EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

Reconciliation efforts

PULL together the various Pakistani strands on Afghanistan and a tenuous picture begins to emerge. From President Zardari’s visit to Turkey to Gen Pasha’s trip to the US to the trio of Prime Minister Gilani, army chief Gen Kayani and the ISI chief meeting with the Afghan government in Kabul, three things are becoming clearer. One, the rapprochement between Afghan president Hamid Karzai and the Pakistani leadership, particularly the security establishment, is continuing. The overt animosity of years past has given way to noises about serious engagement. Two, the Karzai government and the Pakistani security establishment have found common ground on the need to pursue a political settlement to bring the war in Afghanistan to an end. ‘Reconciliation’ is the byword in the Karzai and Pakistani camps and both sides believe there is some possibility of enticing the Taliban to the negotiation table. Three, the Americans have for now chosen to not interfere in the Pak-Afghan attempts to explore the possibility of a political settlement to the war in Afghanistan. While the US does not appear willing to abandon its military-led counter-insurgency strategy yet, the Americans will be aware that July is fast approaching — at which point American strategy will definitely be reassessed.

Going forward, however, the same questions as before remain. Asfandyar Wali Khan, the leader of the ANP, has suggested that the Taliban insurgency was a political problem and could not be solved by military means. Given that the ANP had for years decried the Taliban as ‘savages’, Mr Khan’s latest statement appears to be a nod to the realities on the ground. Savage or not, defeating the Taliban insurgency through military means appears increasingly unlikely as opposed to trying to put in place the pieces for a political settlement. Common ground between the Taliban and the Afghan government is perhaps some way off, but there may be certain baselines. For one, parsing the insurgency in terms of the ‘nationalist’ Taliban and the ‘internationalist’/pan-Islamist Al Qaeda appears to hold some promise. Ten years into the war in Afghanistan, the Afghan Taliban have shown little interest in making their fight international — which means there could be something to negotiate between the Taliban and the anti-Taliban forces.

But will the Afghan Taliban bite at the opportunity to deal with Afghan government or insist on speaking to the Americans directly? Mullah Omar is the uncontested spiritual leader of the Taliban, but does he control the insurgency? Is the younger generation of Taliban commanders battle-hardened or war-weary? There are few answers about the Taliban’s mindset, making it extremely difficult to predict how the reconciliation efforts will pan out.

CJ’s advice

BY an extraordinary coincidence, the chief justice’s advice to the armed forces on their constitutional obligation came the day Pervez Musharraf told DawnNews TV that the basic law was nothing but a piece of paper, and that it was the country — whose interests, judging by his remarks, were defined by the armed forces — that mattered. Reminding a delegation of officers from Command and Staff College that they should concentrate on their job, CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry said on Saturday he was shocked to learn during his interaction with army officers that they were not fully aware of the significance of their oath under the constitution. A week earlier, Mr Chaudhry had asked the bureaucracy’s civilian segment not to take illegal orders from their superiors. The CJ’s advice and the retired army chief’s articulation of his political philosophy represent two strains of thought whose collision and collusion have shaped Pakistan’s history. Since 1958 four army chiefs have usurped power, abrogated or mauled the constitution, ruled with the help of claque and by design or default pre-empted the growth of democratic institutions. Their civilian counterparts willingly collaborated with the dictators and helped in the persecution of dissenters, while regrettably many in the higher judiciary considered it prudent to legitimise the military takeover more than once under the law of necessity.

Have the armed forces learnt the lesson? Going by Mr Musharraf’s virtual repetition in the second decade of the 21st century of similar remarks by Ziaul Haq, it would not be irrational to assume that anti-democracy sentiments still lurk in certain immature minds in the grip of the saviour syndrome. While we would like to believe that Mr Musharraf’s was the last military intervention, it will entail considerable resolve and sacrifice on the part of civil society to remain vigilant and thwart extra-constitutional measures to control Pakistan’s destiny through direct intervention or behind-the-scenes manipulation. Mr Chaudhry’s mild rebuke should prompt civilian and military bureaucrats to re-read Pakistan’s history. It would not take too much intellectual effort to discover the incalculable harm which anti-democratic aberrations have done to this country and its people.

Threat to trees?

A NEW phenomenon in the flood-affected parts of Sindh merits the authorities’ attention. On April 8, this newspaper published a photograph taken in a still-inundated part of Khairpur Nathan Shah, depicting trees cocooned in what appears to be a dense, cloud-like film resembling a spider web. Their appearance led local people to conjecture that spiders, displaced by floodwater, had taken refuge in the trees. No effort has been made to call in experts and determine what organism is responsible. This exercise must be undertaken, however, for the infestation may involve a hardy parasite. A senior botanist has pointed out that this phenomenon is more likely to be the work of spider mites, which are entirely different from spiders. Spider mites damage and kill plant cells; the web is there to protect their colonies against predators, not to capture insects. A single mature female spider mite can spawn a million-strong colony in less than a month. Their rapid reproductive cycle allows the species to adapt and become resistant to pesticides. Consequently, an infestation can lead to the large-scale death of trees.

Worryingly, most of the trees thus affected in Sindh are of the Acacia Nilotica species, referred to as the golden tree of Sindh due to its environmental suitability. High-density plantations of the species, which is considered a very productive forest system, have been cultivated along the plains of the River Indus. It bodes ill for the environmental health of the area if they are in danger. While spider mites are not unknown in Pakistan, it is possible that the effect of the floods was to concentrate and restrict their colonies to certain areas where Acacia Nilotica trees became easy prey. The Sindh Forest Department must ensure that steps are taken to counteract any danger.