EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

The denial syndrome

THERE was perhaps an inevitability to the denials that have come tumbling from various quarters in Pakistan in the wake of the secret US diplomatic cables published by this newspaper. Some of the denials have been pro forma and perfunctory; others heated and indignant — but all have had one thing in common: a desperate attempt to cling to the increasing obviously disconnect between what occurs in private and what Pakistan`s leaders, political and military, believe the public needs to be told about the affairs of the state. It is one thing to use every means available to pursue the declared interests of a state or a political party, quite another to pursue duplicitous policies that are seemingly only rooted in expediency and personal self-perpetuation.

The PML-N took a `principled` public stand on the restoration of the judiciary. Fair enough, and in fact the restoration was an important step towards the eventual goal of a judiciary freed from the yoke of the executive. But what prevented the PML-N from also saying that while all the judges had to be restored, to truly create a free judiciary several other steps had to be taken and those steps would have in- cluded new arrangements for how the judiciary is to operate? None of the PML-N`s detractors would have been able to argue that it was any less principled to first ensure the restoration of all judges sacked by Musharraf and then, as a follow-up measure, make some institutional changes to help the judiciary deliver better and fairer results. What does explain the PML-N`s private-public disconnect is an age-old canard: that `the public` is too simple and too naive to understand rational arguments as opposed to ones rooted in emotion which are readily lapped up. From the security establishment, the duplicity has been even greater. Privately, and sometimes publicly, as in the case of a serving general stationed in the Waziristan agencies, the secu-rity establishment has acknowledged the effi-cacy and desirability of drone strikes. But because drone strikes are `unpopular` with `the public`, the security establishment chose to publicly deny its acceptance of the strikes. At this point, though, it becomes important to ask: how did drone strikes become `unpopular` with the public in the first place? Has the security establishment itself not encouraged, if not sponsored, anti-drones spiel?

Sir Creek dispute

A BEGINNING needs to be made and resolving the Sir Creek dispute is easily the most negotiable lingering disconnect between Pakistan and India. Territorial waters, and the jurisdiction that goes with them, are always a thorny issue even among countries that have far less baggage to handle than the two neighbours on either side of Wagah. In that context, it is encouraging to note that Pakistani and Indian officials engaged in a two-day discussion, that ended on Saturday, on drawing a boundary in the seas that will save citizens of both countries needless heartache and misery. Sir Creek is located in the Rann of Kutch delta. Pakistan claims rights, in accordance with the Bombay Government Resolution of 1914, to the entire waters surrounding and fed by the creek. India, for its part, insists that it owns half of the area on the basis of the Thalweg Doctrine pertaining to international law. The stalemate continues despite the 2007 joint survey which, it was hoped, would settle this relatively minor issue once and for all.

Sir Creek needs to be resolved at the earliest, and it can be done. Then we can discuss thornier issues such as Siachen and the stand-off on that glacier. Once that has been tackled, the two neighbours can perhaps move towards confronting the biggest elephant in the room: Kashmir. That remains a distant dream and, given our mutual history and national interests, it seems unlikely that a solution to that conflict will emerge out of the blue. Still, the key here is to take it one step at a time. Both sides need to ponder, digest and answer questions that have been left unaddressed for far too long. Pakistan`s water woes need to be talked about in all sincerity, to name just one pressing topic. Distrust, though understandable on some levels, has got us nowhere. What is required now is the olive branch from both countries so that we live as neighbours. Let`s start with Sir Creek and bring the dispute to an end. Repeat: make a start so that the future is brighter for all concerned.

MPs` tunnel vision

THE security concerns of our parliamentarians in Islamabad appear to have received something of a jolt. On Friday, the Capital Development Authority chief said the proposal to build a tunnel for the benefit of our lawmakers had been shelved. Clearly, the MNAs and senators, elected by Pakistan`s toiling masses to find a solution to their problems, consider themselves VIPs. For that dubious reason of self-importance, they had demanded that a tunnel worthy of VIPs be built so they could cover the 500-foot distance from the Parliament Lodges to Parliament House in peace. While making the demand, that bordered on the grotesque if not on paranoia, they forgot that in case of a conflict of interest between this VIP and that, it would be the safety concerns of the higher breed that would take precedence. The plan, therefore, stands shelved because, ironically enough, some security services have refused to give clearance to the project that was to be built in what is labelled the red zone.

Luckily, as the CDA chief told after a parliamentary committee hearing, the feasibility of the tunnel project had never been undertaken. Normally, we would have criticised such a lapse as bureaucratic sloth. But in this case, those connected with project evaluation have surprised us by developing a fairly good idea about the worth of our parliamentarians` work. Every other day, the Speaker has to adjourn the session because of lack of quorum. Why dig a tunnel when there is no guarantee that parliamentarians will show better attendance and a greater involvement in legislative business if they walk under instead of across Constitution Avenue? If at all the road is to be tunnelled for their benefit, why not save money and ask the parliamentarians themselves to dig? Exercise, after all, is supposed to benefit both mind and body.