country. Given all the chaos in the region, the relative stability in the country is indeed the result of successful counterterror operations. To sustain this momentum, however, Pakistan must switch gears and focus on the medium- and long-term solutions. Without these, a golden opportunity, brought about by the sacrifices of the military and law-enforcement officers, will be missed.
Uzair M Younus is a graduate of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He tweets
tribune.com.pk/story/995408/are-we-really-winning-the-war-on-terror/
---------
Another Palestinian uprising
By Sajid Aziz
It has been over a month since another spontaneous uprising erupted in Palestine. Palestinian youth, both men and women, have resorted to what is called in popular media as ‘lone wolf attacks’ against illegal Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. If the stone was the symbol of the first intifada and violent acts and suicide attacks the hallmarks of the second intifada, then individual acts of stabbings have so far defined the face of this uprising. The resultant clashes have killed more than 70 Palestinians and 10 Israelis. According to the Red Cross, more than 2,600Palestinians have beenwounded so far.
This latest uprising is partly attributed to what the International Crisis Group (ICG) calls the “crumbling status quo” at the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount), which houses the al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock. Jordan shares joint custodianshipwith Israel of the Haram al-Sharif. Jordan is its guardian, whereas Israel takes care of its security. The increasing incursions of fanatic Jewish groups, which are dedicated to demolishing the mosque and supplanting it with a Jewish temple, provocative visits by Israeli cabinet members and barring Palestinians from visiting al-Aqsa mosque, have all made Palestinians fearful of the Israeli government’s intention of partitioning the Muslim holy site and its national symbol. It is worth recollecting thatthe second intifada too erupted when Sharon, in an act of provocation, visited al-Aqsa mosque in 2000. That the Haram al-Sharif is a microcosm of the Palestinian movement is attested to by the fact that it generates and empowers Palestinian resistance and unites both the secular and religious forces.
If the crumbling status quo partly explains this uprising, then the palpable and daily reality of occupation, and the sufferings attendant to it, economic blockade, growing unemployment, increasing settlements and demolished Palestinian homes, the enfeebled Palestinian leadership, indifference of the international community and, most importantly, the fading hope of a contiguous Palestinian state, completes the picture. Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and its annexation of Jerusalem are entering nearly their 50th year. The significant economic and political costs of occupation on Palestinians can be gauged by the fact that Gaza is literally an open-air prison; its trade, borders and airspace are all exclusively controlled by Israeli security forces, which has led to severe economic stagnation. Sara Roy of Harvard has called this processde-development-a process in which potential tapping of indigenous resources is undermined. It has, to its discredit, the highest unemployment rate in the world. The West Bank is sliced into areas A, B and C. Area C constitutes 60 percent of the West Bank, exclusively controlled by Israel thanks to the Oslo Accord of 1993. Now the number of Jewish settlers exceeds those of indigenous Palestinians in Area C.
The everyday reality of Palestinian dispossession sprouting out of Jewish illegal settlements is a source of great disillusionment for the former. Amira Hass of Hareetz daily cites a staggering figure of 11,000 demolition orders pending against 13,000 Palestinian structures. This sad state of affairs is made more grotesque by frequent attacks on Palestinians by Jewish settlers in the West Bank. One of the most recent attacks took place just immediately before the uprising, when the Dabwashe family in Nablus was attacked by settlers, killing six of its members, including an 18-month-old child.
In addition to the aforementioned factors, there are issues of a weak Palestinian leadership, divided both politically and geographically, and the indifference of the international community and regional states, which have their own wars to deal with. Some similar conditions prevailed prior to the first intifada when regional states were focused on the Iran-Iraq war. The Arab League put the ‘Palestinian question’ on the back burner; as for the international community (read west), their strategic interests trumped Palestinian rights. The first intifada that erupted in 1987 sustained for half a decade, only to be culminated in sheer capitulation by a compromised leadership.
