Former Prime Ministers Nawaz Shariff and Benazir Bhutto continue to struggle to reach consensus on how to deal with the elections announced by President Parvez Musharaff. Both filed nominations. Shariff has been disqualified. Benazir announced the Pakistan Peoples Party’s election manifesto on 30 November 2007. Since then, Shariff and Bhutto have been trying to cobble together a pro-democracy alliance but so far they have succeeded only in undermining the democracy movement; the lawyers, journalists and human rights activists – have been sidelined.
Benazir Bhutto’s election manifesto offers no alternative. The proposals lack any substance. She has nothing to offer in terms of governance. There is nothing substantive on human rights.
Some of the key issues of concern are highlighted below.
I. No commitment on an independent National Human Rights Commission
At page 15 of its election manifesto under the heading “Human Rights”, the PPP boasts of introducing a Ministry of Human Rights in Pakistan and promises to respect the life, liberty, property, livelihood and right to freedom of association, expression and movement of every citizen and honour the 'International Human Rights Declaration' in both letter and spirit. This is not a real solution to Pakistan’s deeply rooted rights problems.
The Ministry of Human Rights has failed while the previous administration attempted to establish an independent National Human Rights Commission. A draft National Commission for Human Rights Bill was presented to the National Assembly in February 2005. In May 2005, the Bill was referred to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights for further consideration and deliberations. The mechanism has not moved since.
Pakistan needs a strong National Human Rights Commission. It needs a Commission which complies with the United Nations Paris Principles on National Human Rights Institutions. Strangely, the PPP promised to establish an independent National Commission for Religious Minorities but fails to address the issues of an independent national human rights institution.
The PPP must support the establishment of a National Human Rights Commission.
II. No commitment at international level
On international commitments, the PPP states “It will honour the International Human Rights Declaration in both letter and spirit.”
Despite being targeted by successive military rulers, the PPP’s leadership appears to be illiterate on “human rights”. There is no “international human rights declaration” unless they were referring to the “Universal Declaration on Human Rights”. The issue is not about honouring a UN human rights declaration but rather more about undertaking legal obligations by ratifying the treaties and ensuring their compliance at national level. So far, Pakistan has failed to ratify International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance; International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict; and Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
For a country with human rights problems on a scale of Pakistan, the poverty of knowledge on human rights is astonishing. For the PPP human rights is only to be invoked to protest the arrest of political leaders. Human rights are only for PPP leaders. When in power the PPP had an appalling record on human rights, see ACHR Weekly Review titled “Bhutto and Shariff: Be Careful of What You Wish For” of 14 November 2007.
III. Improving the plight of the minorities
The PPP promises to establish a national commission on minorities with the powers of a tribunal and review discriminatory laws. This looks like nothing more than rhetoric given that the PPP’s manifesto is silent on amending the 1973 Constitution introduced by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The Constitution sanctions discrimination. Article 2 of the Constitution declares Islam as “the State religion of Pakistan” and the Holy Quran and Sunnah to be “the supreme law and source of guidance for legislation to be administered through laws enacted by the Parliament and Provincial Assemblies, and for policy making by the Government.” Hence, the Constitution justifies Acts or Ordinances which justify discrimination like the “Anti-Islamic Activities of the Quadiani Group, Lahori Group and Ahmadis (Prohibition and Punishment) Ordinance, 1984” promulgated by then President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, which inserted draconian provisions such as Sections 298-B and 298-C in Pakistan’s Penal Code. Without amendment of the 1973 Constitution, discrimination will be sanctioned by the state.
IV. Empowerment of women
The PPP’s manifesto has a lot of promises on empowerment of women including enunciation of a national employment policy for women; increasing the job quota for women in civil services to 20%; enabling legal ownership of women over assets and resources through legislation; appointment of women judges in the family courts and upper judiciary; prevention of crimes through institutional initiatives etc.
The PPP says nothing on the need to strengthen the National Commission on the Status of Women which does not have adequate powers. If strengthened with a wide mandate and supported by adequate resources, the National Commission on the Status of Women can become the nodal agency of the Government for empowerment of women in Pakistan.
The existing National Commission on the Status of Women has not been established by the Parliament but a product of an Ordinance promulgated by General Pervez Musharraf in a state of emergency. This is required to be strengthened through enactment of a law by the Parliament. Besides, the procedure of appointment of the Chairperson and the members compromises the independence of the Commission. They are to be appointed only by the Federal Government and there is no requirement of concurrence of views of the leader of opposition either of the National Assembly or of the Senate. At present the Additional Secretary or a Director General of the Ministry of Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education is acting as the Secretary of the Commission. The functions of the Commission are enormous and daunting and therefore, certainly needs an independent Secretary to effectively carry out the mandate of the commission. Finally the provision that the Chairperson, Members and other staff of the Commission are public servants makes the Commission an extended arm of the Federal Government instead of making it autonomous.[1]
V. PPP’s silence on the American War against terror
The PPP is silent on the policies of President Pervez Musharraf on war against terror. Although the exact number of detainees handed over to the US is unclear[2] it is believed that some 700 suspects have been arrested by the security forces. Many of them have been held incommunicado and many of them have been handed over to the United States for interrogation without any trial in Pakistan.
VI. Deathly silence on the plight of the Balochis
Apart from the promise of inducting 10,000 male health workers in Balochistan along with the North West Frontier Province there is no mention of either the plight of the Balochis or any action plans to solve their problems in the PPP’s manifesto. It makes no mention of redressing the genuine grievances of the Balochis including the killing of hundreds of Balochis by the security forces.
