EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

Ineffective defence

IN Pakistan, it is rare for anyone to even consider the possibility of their own culpability when faced with errors or slip-ups. This is especially true in sensitive cases. It was therefore a rather courageous step by the Pakistan Air Force to explain why it had failed to detect the US helicopters used in the operation against Osama bin Laden. Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman was reported as having said that the high-level radars along Pakistan’s western border had been inactive on the day in question, given that the country was not expecting any aerial threat from Afghanistan. A day later, PAF spokesman Air Commodore Tariq Yazdani said that the air surveillance system had neither been jammed nor had it been inactive. Given that he was unable to confirm whether the PAF had been aware of the helicopters’ incursion, we are left with even more questions.

Meanwhile, the list of Pakistan’s intelligence failures in terms of Bin Laden’s whereabouts constitutes a damning body of evidence. According to Bin Laden’s widow, he and his family left the tribal areas in 2003 to live in Chak Shah Mohammad, a settled area on the highway to Abbottabad, to which place they moved in 2005. This means that Pakistan’s security and intelligence forces somehow failed to take note of the presence of the world’s most wanted man in their backyard for over half a decade. Indeed, Afghanistan’s former intelligence chief, Amrullah Saleh, said on Thursday that Afghanistan’s intelligence service had suspected that Bin Laden had been hiding in Pakistan’s settled areas but that when the then president Musharraf was informed, he refused to entertain the idea.

All these revelations are not just embarrassing; they also raise serious doubts about a defence and security establishment that
prides itself on its effective professionalism. On Thursday, the army chief ordered an investigation into the intelligence failures that led to Bin Laden’s undetected presence, and why US personnel were able to enter Pakistani territory without the country’s security forces noticing. A step in the right direction though this may be, more is needed to assuage the doubts of Pakistanis. Their faith in the effectiveness of the security establishment has been badly shaken. Terrorists strike across the country with impunity; now, it seems that external forces can also enter undetected. An inquiry is needed not only into the recent intelligence failures but also the gaps in the defence and security system. It is hard, after all, to overlook the huge percentage of GDP that is swallowed up by the defence budget, and at a tremendous cost. Are Pakistanis getting what they’re paying for?

Cabinet expansion

THERE is nothing really surprising about new political alliances being forged in a country where scenarios in Islamabad keep changing and ideological identities remain murky. A week is a long time in politics, it is said, and as such it should come as no surprise that the ruling Pakistan People’s Party is now wooing its former arch-rivals, the PML-Q. But winning back former foes and also one-time allies like the MQM comes at a price to the nation. The cabinet and regimen of ministers of state is being expanded yet again to appease all concerned after an earlier decision this year to reduce the size of government, even before the time limit set by the 18th Amendment to the constitution of Pakistan. What this amounts to is profligacy at a time when a majority of the country’s residents are living in dire straits, unable to manage a few square meals a day. In addition to the poor, middle-class citizens too have been hit hard by an inflationary situation that appears to be spiralling out of control. Yet, in the name of political expediency, the authorities in Islamabad are again adding to the ministerial list at the expense of honest taxpayers and indeed the nation.

If the PPP was compelled, for whatever reason, to induct new ministers it ought to have cut down on members of its own retinue. A bloated cabinet at a time of economic deprivation flies in the face of economic sense or, it could be argued, even moral grounding. Much has been said by the government about austerity in recent years but most observers have seen little of it in practice. Words alone will not do when the country’s majority is barely making ends meet. The government must show that it means business, that it cares for the welfare of the people. True, times are tough all around the globe these days and Pakistan is no exception. But the government too must realise that it must play its due role in following an austerity drive, both in letter and in spirit.

Murder of activists

THE murder on Friday of two men associated with the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum remains a murky affair. Although charges have been filed, reporters who cover the affairs of the fishermen community say that the exact circumstances of the crime and the identity of the murderers remain unclear. Complicating matters is the death earlier the same day of another fisherman, one who reportedly belonged to a rival group. Whether the PFF men were killed in retaliation remains unclear; the rivalry was reportedly an ongoing one and also involved political and social influence in the area. However, one major undercurrent was almost certainly a dispute over the future of our coastal mangroves. The PFF men had been campaigning for the conservation of mangrove forests, and in the process had taken positions against those seeking to occupy and clear the land for commercial purposes. If their murders were in fact committed in retaliation for this, it constituted a huge blow to an important environmental cause. Pakistan’s mangrove forests are breeding grounds for fish and shrimp that sustain coastal communities and also serve as bulwarks against heavy rains and flooding.

But the incident also points to the larger problem of land grabbing in Karachi. In this metropolis, that is bursting at the seams, land ownership has come to be equated with money and power. The issue has become a deeply violent and politicised one, with land disputes now a routine cause of targeted killings. Sadly, a system of corruption has developed to support this; without the connivance of elements of the police and other departments of the bureaucracy, these actions would almost certainly not be taking place. Often associated with armed gangs in some of the city’s most violent areas, land grabbing may now have claimed the lives of environmental activists.