EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

Cost of conflict

IN war-like situations, particularly of the amorphous sort that Pakistan has increasingly experienced during the past decade, the difference between the innocent and the guilty can be merely a matter of opinion. Justice can depend on the snap judgement made by just a few individuals in a situation of stress, and retribution can be fatal. Take the case of the five Chechens shot dead near a Frontier Corps checkpoint in Quetta on Tuesday. The capital city police officer said that they were suicide bombers. Indeed, reportedly intelligence agencies had earlier received information that some suicide bombers had entered the city. Yet after the shooting, though the police claimed that explosives and detonators were recovered from the foreigners` possession, they stated that no suicide jackets were found. Witness accounts are conflicting. The police claim that the five attacked the checkpoint — certainly, three FC personnel were injured, one of them fatally. However, other accounts indicate that the slain people had been walking towards the checkpoint. Given that there were three women amongst the group, one of whom was photographed raising her arm in supplication after being wounded, it cannot be said with certainty that they were terrorists. Were they refugees? Or terrorists in the process of surrender, as some eye-witness reports indicate? We are unlikely, now, to find out.

The one certain thing is that the security personnel shot first and asked questions later. And that, sadly, is hardly surprising. Particularly since Pakistan became embroiled in the erstwhile `war on terror` in Afghanistan and the terrorist-militant uprising within its own borders, those on guard duty have been first in the line of fire. They must not only identify potential suicide bombers and terrorists but also try to apprehend them before they detonate themselves; the risk is immense. The death of the Chechens represents, in fact, the toll exacted by a prolonged conflict on society itself, where the mindset changes to shooting first and asking questions later, and reality becomes one of `kill or be killed`. It is a nerve-wracking predicament, and our police and law-enforcement personnel have faced it for years now.

The police and law-enforcement agencies` resources and abilities desperately need shoring up. They need better training, better equipment and far better standard response mechanisms. Those on guard duty need to be delineated from regular police and paramilitary personnel, and trained to traverse the terrain that is unique to their job. Without a modernised security force that is trained specifically to carry out guarding and surveillance duty, stopping potential terrorists — and taking innocent lives — will remain a matter of hit and miss.

Economic recovery?

THE notion that the government is serious about tax reforms to broaden the net and improve revenues has been shattered by its decision to back out of the implementation of reformed general sales tax (RGST) in the next budget. The International Monetary Fund, which had been pushing Pakistan to implement RGST and stopped the release of the last three tranches of its $11.3bn loan, has also dropped its demand. Islamabad is now required to abolish sales tax exemptions. The government`s about-turn on the RGST issue, not least because of the fear of renewed opposition from its allies in urban Sindh, has not come as a surprise. Even the finance minister`s pledges to implement the RGST in the next budget failed to impress sceptics. Politically, the government should no longer be worried about any resistance from the opposition or from its coalition partners to the passage of the budget. True, it couldn`t risk alienating its coalition partners and powerful business lobbies at a time when the elections are approaching. Economically, however, it has taken a major risk.

By abandoning the idea to replace the existing distorted sales tax regime with RGST, the government has given up plans to document the economy. Economic experts agree that the proposed tax is crucial in increasing the number of people and businesses that file taxes and in improving the abysmally low tax collection rates. Since Islamabad signed the stand-by arrangement loan with the IMF in November 2008, the government spared no effort in convincing the people that the implementation of the RGST would raise the tax-to-GDP ratio to at least 12 per cent from the current level of below 10 per cent. How it will achieve the target of a higher tax-to-GDP ratio remains unclear. The withdrawal of sales tax exemptions is unlikely to bring the required improvement in revenue collection. It will only jeopardise plans to realise the ambitious tax target of Rs1.9trn for the next year. Also, the fiscal deficit target of below four per cent of the GDP set by the IMF will be difficult to meet even if the government withdraws all subsidies. Clearly, economic recovery remains a distant dream.

AS the KESC`s management and protesting workers continue to wrangle, Karachi`s unfortunate citizens are caught in the middle. Though the power crisis is affecting the entire nation, the situation in Karachi has been compounded by a stand-off between the utility`s labour and management. The dispute was sparked by the KESC`s retrenchment of around 4,000 `non-core` workers earlier this year. Government intervention kept tempers down to a simmer for a while but in recent days the issue has flared up again. The KESC management maintains that its economic feasibility necessitates retrenchment. That may be true, but the result of the uncompromising stance taken by the management and the protesting workers is widespread outages. And when helpless consumers dial the utility`s helpline, a recorded message tells them that the company apologises for its inability to fix faults, due to the `sabotage` caused by workers.

This is a management-labour dispute, yet the impression being created is that the workers alone are responsible. This is no way to handle such an issue. The management may have a point in the fact that the KESC is grossly overstaffed. Yet retrenching such a large number of workers in one go is bound to give rise to resentment. The situation requires tact and diplomacy. The government, meanwhile, has remained apparently unconcerned despite the deteriorating law and order situation resulting from the outages in Karachi. Perhaps ministers and other government officials remain unconcerned because lengthy power outages in the sweltering heat don`t constitute much of a problem when they have generators for back-up power. Both the management and the workers need to climb down and negotiate a mutually acceptable solution. The government, meanwhile, needs to facilitate a resolution rather than standing by as a silent spectator.

Caught in the middle

AS the KESC’s management and protesting workers continue to wrangle, Karachi’s unfortunate citizens are caught in the middle. Though the power crisis is affecting the entire nation, the situation in Karachi has been compounded by a stand-off between the utility’s labour and management. The dispute was sparked by the KESC’s retrenchment of around 4,000 ‘non-core’ workers earlier this year. Government intervention kept tempers down to a simmer for a while but in recent days the issue has flared up again. The KESC management maintains that its economic feasibility necessitates retrenchment. That may be true, but the result of the uncompromising stance taken by the management and the protesting workers is widespread outages. And when helpless consumers dial the utility’s helpline, a recorded message tells them that the company apologises for its inability to fix faults, due to the ‘sabotage’ caused by workers.

This is a management-labour dispute, yet the impression being created is that the workers alone are responsible. This is no way to handle such an issue. The management may have a point in the fact that the KESC is grossly overstaffed. Yet retrenching such a large number of workers in one go is bound to give rise to resentment. The situation requires tact and diplomacy. The government, meanwhile, has remained apparently unconcerned despite the deteriorating law and order situation resulting from the outages in Karachi. Perhaps ministers and other government officials remain unconcerned because lengthy power outages in the sweltering heat don’t constitute much of a problem when they have generators for back-up power. Both the management and the workers need to climb down and negotiate a mutually acceptable solution. The government, meanwhile, needs to facilitate a resolution rather than standing by as a silent spectator.