Similarly, it does not talk about repealing the draconian Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) currently in operation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. It only talks about amending the FCR to enable a right of appeal to the Peshawar High Court and further to the Supreme Court against all convictions under it. It seems that the PPP is not concerned about the widespread human rights violations that are being perpetrated by the Political Agents or Assistant Political Agents under this draconian legislation. The very existence of such a draconian law only in the FATA and nowhere else throughout Pakistan is a clear case of racial discrimination against the tribal peoples of FATA.
VII. Judiciary
On judicial reforms, PPP’s manifesto only promises about establishing a neutral independent judiciary.
PPP has failed to raise the issue of reinstatement of the judges illegally dismissed by General Pervez Musharraf to validate his own election as President.
Moreover, the PPP manifesto fails to state that the PPP government will implement directions/orders issued by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhury. Most important among them is the one on missing persons. In fact, among others, it is the notices issued by Mr. Justice Chaudhury to the General Pervez Musharraf Government which brought the judiciary in direct conflict with the generals. Upon reinstatement, Mr. Justice Chaudhry again issued suo motu notices to Chief Secretary and Provincial Police Officer of Balochistan on 1 August 2007 on the rising number of disappearances of political activists in Balochistan. Again on 29 October 2007, a three member Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry told the interior and defence secretaries that failure to trace and release all individuals illegally detained by secret agencies would result in stern action according to the law.[3]
PPP once again fails to make any commitment.
VIII. Press and media Freedom
On media freedom, the PPP’s manifesto boasts of liberating the Pakistani Press. It promises to establishing a Press Complaint Commission and ensuring participation by the private sector in the press and media industry. However, there is no mention of anything about repealing of the draconian Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) under which scores of journalists and media persons have been booked, arrested and convicted. General Pervez Musharraf widely misused this law to gag the electronic media. Several news channel critical of the military regime have been banned.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had a poor human rights record. After years of exile, she has nothing except to demand that Musharraf be replaced. If her manifesto is anything to go by it is unclear how democracy or human rights would be any better served.
[1]. See the ordinance on the National Commission on the Status of Women; available at: http://ncsw.gov.pk/modules/cjaycontent/index.php?id=6
[2]. Amnesty International’s Report, available at: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engasa330362006
[3]. Govt warned of stern action if missing people not released, The Daily Times, 30 October 2007
Showing posts with label Matters of South Asia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matters of South Asia. Show all posts
Thursday, 6 December 2007
Sunday, 25 November 2007
Pakistan's Problems Start At The Top
Gen. Pervez Musharraf seized power in Pakistan eight years ago, claiming that the army had to step in to save the country from corrupt and incompetent politicians. Since then, he has run both the army and the government himself, with the connivance of a rubber-stamp Parliament put in place through rigged elections. His rule has proved to be a dismal failure, creating more problems than those it set out to solve.
Earlier this month, with opposition to his regime growing and the courts about to rule that he could not legally be president, Musharraf chose to suspend the constitution and impose emergency rule. He dismissed the Supreme Court and arrested the judges, replacing them with judges who will bend to his will. He blocked all independent television channels and threatened to punish the news media if it disparaged him or the army. His police arrested thousands of lawyers and pro-democracy activists. He ordered that civilians be tried in closed military courts. This is what is necessary, he said, to save Pakistan from a rapidly growing Islamist insurgency.
But no one should believe him.
It is true that over the last decade Islamist militants -- Pakistani Taliban nurtured in madrasas along the Afghan border -- have grown stronger and widened their reach. Each day brings news that the government's security forces have surrendered to Taliban fighters without firing a shot. Flaunting its strength, the Taliban has released many of these soldiers -- and even paid their way home. Other prisoners, especially Shiites, have been beheaded and their corpses mutilated.
Musharraf's government and his army have been woefully unsuccessful at handling this insurgency. They have lost control in many areas bordering Afghanistan and in the North-West Frontier Province. Earlier this month, the militants took over a third town in the Swat valley, only half a day's ride from the capital, Islamabad, while others captured the Pakistan-Austria Training Institute for Hotel Management in Charbagh.
Across the country, Islamists have taken over public buildings, forced local government officials to flee and promised to bring law and order. A widely available Taliban-made video shows the bodies of criminals dangling from electricity poles in the town of Miranshah, the administrative headquarters of North Waziristan.
The militants have even made their first major foray into the capital. From January to July of this year, the government allowed heavily armed extremists sympathetic to Al Qaeda and the Taliban to freely function out of Islamabad's Red Mosque. It is less than two miles from Musharraf's official residence at President House, from parliament and from the much-vaunted Inter-Services Intelligence headquarters. But the authorities were nowhere to be seen as armed vice-and-virtue squads sent out by the Islamists kidnapped prostitutes, burned CDs and videos, forced women to wear burkas and demanded that city laws be bent to their will. The government sent in clerics and politicians sympathetic to the militants as negotiators, and made one concession after another.
Amid growing public and international demands to act, Musharraf finally sent in special troops. The military action turned Islamabad into a war zone. When the smoke from rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns had cleared, more than 117 people (the official count) were dead, many of them girls from a neighboring seminary. Mullahs promised revenge, and it began shortly afterward in a wave of suicide bombings across the country that has claimed hundreds of lives.
Why has Musharraf failed so dramatically to stop the insurgency? One reason is that most of the public is hostile to government action against the extremists (and the rest offer tepid support at best). Most Pakistanis see the militants as America's enemy, not their own. The Taliban is perceived as the only group standing up against the unwelcome American presence in the region. Some forgive the Taliban's excesses because it is cloaked in the garb of religion. Pakistan, they reason, was created for Islam, and the Taliban is merely asking for Pakistan to be more Islamic.