What direction this new uprising takes is a moot point and will not be completely determined by the Palestinians. They have endured decades of occupation, destructive wars and daily humiliation through such acts as unnecessary checkpoints, administrative detentions and continuous gobbling up of their lands, but their spirit of resilience manifests itself in remarkably myriad ways which is awe-inspiring. They continue to struggle against seemingly insurmountable odds. Now the success of this uprising relies on internal Palestinian organisation and the channelisation of their individual energies into collective force rather than on near suicidal ‘lone wolf’ attacks, which more often than not become the cause of their demise and might possibly preclude the participation of a considerable segment of the population. But the fact that the youth is ready to go out on such missions speaks volumes about the despair that has seeped into the Palestinians. As Major General HarziHaleri, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) intelligence chief said, “They are in despair over the state of things and feel as if they have nothing to lose.” The most potent resistance has a certain limit of enduring power; thus it becomes of greater importance that the international community force Israel to relinquish its barbaric occupation and give Palestinians their due rights. Otherwise, these acts of resistance and violence will continue to perpetuate because, as the Hareetz editorial puts it, “The reality of their lives includes every element of ‘incitement’ possible.”
Sajid Aziz is a freelance columnist
dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/21-Nov-2015/another-palestinian-uprising
----------
Terrorism and globalisation
Dr Haider Shah
In the last few years,I have written twice about the Arab Spring. When it was in full bloom many analysts were calling it the unfurling of a democratic era in the Muslim world. Even then I wassceptical as, on a cautionary note, I had stated in 2011 that many masked robbers could be seen accompanying the caravan of Arab revolutionaries. The second time, I wrote that the Spring was withering away and even the most optimistic had to agree that the short-lived Arab Spring was no more. I then feared that the worst was yet to come. The democrat in me found the spectacle of tanks rolling over the bodies of supporters of a party that had acceded to power through ballot in Egypt repugnantly obscene. What disturbed me even more was the relative quiet in the case of Egypt and vociferous activism in the case of Syria,which in awayexposed the hypocritical side ofinternational players.
I had then aired my concerns that in Syria another Afghanistan was being re-enacted. The recipe of forging a tactical alliance with jihadis recruited through Saudi Arabia and bringing down a regime was simple and fruitful in the short term but,over the long run, it amounted to the creation of Frankenstein’s monster. When consequently those jihadis become a pain the superpowers send troops to clean the country of the mess they create over there. We have seen this before and, when lessons are not learnt,history repeats itself even for very clever readers.
Globalisation is defined as the interconnectedness of the world where events in one part influence happenings in other parts of the world. The effect of a shrunken globalised village is that not only have finance, trade and culture become universalised but terrorism has also assumed the dimension of globalisation. Modern technological innovations have removed the barriers of time and space. A preacher sitting in the Middle East can fill the hearts and minds of anyone living in a western country with radical ideas and fantasies of an imagined world. The super powers, therefore, need to be more attentive to what they do in other parts of the world. The attention should be on two counts: one, the actions themselves and, two, more importantly, the perception of what they do in foreign lands. Iraq had already created a perception that the US thrusts its view of the world upon others and demands that others must see the world in black and white as well. Vietnam and Afghanistan had established that US policymakers do not necessarily get their decisions right every time. It, therefore, should have been more watchful when it decided to intervene in countries like Libya and Syria.
The Middle East has two problems that have been inherited from history. One, despite the illusion of modernity because of good infrastructure thanks to petrodollars, it remains tribal in essence and hence has preserved tribal feuds from bygone ages. Two, the religious divide along sectarian lines that the spread of early Islam engineered further exasperates the schisms between warring tribes. Political power,therefore, is contested by various contending tribes where the Shia or Sunni identity plays an important role in legitimising political opposition at the soft end and insurgency at the hard end of the continuum. Strongmen like Bashar al-Assad and Muammar Gaddafi are the naturally evolved remedies of this situation. Like a lynchpin they maintain the delicate balance between warring tribal groups and warlords. Remove them and the whole structure falls apart. Nothing is more instrumental for the spread of terrorist groups than the chaos created by a sudden collapse of state structure.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is no doubt an authoritarian ruler. The eye specialist turned president can be castigated as an embodiment of 45 years of personal rule in Syria. But what are the alternatives if he is removed from the scene? We saw in Egypt that Hosni Mubarak was replaced by the Muslim Brotherhood and, ultimately, the army seized power. Why do we think that the same recipe will yield a different result in Syria? The secular Syrian leader enjoys the support of educated middle classes while opposition groups are mostly a ragtag of extremist outfits. Islamic State (IS) is just the culmination of the directionless, interventionist policy of the US-led coalition against the Syrian government.
