EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

The way forward

HAVING failed to capture America’s prime enemy on Pakistani territory while the US launched a unilateral ground and air operation to do so, where do we go from this point? At stake is the future of American and Pakistani cooperation on counter-terrorism. The incident raises several difficult questions about the future of the US-Pakistan relationship as a whole, but it is in this area that the parameters will be most deeply questioned. Will America conduct more unilateral strikes in Pakistan if it has information about high-value targets? Will Pakistan hold back intelligence it might have about targets in the future? Some statements from both sides already indicate that collaboration on counter-terrorism could be threatened. The Foreign Office statement released on Tuesday mentioned “deep concerns and reservations” about the US operation. CIA chief Leon Panetta told the press that Pakistan was kept in the dark about the strike because “they might alert the targets”. The idea that even Bin Laden might have been protected speaks volumes for the level of American mistrust and the negative perception that the Pakistani state has managed to create about its intentions.

In the midst of all this back-and-forth, both sides must remember one thing: we have a common enemy. This was once America’s war, but for several years now it has been waged on Pakistani soil and at the cost of a huge number of Pakistani lives. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and some other militant groups say they attack the Pakistani state — and kill civilians in the process — because it cooperates with America. It was this very ideology that Bin Laden promoted, seeking retaliation for American interference in the Muslim world through attacks against the US and the Muslim governments who work with it. His second-in-command, Ayman al Zawahiri — who had given calls for jihad against the Pakistani state and the ‘un-Islamic’ politics practised in the country — and other senior members of the group remain at large.

The events of this week cannot be allowed to derail what is a shared goal: to secure both nations from a common threat. The post-Osama world requires a new chapter in counter-terrorism cooperation between the two countries. Fortunately, there is plenty of precedent to build on; on several occasions they have shared intelligence or conducted joint operations that have resulted in the arrests of high-profile terrorists in Pakistan, including Umar Patek as recently as March this year. One hopes that the recent operation was an exception resulting from Bin Laden’s status as Al Qaeda’s leader. Going
forward, cooperation is the only way the two countries will be able to fight the terrorist threat.

Inflation woes

PRICES are surging again. Food became more expensive last month. Energy prices shot up. Healthcare and transportation costs rose. House rents spiked. The common man is worried because his wages are not keeping pace with the swift change in prices. Industry is baffled as its input costs are soaring while its profits are eroding. The central bank is in a bind, not least because it is finding it more difficult to strike a balance between growth and inflation. The government, as always, is confused and doesn`t know where to look for a solu-tion to its plethora of economic troubles. Apart from a short interval, prices have shown a sustained growth in the last three years. The consequences of price inflation are already having an impact on the people and the economy. Poverty levels are rising and low- to middle-income people are forced to cut their spending on food, healthcare and education. Unemployment is spreading.

In a recent report, the Asian Development Bank has warned that the continued rise in prices (in countries like Pakistan) is bound to pull many below the poverty line. Economic uncertainty has increased, dampening investment confidence and slowing growth. Industry is curtailing production and cutting jobs. Experts agree that the price inflation will continue in the months to come owing to both domestic and international factors. Internationally, oil and food prices are escalating. Domestically, the resource-constrained government is forced to raise energy prices to contain its deficit. Also, provincial governments have been unable to check hoarding of various food items, making it difficult for consumers. The situation demands that policymakers formulate an effective strategy to push growth and contain inflation simultaneously. Also, the government must follow the economic and financial reforms agenda to improve its fiscal position and put in place a mechanism to prevent the artificial increase in food prices. The common people are least bothered about the internal and external causes of rising prices or CPI numbers. What they want is price stability and availability of food, energy and transportation at affordable prices. The government must work towards ensuring this.

Welcome assurances

THE interior minister has done well to assuage the Supreme Court`s concerns that the government is thinking of setting up military courts for trying terrorism cases. Appearing before the apex court on Monday in connection with the case of the missing persons, Rehman Malik said the government had no plans to amend the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, because it feared the law-enforcement agencies could misuse their powers under the amended act, though the detention period for suspects could be extended to 90 days. Even though the Supreme Court had summoned the interior minister and other officials to explain the delay in the recovery of missing persons, the idea of military courts for suspected militants had been in the air for quite some time, causing Supreme Court Bar Association chief Asma Jahangir to express her concerns over the reports.

The existence of parallel systems of prosecution and justice has served to confound and delay the judicial process in Pakistan. Already there are three sets of laws on the statute book — the traditional `British law` as amended from time to time in Pakistan, the Islamic laws imposed through decree by the Zia regime and a mix of these laws with those martial law regulations given constitutional protection by parliaments under military control. The end-result of this legal potpourri has been the slowing down rather than quickening of the judicial process. As we have pointed out several times in this space, the rate of conviction is low because the work of the prosecuting agencies leaves much to be desired, suspects on bail disappear and witnesses are won over or threatened — sometimes even murdered. Against this background we do not need more or harsher laws; what we need is an efficient prosecution process that helps courts in their quest to ensure that terrorists get their just deserts.