Even normally vocal, urban, educated Pakistanis -- those whose values and lifestyles would make them eligible for decapitation if the Taliban were to succeed in taking the cities -- are strangely silent. Why? Because they see Musharraf and the Pakistan army as unworthy of support, both for blocking the path to democracy and for secretly supporting the Taliban as a means of countering Indian influence in Afghanistan.
There is merit to this view. Army rule for 30 of Pakistan's 60 years as a country has left a terrible legacy. The army is huge, well-equipped, armed now with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and has perhaps the world's richest generals. Sitting or retired army officers govern provinces, run government agencies, administer universities, manage banks and make breakfast cereals.
Military rule has also created a class of dependent politicians who understand that cutting a deal with the army is the passage to power. For them, public office is an opportunity not to govern but to gain privilege and wealth for themselves, their relatives and their friends. Meanwhile, barely half of Pakistan's people can read and write, and one-third live below the poverty line.
The ties between the military and the Islamic militants are also well known. For more than 25 years, the army has nurtured Islamist radicals as proxy warriors for covert operations on Pakistan's borders in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Various army chiefs honed a strategy that juggled their relationship with the U.S. against the demands of local intelligence chiefs, and of mullahs, tribal leaders, politicians and fortune seekers who have contacts with the militants. Radical groups are encouraged. As they grow and start to slip out of control, these groups are tolerated and appeased to keep them loyal. When interests inevitably clash, a military crackdown follows. The innocent are caught in the crossfire.
If Pakistan is to fight and win the war against the Taliban, it will need to mobilize both its people and the state. Musharraf's recent declaration of emergency will only make this much harder.
In the short term, Pakistan's current political crisis may be managed by having Musharraf resign -- both as president and as head of the army. And before he does so, he must also restore the judiciary and constitution, lift the curbs on the media, free all political prisoners and set up a caretaker government. These are the necessary conditions for holding free and fair elections.
Credibility of elections requires that former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif -- whatever one might think of their personal integrity -- both be included among the contestants. Bhutto loudly announced in Washington that she will take on Al Qaeda and the Taliban as her first priority, whereas Sharif is closer to the Islamic parties. But, as their past tenures suggest, if elected, realpolitik will force both to act similarly.
Only a freely chosen and representative government can win public support for taking on the Taliban. But to do this, it will need to begin addressing the larger, long-term political, social and economic problems facing Pakistan. The country must seek a more normal relationship with India. Only then can the army be cut down to size and Pakistan free itself from the massive military expenditures and the nuclear weapons that burden it. It must address the grievous regional inequalities that feed resentment against Islamabad. The government must push to provide basic needs and sustainable livelihoods to the rural and urban poor. It must offer people hope.
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
(Pervez Hoodbhoy teaches at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.)
Earlier this month, with opposition to his regime growing and the courts about to rule that he could not legally be president, Musharraf chose to suspend the constitution and impose emergency rule. He dismissed the Supreme Court and arrested the judges, replacing them with judges who will bend to his will. He blocked all independent television channels and threatened to punish the news media if it disparaged him or the army. His police arrested thousands of lawyers and pro-democracy activists. He ordered that civilians be tried in closed military courts. This is what is necessary, he said, to save Pakistan from a rapidly growing Islamist insurgency.
But no one should believe him.
It is true that over the last decade Islamist militants -- Pakistani Taliban nurtured in madrasas along the Afghan border -- have grown stronger and widened their reach. Each day brings news that the government's security forces have surrendered to Taliban fighters without firing a shot. Flaunting its strength, the Taliban has released many of these soldiers -- and even paid their way home. Other prisoners, especially Shiites, have been beheaded and their corpses mutilated.
Musharraf's government and his army have been woefully unsuccessful at handling this insurgency. They have lost control in many areas bordering Afghanistan and in the North-West Frontier Province. Earlier this month, the militants took over a third town in the Swat valley, only half a day's ride from the capital, Islamabad, while others captured the Pakistan-Austria Training Institute for Hotel Management in Charbagh.
Across the country, Islamists have taken over public buildings, forced local government officials to flee and promised to bring law and order. A widely available Taliban-made video shows the bodies of criminals dangling from electricity poles in the town of Miranshah, the administrative headquarters of North Waziristan.
The militants have even made their first major foray into the capital. From January to July of this year, the government allowed heavily armed extremists sympathetic to Al Qaeda and the Taliban to freely function out of Islamabad's Red Mosque. It is less than two miles from Musharraf's official residence at President House, from parliament and from the much-vaunted Inter-Services Intelligence headquarters. But the authorities were nowhere to be seen as armed vice-and-virtue squads sent out by the Islamists kidnapped prostitutes, burned CDs and videos, forced women to wear burkas and demanded that city laws be bent to their will. The government sent in clerics and politicians sympathetic to the militants as negotiators, and made one concession after another.
Amid growing public and international demands to act, Musharraf finally sent in special troops. The military action turned Islamabad into a war zone. When the smoke from rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns had cleared, more than 117 people (the official count) were dead, many of them girls from a neighboring seminary. Mullahs promised revenge, and it began shortly afterward in a wave of suicide bombings across the country that has claimed hundreds of lives.
Why has Musharraf failed so dramatically to stop the insurgency? One reason is that most of the public is hostile to government action against the extremists (and the rest offer tepid support at best). Most Pakistanis see the militants as America's enemy, not their own. The Taliban is perceived as the only group standing up against the unwelcome American presence in the region. Some forgive the Taliban's excesses because it is cloaked in the garb of religion. Pakistan, they reason, was created for Islam, and the Taliban is merely asking for Pakistan to be more Islamic.