The European governments compound their problem of security by following a politically correct idealistic policy towards new entrants in their societies. In the name of multiculturalism and human rights they have allowed radicalism to develop strong roots. Some political parties become apologists for radical groups as they treat them as their potential voting blocs. Others hesitate to take stern action again troublemakers as they fearthe alienationof certain communities. Faith schools keep mushrooming and organised groups spread radicalism among the vulnerable with no checks from by state.
Just as the Army Public School (APS) attack changed the resolve of the Pakistani nation the Paris attack is hopefully going to be a watershed in the collective will of European countries against radicalism. A desperate situation needs desperate remedies. It seems Putin is the right remedy for terrorist groups like IS.
The writer teaches public policy in the UK and is the founding member of the Rationalist Society of Pakistan. He can be reached at hashah9@yahoo.com
dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/21-Nov-2015/terrorism-and-globalisation
------------
Enough PhD’s, thank you
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
November 21st, 2015
When Freeman Dyson suggested we have lunch together at the Princeton University cafeteria on my next visit, I almost fell off my chair. To be invited by this legendary physicist, now 90-plus but sharp as ever, meant more than a banquet especially arranged for me by the Queen of England. Countless kings, queens, and generals have come and gone but only a tiny number of visionaries, Dyson included, actually make history.
Overwhelmed, I was about to blurt “thank you, Dr Dyson” but stopped in time. Else this would have violated an unstated protocol. We theoretical physicists address colleagues by their first name. And so I simply thanked him as Freeman. This avoided a still more serious error. Freeman Dyson does not have a PhD and has never sought or needed one.
Three books and biographies have been written on this PhD-less scientific genius. But, were he to apply to a Pakistani university, at best he might become an assistant professor. I thought of this while suffering through some lectures last week at an international physics conference in Islamabad.
Sadly, the presentations by most Pakistani PhD’s were uninteresting, others were wrong. One was even laughably wrong. Probably the worst was by a professor who was not just a ‘doctor’ but a ‘professor doctor’. This terrible pomposity, borrowed from some German tradition, is now routinely augmented with ‘distinguished professor’, ‘national professor’ and what-not. Like cartoon generals who have won no wars but have medals stuck to oversized chests, Pakistan now has legions of highly paid ignoramus cartoon professors.
Pakistan now has legions of highly paid ignoramus cartoon professors.
But wait, am I not being terribly unfair? Our professors are publishing huge numbers of research papers these days, almost 10 times more than a decade ago. Some produce as many as 40-60 every year (Dyson’s lifetime total is a mere 50). These appear in so-called international journals with high-impact factors, are well-cited, and seeming fulfil all requirements of high quality. The authors rake in cash prizes, national awards, and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) screams about the post-2002 ‘revolution’ at every opportunity.
But the truth forlornly begs to be heard: there is no actual research behind most of these so-called research papers. The internet has placed at an author’s fingertip vast amounts of literature from which to freely cut and paste, invent data, and plagiarise ideas. Although software checks like Turn-It-In exist, they are next to useless. True, the ideal journal referee is supposed to be a know-all. But in fact he is too hard-pressed to check everything, or may even be complicit. Publishing in fly-by-night journals, or arranging for your paper to be cited, is now a finely developed art form.
Crime in Pakistani academia has overtaken even the legendary bribery of our police departments or the easy corruption of income tax authorities. But dealing with academic heist, now organised and systematised, won’t be easy. Here’s why.
First, knowledge is increasingly specialised and to detect cheating isn’t easy. A molecular biologist might not fairly judge the work of an ethologist, or a plasma physicist that of a string theorist. In principle any academic community must police itself rather than be policed from outside. But the small number of genuine academics in Pakistan means that there are precious few policemen.
Second, a thoughtless government policy that pays by the number of research papers and PhD’s produced allows cheats to get rich. Unable to tell good from bad, the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology actively encourages our professors to pillage public property.
The same dynamics applies to PhD production. The basic subject knowledge of PhD candidates is rarely tested and, if ever, only perfunctorily. Although the referees of a candidate’s thesis are supposed to be impartial, they are often chosen by a supervisor for being cooperative. Of course, the reports can be appropriately doctored when necessary.
Most PhD supervisors never get caught while doctoring. But if by rare chance someone does, he gets little more than a tap on the wrist. A colleague, a former professor of biology at Quaid-i-Azam University, then also the dean, was caught red-handed while faking referee reports for his PhD students. He admitted guilt but was not terminated and retained all retirement benefits. The administration and other colleagues shrugged off the incident; why be strict to one of your own kind? The man moved on to become dean at another university, and then emerged yet again as vice chancellor at still another university.
This ‘kindness’ has put the cancer of corruption into metastasis. Arresting further growth will require a harsh chemotherapy regime. As the very first step, rewarding authors of research papers with cash should be stopped. PCST, as well as other government organisations deliberately fuelling academic corruption, should be closed down and their directors charge-sheeted.
Transparency should be non-negotiable. While it cannot end abuse, it can discourage. So, before the author of a research paper gets any kind of credit, such as for promotion, he must give a presentation that anyone can freely attend. This should be video-recorded and archived for open access on HEC’s website. Whereas HEC’s present chairman privately agreed to my suggestion nearly two years ago, and then publicly on television a year later, I see no signs of implementation.
Still more radical therapy may be needed. As with a driving licence, all PhD degrees (including my own) should be de-recognised every 10 years, and re-recognised only after passing a literacy test in that particular discipline. Administered by some trustable overseas organisation, the written test should be at the level of an undergraduate examination equivalent to that taken by students after their first year of studies at a good foreign university. Will this reduce our current PhD population by 50 per cent? Eighty per cent?
No country becomes wealthy by printing a mountain of paper currency. And no university system becomes better by dishing out substandard PhD degrees, or by accepting vacuous research papers as valid. Instead, the way forward lies in adhering to strict ethical standards, cultivating excellence, rejecting mediocrity, and nurturing a spirit of inquiry and intellectual excitement.
Pervez Hoodbhoy teaches physics in Lahore and Islamabad.
Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2015
dawn.com/news/1221057/enough-phds-thank-you
---------
Orange juggernaut
Irfan Husain
November 21st, 2015
POSSIBLY the most dangerous space in Pakistan lies between the Punjab chief minister and a pet project.
The head of archaeology learned this the hard way when he was moved from his post overnight for refusing to issue an NOC for the Orange Line train project for contravening the Antiquities Act that prohibits construction within 200 feet (61 metres) of protected historical monuments. His successor issued one within 24 hours.
Deaf to arguments as he bulldozes his way over objections, Shahbaz Sharif is convinced that he knows better than all the experts who oppose him. As an example, take the ongoing controversy over his Orange Line project that is set to destroy and diminish much of Lahore’s rich heritage, as well as displace tens of thousands.
According to an article by Moazzam Husain on these pages recently, the Punjab government is getting a loan of $1.6 billion from China for a Chinese consortium to build a 27-kilometre-long train line that cuts across some of Lahore’s most historical and crowded areas. Servicing and repaying this loan will come to $300,000 a day over 20 years. To generate this amount, passengers will have to pay Rs160 per journey, assuming all trains are full. Anything less will mean a subsidy that the taxpayers will have to fork out.
Who wants to see ugly iron tracks next to Mughal architecture?