Even normally vocal, urban, educated Pakistanis -- those whose values and lifestyles would make them eligible for decapitation if the Taliban were to succeed in taking the cities -- are strangely silent. Why? Because they see Musharraf and the Pakistan army as unworthy of support, both for blocking the path to democracy and for secretly supporting the Taliban as a means of countering Indian influence in Afghanistan.
There is merit to this view. Army rule for 30 of Pakistan's 60 years as a country has left a terrible legacy. The army is huge, well-equipped, armed now with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and has perhaps the world's richest generals. Sitting or retired army officers govern provinces, run government agencies, administer universities, manage banks and make breakfast cereals.
Military rule has also created a class of dependent politicians who understand that cutting a deal with the army is the passage to power. For them, public office is an opportunity not to govern but to gain privilege and wealth for themselves, their relatives and their friends. Meanwhile, barely half of Pakistan's people can read and write, and one-third live below the poverty line.
The ties between the military and the Islamic militants are also well known. For more than 25 years, the army has nurtured Islamist radicals as proxy warriors for covert operations on Pakistan's borders in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Various army chiefs honed a strategy that juggled their relationship with the U.S. against the demands of local intelligence chiefs, and of mullahs, tribal leaders, politicians and fortune seekers who have contacts with the militants. Radical groups are encouraged. As they grow and start to slip out of control, these groups are tolerated and appeased to keep them loyal. When interests inevitably clash, a military crackdown follows. The innocent are caught in the crossfire.
If Pakistan is to fight and win the war against the Taliban, it will need to mobilize both its people and the state. Musharraf's recent declaration of emergency will only make this much harder.
In the short term, Pakistan's current political crisis may be managed by having Musharraf resign -- both as president and as head of the army. And before he does so, he must also restore the judiciary and constitution, lift the curbs on the media, free all political prisoners and set up a caretaker government. These are the necessary conditions for holding free and fair elections.
Credibility of elections requires that former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif -- whatever one might think of their personal integrity -- both be included among the contestants. Bhutto loudly announced in Washington that she will take on Al Qaeda and the Taliban as her first priority, whereas Sharif is closer to the Islamic parties. But, as their past tenures suggest, if elected, realpolitik will force both to act similarly.
Only a freely chosen and representative government can win public support for taking on the Taliban. But to do this, it will need to begin addressing the larger, long-term political, social and economic problems facing Pakistan. The country must seek a more normal relationship with India. Only then can the army be cut down to size and Pakistan free itself from the massive military expenditures and the nuclear weapons that burden it. It must address the grievous regional inequalities that feed resentment against Islamabad. The government must push to provide basic needs and sustainable livelihoods to the rural and urban poor. It must offer people hope.
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
(Pervez Hoodbhoy teaches at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.)
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Bhutan's balancing act: Happiness vs. development
Bhutan is becoming increasingly urbanised
Landlocked in the eastern Himalayas, the tiny country of Bhutan seems almost untouched by globalisation. Its icy peaks, deep green gorges, sparkling rivers and quaint buildings with multi-tiered sloping roofs strengthen the feeling of a country disconnected from the chaos of megacities and concrete jungles.
This pristine impression is partly due to Bhutan's strong commitment to environmental preservation. Bhutan's laws reserve 70 per cent of its land for 'green' cover, of which 60 per cent should be forests.
Bhutan is one of the few countries to employ the concept of gross national happiness — that social and economic development should promote happiness as its primary value.
Conservation of the environment and sustainable and equitable socioeconomic development are the two pillars of gross national happiness, which was declared more important than gross national product by Bhutan's then king, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, in 1972.
But today, the country is facing change. Global warming is melting many of its glaciers, while its need for economic development and quest to export hydropower to neighbouring India may harm its fragile terrain. Bhutan is grappling with the dilemma of conservation versus development.
Development taking its toll
A growing population — up from 452,000 in 1984 to 750,000 in 2006 — as well as an increase in urbanisation and infrastructure is taking its toll on Bhutan's environment.
Analysis by the National Environment Commission (NEC), an inter-ministerial body that develops policies on sustainable development, shows that about 25,000 acres of land have been used for development projects, while land and water pollution is an emerging environment problem in and around urban and industrial areas.
Development projects such as roads and power lines, NEC warns, could impact biodiversity by cutting through natural habitats and destablising fragile mountain slopes if they are not built in an environmentally sensitive manner.
Urban areas — along with some rural areas of southern and eastern Bhutan — are already witnessing localised deforestation, says the Bhutan office of the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
And a steady increase in vehicles — the number of cars rose by 11–17 per cent each year from 1985 to 2003 — is harming Bhutan's air quality, once considered among the best in South Asia.
Bhutan's development of hydropower plants could also impact the environment. Hydropower potential in Bhutan is estimated at over 30,000 megawatts, 16,000 megawatts of which could be provided safely by exploitable water resources like river run-offs. Only three per cent of this has been tapped, estimates the NEC, with domestic consumption in 2005 only 105 megawatts, and the country hopes to export some of this energy at a profit to neighbouring India.
Global warming at its door
Meanwhile, Bhutan is facing up to the impact of global warming. The country has a fragile mountain ecosystem, and climate change is a serious challenge to sustainable development and the livelihood of the Bhutanese people, says Nado Rinchen, deputy minister for environment.
Bhutan puts the happiness ofits people before development
Credit: Flickr/mick y"Bhutan did not contribute to global warming, and yet we have to suffer the consequences today", he says.
Bhutan is one of the few countries in the world with the capacity to absorb greenhouse gases. NEC's national greenhouse gas inventory — a record of emission and removal of gases that cause global warming, conducted in 2000 — shows that Bhutan is a net greenhouse gas absorber, largely because of its vast forest cover, limited industrialisation and use of hydropower as a clean energy source.