Does Lahore really need this train? Not on the evidence provided to me recently by Lahore’s well-known architect and planner, Kamil Khan Mumtaz. Apparently, out of the million or so of Lahore’s daily journeys to school, shops and work, 60pc are on foot, and 30pc are on bicycles and motorbikes. All these journeys take 20-30 minutes, and are within 2km to 5km.
The city’s topography, demographics and economics do not call for a train to solve Lahore’s traffic problems. This is a low-rise, low-income city with dispersed business districts that would be far better served by buses travelling along reserved lanes, as they do in many other cities. Clearing footpaths of encroachments would make it easier to walk to one’s destination.
The experience of other low-income, low-density cities is not encouraging. Mexico City’s 201km metro network accounts for only 14pc of all daily trips. In Kolkata, only 10pc of all trips are on the city’s 17km of railway track. And while Shanghai is hardly a low-income city, its 82km network of metro and overland trains accounts for just 2pc of the city’s traffic.
According to traffic experts, rail is the worst possible solution for Lahore’s needs. Apart from the swathe of desolation that will follow in the wake of the tracks, their present alignment will serve very few of Lahore’s residents. And among the many historical sites the project will blight are the Shalamar Gardens, the jewel in Lahore’s crown.
Although we are assured by Shahbaz Sharif that the tracks will skirt around the walls of the Gardens, vibrations from the train as well as the construction machinery will surely damage the foundations. And who wants to see ugly raised iron tracks next to one of the finest examples of Mughal architecture? Only a little over a kilometre of the tracks will travel underground. Taking them all below the surface, despite the cost, would at least minimise the vandalism.
Then there is the human tragedy of thousands of residents being thrown out of their homes to make way for the chief minister’s dream. Entire communities are up in arms to protect their homes and their places of work. They are being supported by a few activists and environmentalists to whom their city is very dear, but thus far, they are fighting a losing battle.
Just as we build cities, they shape us in subtle ways. A green, gracious city is conducive to civilised behaviour. And generations of residents have taken pride in their city full of Mughal and colonial architectural treasures. I have spent many years there, and have wonderful friends and happy memories.
However, whenever I visit Lahore now, I see many changes, not always for the better. And unsurprisingly, ugly shopping plazas are breeding like rabbits.
The world over, there is tension between the requirements of growing cities and the need to preserve the past. But if done with care and sensitivity, these two can be reconciled. However, running a train through Lahore’s historic heart is not the way to preserve its charm.
Responding to an appeal from the group trying to block the project, Unesco has written to the government to insist that Shalamar Gardens, a World Heritage Site, is not disturbed in any way. Shahbaz Sharif has said he would be happy to get advice from their experts.
However, had he talked to local architects, planners and other stakeholders before unilaterally deciding the train’s trajectory, we would not be where we are. Going by the chief minister’s track record, it is doubtful if he will allow economic, social or environmental considerations to derail his Orange Line train.
dawn.com/news/1221060/orange-juggernaut
----------
Karachi: City of lights that was
By Abbas Nasir
November 21st, 2015
There is a debate about environmental concerns surrounding Lahore’s Orange Line project specially since there is a view that the line will pass perilously close to monuments such as Chauburji and the Shalamar Gardens, obscuring or even damaging them.
Not too dissimilar debates marked the metro bus projects in both Lahore and Islamabad where concerned members of civil society and experts raised many objections to the construction of the raised track, its impact on the environment, including the felling of trees and eradication of green belts etc.
Since I haven’t followed these projects minutely and am unaware of their intricacies, I don’t know how many of these concerns were accommodated, or if there were public hearings at all or if the government just steamrolled any objections altogether.
Related: City heritage under threat: Kapoorthala House residents move LHC against Orange Line
But to me, a chronic Karachiite, no matter where in the world I may live for months, even years, Lahore and Islamabad remain a major source of envy. Yes, even jealousy, as the two cities debate and discuss the downside of development, the pros and cons of putting in place a certain type of public transport network vis-à-vis another. They debate what’s the right and appropriate type of development or technology. Experts may question whether the metro bus is the best mode of public transport or if the fixed rail ought to be preferable; whether surface networks better serve the needs of a bustling metropolis or if the underground offers the best solution.