Despite this, Bhutan's glaciers have been retreating over the last few decades at about 20–30 metres every year due to global warming, creating many moraine dammed lakes — lakes clogged by accumulated debris, which prevent meltwater from escaping — that are swelling rapidly.
Floods of these lakes — glacial lake outburst floods — are a serious concern. Bhutan has already experienced several of these floods and has 24 potentially dangerous glacial lakes, according to ICIMOD (the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development) in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Bhutan's National Adaptation Programme of Action, released in 2006, warns of changes in water flows, increased sedimentation of water reservoirs and networks, and reduced capacity of water catchment areas, all affecting hydropower electricity production.
Higher rainfall in areas without proper drainage systems can destabilise the soil, leading to landslides and more floods. Rinchen says Bhutan urgently needs to map its hazard zones as it is also prone to destructive landslides, mudslides and floods.
Bhutan has no proper weather or climate forecasting capabilities and its climate data and information is sparse, points out Doley Tshering, program officer for energy, environment and disaster, at UNDP's Bhutan office.
Conservation at stake
NEC officials fear that climate change and the consequent rise in temperature and forest fires, along with changing rainfall patterns, could affect the country's extensive forest cover, rich biodiversity and clean water resources.
Bhutan's biodiversity is one of the richest in the world. It ranks among the top ten countries with the highest number of species per unit area, contains three of the World Wildlife Fund's ecoregions of great biological wealth, and many of its plants have medicinal value.
Bhutan forest's are rich inbiodiversity
Credit: Flickr/HoorobUnsurprisingly, conservation is central to Bhutan's 1998 National Environment Strategy, which aims to balance economic development and environmental conservation.
The core of Bhutan's conservation strategy is a system of national parks and protected areas that form 26 per cent of its land. An additional nine per cent is designated as 'biological corridors' or 'wildlife highways' that link protected areas to allow free movement of animals.
Yet much of Bhutan's biological wealth remains unexplored by scientists. There is no baseline data to help scientists document and monitor changes in vegetation, wildlife and forests.
Some efforts have been initiated, with NEC due to sign an agreement with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) this year to set up the Bhutan Integrated Biodiversity Information System to gather, interpret and document biodiversity information from both protected and other areas.
Putting the environment into development
Rinchen says Bhutan's tenth national five-year plan, to be launched in 2008, will allocate ten per cent of all funds to programmes for environment activities, while the UNDP and UNEP are helping NEC to develop guidelines for incorporating environment into development plans and policies.
A National Environment Protection Act (NEPA), approved by Bhutan's national assembly in June 2007, states the people and the government should "strive to consider and adopt its development policies and plans in harmony with the various environment principles".
The act states that to promote environment-friendly technologies, codes of practice and eco-labelling, the government will provide financial incentives for environment protection and compliance.
These will include tax incentives for environmental services, manufacture of environment-friendly products and reduced customs duties on environmentally friendly technologies.
Bhutan also aims to reduce the dependency of national park residents on national park resources, such as firewood, timber, roofing material and other forest products.
It hopes to reduce deforestation through use of alternate technologies include the introduction of electric cookers to substitute traditional fuel wood cookers and using corrugated iron sheets instead of wooden shingles for roofs.
Instead, the government will establish programmes to improve mule tracks and foot bridges, build community centres, supply solar panels and even offer scholarships to poor students so that they do not rely on forest produce for their livelihoods. Community-based ecotourism is also being promoted as an alternative means of livelihood.
Transboundary conservation projects are helping Bhutan come out of its isolation. ICIMOD's Kanchenjunga project, involving Bhutan, India and Nepal, is helping to identify corridors needed to maintain biodiversity links and promote conservation-linked micro-enterprises and ecotourism in the region.
Bhutan is at a crossroads today, charting a course for its future. It plans to hold its first elections in 2008 and join the World Trade Organization. For many developing countries, this isolated Himalayan country could be an example of how to reconcile conservation and national happiness within the global trading framework.
By T. V. Padma
( T. V. Padma reports on Bhutan's dilemma: how to reconcile conservation, economic development and happiness in a modern world.)
Courtsey SciDev.Net
Landlocked in the eastern Himalayas, the tiny country of Bhutan seems almost untouched by globalisation. Its icy peaks, deep green gorges, sparkling rivers and quaint buildings with multi-tiered sloping roofs strengthen the feeling of a country disconnected from the chaos of megacities and concrete jungles.
This pristine impression is partly due to Bhutan's strong commitment to environmental preservation. Bhutan's laws reserve 70 per cent of its land for 'green' cover, of which 60 per cent should be forests.
Bhutan is one of the few countries to employ the concept of gross national happiness — that social and economic development should promote happiness as its primary value.
Conservation of the environment and sustainable and equitable socioeconomic development are the two pillars of gross national happiness, which was declared more important than gross national product by Bhutan's then king, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, in 1972.
But today, the country is facing change. Global warming is melting many of its glaciers, while its need for economic development and quest to export hydropower to neighbouring India may harm its fragile terrain. Bhutan is grappling with the dilemma of conservation versus development.
Development taking its toll
A growing population — up from 452,000 in 1984 to 750,000 in 2006 — as well as an increase in urbanisation and infrastructure is taking its toll on Bhutan's environment.
Analysis by the National Environment Commission (NEC), an inter-ministerial body that develops policies on sustainable development, shows that about 25,000 acres of land have been used for development projects, while land and water pollution is an emerging environment problem in and around urban and industrial areas.
Development projects such as roads and power lines, NEC warns, could impact biodiversity by cutting through natural habitats and destablising fragile mountain slopes if they are not built in an environmentally sensitive manner.
Urban areas — along with some rural areas of southern and eastern Bhutan — are already witnessing localised deforestation, says the Bhutan office of the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
And a steady increase in vehicles — the number of cars rose by 11–17 per cent each year from 1985 to 2003 — is harming Bhutan's air quality, once considered among the best in South Asia.
Bhutan's development of hydropower plants could also impact the environment. Hydropower potential in Bhutan is estimated at over 30,000 megawatts, 16,000 megawatts of which could be provided safely by exploitable water resources like river run-offs. Only three per cent of this has been tapped, estimates the NEC, with domestic consumption in 2005 only 105 megawatts, and the country hopes to export some of this energy at a profit to neighbouring India.
Global warming at its door
Meanwhile, Bhutan is facing up to the impact of global warming. The country has a fragile mountain ecosystem, and climate change is a serious challenge to sustainable development and the livelihood of the Bhutanese people, says Nado Rinchen, deputy minister for environment.
Bhutan puts the happiness ofits people before development
Credit: Flickr/mick y"Bhutan did not contribute to global warming, and yet we have to suffer the consequences today", he says.
Bhutan is one of the few countries in the world with the capacity to absorb greenhouse gases. NEC's national greenhouse gas inventory — a record of emission and removal of gases that cause global warming, conducted in 2000 — shows that Bhutan is a net greenhouse gas absorber, largely because of its vast forest cover, limited industrialisation and use of hydropower as a clean energy source.
Despite this, Bhutan's glaciers have been retreating over the last few decades at about 20–30 metres every year due to global warming, creating many moraine dammed lakes — lakes clogged by accumulated debris, which prevent meltwater from escaping — that are swelling rapidly.
Floods of these lakes — glacial lake outburst floods — are a serious concern. Bhutan has already experienced several of these floods and has 24 potentially dangerous glacial lakes, according to ICIMOD (the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development) in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Bhutan's National Adaptation Programme of Action, released in 2006, warns of changes in water flows, increased sedimentation of water reservoirs and networks, and reduced capacity of water catchment areas, all affecting hydropower electricity production.
Higher rainfall in areas without proper drainage systems can destabilise the soil, leading to landslides and more floods. Rinchen says Bhutan urgently needs to map its hazard zones as it is also prone to destructive landslides, mudslides and floods.
Bhutan has no proper weather or climate forecasting capabilities and its climate data and information is sparse, points out Doley Tshering, program officer for energy, environment and disaster, at UNDP's Bhutan office.
Conservation at stake
NEC officials fear that climate change and the consequent rise in temperature and forest fires, along with changing rainfall patterns, could affect the country's extensive forest cover, rich biodiversity and clean water resources.
Bhutan's biodiversity is one of the richest in the world. It ranks among the top ten countries with the highest number of species per unit area, contains three of the World Wildlife Fund's ecoregions of great biological wealth, and many of its plants have medicinal value.
Bhutan forest's are rich inbiodiversity
Credit: Flickr/HoorobUnsurprisingly, conservation is central to Bhutan's 1998 National Environment Strategy, which aims to balance economic development and environmental conservation.
The core of Bhutan's conservation strategy is a system of national parks and protected areas that form 26 per cent of its land. An additional nine per cent is designated as 'biological corridors' or 'wildlife highways' that link protected areas to allow free movement of animals.
Yet much of Bhutan's biological wealth remains unexplored by scientists. There is no baseline data to help scientists document and monitor changes in vegetation, wildlife and forests.
Some efforts have been initiated, with NEC due to sign an agreement with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) this year to set up the Bhutan Integrated Biodiversity Information System to gather, interpret and document biodiversity information from both protected and other areas.
Putting the environment into development
Rinchen says Bhutan's tenth national five-year plan, to be launched in 2008, will allocate ten per cent of all funds to programmes for environment activities, while the UNDP and UNEP are helping NEC to develop guidelines for incorporating environment into development plans and policies.
A National Environment Protection Act (NEPA), approved by Bhutan's national assembly in June 2007, states the people and the government should "strive to consider and adopt its development policies and plans in harmony with the various environment principles".
The act states that to promote environment-friendly technologies, codes of practice and eco-labelling, the government will provide financial incentives for environment protection and compliance.
These will include tax incentives for environmental services, manufacture of environment-friendly products and reduced customs duties on environmentally friendly technologies.
Bhutan also aims to reduce the dependency of national park residents on national park resources, such as firewood, timber, roofing material and other forest products.
It hopes to reduce deforestation through use of alternate technologies include the introduction of electric cookers to substitute traditional fuel wood cookers and using corrugated iron sheets instead of wooden shingles for roofs.
Instead, the government will establish programmes to improve mule tracks and foot bridges, build community centres, supply solar panels and even offer scholarships to poor students so that they do not rely on forest produce for their livelihoods. Community-based ecotourism is also being promoted as an alternative means of livelihood.
Transboundary conservation projects are helping Bhutan come out of its isolation. ICIMOD's Kanchenjunga project, involving Bhutan, India and Nepal, is helping to identify corridors needed to maintain biodiversity links and promote conservation-linked micro-enterprises and ecotourism in the region.
Bhutan is at a crossroads today, charting a course for its future. It plans to hold its first elections in 2008 and join the World Trade Organization. For many developing countries, this isolated Himalayan country could be an example of how to reconcile conservation and national happiness within the global trading framework.
By T. V. Padma
( T. V. Padma reports on Bhutan's dilemma: how to reconcile conservation, economic development and happiness in a modern world.)
Courtsey SciDev.Net
Simple and cheap: Nepal's application of science
Almost unnoticed, Nepal is developing simple and cheap technologies that make the best of local resources and don't damage the environment.