Karachi, which many saw as the only ‘real’ city in Pakistan through the 1960s, now presents a picture of neglect.
Whatever one says about the attitude of successive Punjab governments and those in charge of the federal capital in terms of accommodating the legitimate concerns of citizens about negative aspects of certain projects, one cannot deny that infrastructure development is taking place.
On each occasion, I have flown into Islamabad and Lahore it hasn’t taken a gap of years to find easily identifiable evidence of a certain amount of dynamism. Even when trees are felled to add lanes and underpasses, somehow the sum total of greenery appears the same. Someone must be planting trees in place of those sadly felled. The general cleanliness is remarkably pleasing.
In each of the two cities, there appear several tree-lined avenues as do designated green belts and parks. Regardless of the maddening volumes of traffic in both cities, these give the impression of being cared for. Even those who may have misplaced urban priorities seem to be well-meaning.
In contrast, Karachi, which many thought was the only ‘real’ city in Pakistan through the 1960s and beyond, now presents a picture of total neglect. What was once called the ‘city of lights’ now appears to have been abandoned. Today, it seems to consist of thousands of heaps of garbage, of litter and of dug-up streets.
Nobody seems to care for it; no one interested in claiming ownership, unless of course it is for the crassest personal gain and greed. This in turn manifests itself in the haphazard and unplanned vertical construction that you see sprouting around the most expensive parts of the city.
I may not understand who allows such high-density office/ residential/ commercial projects when there is no accompanying enhancement of water supply and sewerage systems, road networks or for that matter parking facilities, making those forced to use either by visiting, renting or buying in any such project utterly miserable (even passersby are not spared the agony of clogged-up traffic). But I do know why this happens and so do you.
Just a few days ago, the Sindh chief minister was complaining that the prime minister promises federally funded projects but then funds are not forthcoming. The central government retorted with its own factsheet and quoted the example of the multimillion-gallon bulk water supply scheme to Karachi called K-4. It said the federal funds pledged for the critically needed project had been disbursed months ago while the Sindh government which was supposed to make available 50pc of the project cost out of its own resources was still to come up with its share.
Understandably, there is politics involved here. You can take your pick who to believe and so can I. But that isn’t the point, is it? In all this to-ing and fro-ing who is left holding the short end of the stick? The people of Karachi.
The compromises made by the most numerically superior representative party of the city, the MQM, in terms of accepting watered-down local bodies even when the much-delayed civic elections are being finally held means the city will remain voiceless. Even when MQM had teeth it failed to give its voters a viable public transport system.
The myopic PPP, which should have tried to make most of the situation once the MQM appeared sidelined by pumping in funds and carrying out exemplary development in Karachi to win over support, seems to have forsaken the city as its electoral interests remain restricted to one or two constituencies here and mostly in rural Sindh.
Today ‘development’ in Karachi is tragically synonymous with haphazard, misprioritised projects initiated with the specific purpose of milking the metropolis for the last penny possible so the pockets of the decision-makers and their cronies are lined.
One Parween Rehman may have been silenced but there remain many voices advocating sane and sustainable urban planning and development. If you haven’t read or heard architect and town-planner Arif Hasan, I suggest you do.
There are solutions aplenty and viable ones at that. But is there anyone who will step forward to take ownership of Karachi just like an array of military (Lt-Gen Jilani) and civilian leaders from Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif to Pervaiz Elahi to the Sharifs again did for Lahore?
As I have driven around the city of my birth these past few days, I have been filled with nostalgia of the city that was in my childhood in the 1960s and despair at what I see today. Will someone rescue it or will it be left to choke on its own vomit?
Abbas Nasir is a former editor of Dawn.
dawn.com/news/1221058/karachi-city-of-lights-that-was
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/are-really-winning-war-terror/d/105356
New Age Islam, Islam, Islamic Online, Islamic Website, Islam, Terrorism and Jihad, Islamphobia, Islam and Society, Interview, , Islam, Terrorism and Jihad, Islamphobia, ISIS in India