Down a narrow alley in Kathmandu's historic heart, through a low door, you enter Akal Man Nakarmi's workshop. Nakarmi's surname means 'metalsmith' and the soft-spoken craftsman's ancestors crafted copper utensils and forged statues of deities in bronze.
Today, Nakarmi makes small turbines called Peltric Sets for micro-hydro electric generation plants across the Himalaya. He can't keep up with demand.
Nepal's successes in scientific application in recent decades aren't about grandiose hydropower dams or major infrastructure projects.
The new technologies that have worked have been indigenously designed, based on traditional skills and knowledge, and are cheap and easy to use and maintain. In fact, to visit Nepal these days is to see the 'small is beautiful' concept of development economist E. F. Schumacher in action.
From Nakarmi's Peltric Sets to multi-purpose power units based on traditional water mills, from biogas plants to green road construction techniques in the mountains, Nepalis have shown that small is not just beautiful but also desirable and possible.
This is happening not just in technology but also in health, agriculture and forestry. It has gone almost unnoticed that Nepal's infant mortality rate has been reduced by half since 1990. How did that happen? Not because a lot of state-of-the-art hospitals were built. Fewer babies die in Nepal these days mainly because of the spread of awareness about safe drinking water. The message went out through radio, and made an impact because of higher literacy levels and better vaccination coverage.
Another unsung success story is the regeneration of forests across the mid-Himalaya. Again, it wasn't new afforestation techniques or fencing off plantations that revived the vegetation. It was an act of parliament 17 years ago that devolved power to local communities who then had a vested interest in protecting the commons.
Nepal is said to have one of the highest per capita hydropower generation potentials in the world, but it is the small-scale plants set up by villagers that have brought about a real revolution in rural energy. Multi-purpose microhydro plants are built on existing technology of traditional water mills, made more efficient.
Similarly, the number of village biogas plants now exceeds 180,000, one of the most dramatic spreads of methane generation from farm waste in any developing country. Once underground fermentation tanks were designed for affordability, the rest was just economics.
With both micro-hydro and biogas, it was the government subsidy, rural extension and training that made the technologies viable.
Nevertheless, appropriate and localised technology has a long way to go in Nepal.
There is a lot of vested interest in expensive mega-projects. Big projects often bring big kickbacks, which is why politicians prefer them. India's huge demand for water and energy means planners in both countries are looking at mammoth schemes like the high dams on the Kosi and Karnali rivers and a slew of medium-scale reservoir projects in the next six years with the aim of exporting power to India.
It will be difficult to stop these schemes. But we should also promote cheap, small, homegrown technologies. These are no longer in the realm of New Age romanticism. Nepal has shown they work better than costly outside intervention, they deliver, and although the world is slow to take notice, they are quietly improving people's lives.
This now needs to be reflected in media coverage of science and technology, and what we journalists define as news in our countries. Given the challenges of global warming and economic imbalances globally and within countries, locally-built and managed technologies have the best chance of addressing both economic and ecological concerns.
Schumacher showed that human beings could reduce their ecological footprint with the use of appropriate and benevolent technologies that did not waste the planet's finite resources. The path ahead for humankind is to do a lot with less, learning from practical examples like that set by Nepal.
By Kunda Dixit
Courtsey SciDevNet
Down a narrow alley in Kathmandu's historic heart, through a low door, you enter Akal Man Nakarmi's workshop. Nakarmi's surname means 'metalsmith' and the soft-spoken craftsman's ancestors crafted copper utensils and forged statues of deities in bronze.
Today, Nakarmi makes small turbines called Peltric Sets for micro-hydro electric generation plants across the Himalaya. He can't keep up with demand.
Nepal's successes in scientific application in recent decades aren't about grandiose hydropower dams or major infrastructure projects.
The new technologies that have worked have been indigenously designed, based on traditional skills and knowledge, and are cheap and easy to use and maintain. In fact, to visit Nepal these days is to see the 'small is beautiful' concept of development economist E. F. Schumacher in action.
From Nakarmi's Peltric Sets to multi-purpose power units based on traditional water mills, from biogas plants to green road construction techniques in the mountains, Nepalis have shown that small is not just beautiful but also desirable and possible.
This is happening not just in technology but also in health, agriculture and forestry. It has gone almost unnoticed that Nepal's infant mortality rate has been reduced by half since 1990. How did that happen? Not because a lot of state-of-the-art hospitals were built. Fewer babies die in Nepal these days mainly because of the spread of awareness about safe drinking water. The message went out through radio, and made an impact because of higher literacy levels and better vaccination coverage.
Another unsung success story is the regeneration of forests across the mid-Himalaya. Again, it wasn't new afforestation techniques or fencing off plantations that revived the vegetation. It was an act of parliament 17 years ago that devolved power to local communities who then had a vested interest in protecting the commons.
Nepal is said to have one of the highest per capita hydropower generation potentials in the world, but it is the small-scale plants set up by villagers that have brought about a real revolution in rural energy. Multi-purpose microhydro plants are built on existing technology of traditional water mills, made more efficient.
Similarly, the number of village biogas plants now exceeds 180,000, one of the most dramatic spreads of methane generation from farm waste in any developing country. Once underground fermentation tanks were designed for affordability, the rest was just economics.
With both micro-hydro and biogas, it was the government subsidy, rural extension and training that made the technologies viable.
Nevertheless, appropriate and localised technology has a long way to go in Nepal.
There is a lot of vested interest in expensive mega-projects. Big projects often bring big kickbacks, which is why politicians prefer them. India's huge demand for water and energy means planners in both countries are looking at mammoth schemes like the high dams on the Kosi and Karnali rivers and a slew of medium-scale reservoir projects in the next six years with the aim of exporting power to India.
It will be difficult to stop these schemes. But we should also promote cheap, small, homegrown technologies. These are no longer in the realm of New Age romanticism. Nepal has shown they work better than costly outside intervention, they deliver, and although the world is slow to take notice, they are quietly improving people's lives.
This now needs to be reflected in media coverage of science and technology, and what we journalists define as news in our countries. Given the challenges of global warming and economic imbalances globally and within countries, locally-built and managed technologies have the best chance of addressing both economic and ecological concerns.
Schumacher showed that human beings could reduce their ecological footprint with the use of appropriate and benevolent technologies that did not waste the planet's finite resources. The path ahead for humankind is to do a lot with less, learning from practical examples like that set by Nepal.
By Kunda Dixit
Courtsey SciDevNet
Thursday, 5 July 2007
A women facing death sentence
An Open Letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs seeking legalassistance for the young Sri Lankan woman facing the death sentence by beheading in Saudi Arabia
Dr. Palitha
T.B. Kohona,
Secretary / Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Republic Building,Colombo 01, Sri Lanka.
Dear Dr. Kohona,
Re Rizana Nasik of Mutur--
the young girl facing death sentence by beheading:
Matter relating to legal assistance for her appeal.
I am sure you are aware of the death sentence pronounced on Rizana Nasik of Mutur by a Court in Saudi Arabia and who is now awaiting thedeath sentence. She still has time for filing an appeal which has tobe done soon. We have been informed that the Ministry of ForeignAffairs has been in contact with Rizana Nasik's family in Mutur. This family belongs to the lower income group and is totallyunable to meet the cost of litigation which according to your embassy sources in Saudi Arabia amounts to about Rs. 600,000. We alsounderstand that the father of Rizana Nasik has met Foreign Ministryofficials in Colombo and has already explained to them that thefamily does not have means to contribute to this appeal.
We also understand that the Sri Lankan embassy in Saudi Arabia hasalready made representations to the Ministry of Foreign Affairsrequesting funds to enable filing of this appeal. There also seems tobe good grounds for appeal since the entire case had been conducted in a language not understood by her and also without any meaningful interpretation provided to her. She had also not been legally represented at the trial. She is also quite young and is said to haveleft for employment a few months ago when she was only about 17 years of age. Furthermore the totality of evidence against her is supposedto be a confession which she had later withdrawn. In a foreign country under such circumstances and being of such young age, it isquite possible that she may have made the confession under duress.
Nonetheless, such defenses are hardly of much use within the legalsystem of Saudi Arabia. A Sri Lankan citizen--particularly ofthat young age--facing a criminal trial carrying the possibilityof the death sentence which within the particular jurisdiction is carried out rapidly Rizana Nasik would have deserved legal assistancefrom the embassy of her country from the very beginning. However, evenat this late stage, the Government of Sri Lanka owes it to this youngSri Lankan citizen to rapidly intervene and assist her. According tointerviews in the media, it appears that what prevents granting herlegal redress is some rule, regulation or policy that seems to denylegal assistance by the Sri Lankan Government to Sri Lankans migrating to other countries who are accused of criminal charges. I am sure you would agree that there is no legal basis to withdraw theprotection that the government of a particular country owes to itscitizens in this manner. Particularly, migrant workers who leave their countries for employment should not be deprived of legalprotection merely because they are accused of some crime. As you areaware, the Sri Lankan Constitution recognizes the presumption ofinnocence of a person until proven guilty.
It is hardly necessary to remind you of the fate of 4 other SriLankans who were beheaded recently--one of whom was in factsentenced only for 15 years of rigorous imprisonment. Even when thatmatter was being publicly discussed, Sri Lankan embassy officials in Saudi Arabia made promises to provide legal assistance to enablethese 4 persons to reviews their cases even at that last stage. The President of the country at the time, Chandrika Kumaratunga made apublic statement, which was published on the front page of some newspapers, that she will directly intervene with His Royal Highnessof Saudi Arabia to seek pardon on behalf of these 4 persons. The present President as Prime Minister then and later as President alsomade several public statements assuring that all attempts would be made to assist the 4 persons facing death sentence. However, when thedeath sentence was in fact carried out, no one--including embassyofficials in Saudi Arabia--was aware of it.
We are writing this to bring to your kind notice the pitiful plight of this young woman and to urge you to take all appropriate actionsto ensure that she will be provided with legal assistance to enableher to file this appeal. We also urge you to review any rule,regulation or policy that may exist obstructing the granting of protection owing to such a citizen.
Please sign the petition immediately to save Rizana at the following link:http://www.petitiononline.com/rizana1/petition.html
We hope that you will graciously and expeditiously intervene in thismatter.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
Moon Jeong Ho
Programme Officer,
Urgent Appeals Desk.
Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong
Dr. Palitha
T.B. Kohona,
Secretary / Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Republic Building,Colombo 01, Sri Lanka.
Dear Dr. Kohona,
Re Rizana Nasik of Mutur--
the young girl facing death sentence by beheading:
Matter relating to legal assistance for her appeal.
I am sure you are aware of the death sentence pronounced on Rizana Nasik of Mutur by a Court in Saudi Arabia and who is now awaiting thedeath sentence. She still has time for filing an appeal which has tobe done soon. We have been informed that the Ministry of ForeignAffairs has been in contact with Rizana Nasik's family in Mutur. This family belongs to the lower income group and is totallyunable to meet the cost of litigation which according to your embassy sources in Saudi Arabia amounts to about Rs. 600,000. We alsounderstand that the father of Rizana Nasik has met Foreign Ministryofficials in Colombo and has already explained to them that thefamily does not have means to contribute to this appeal.
We also understand that the Sri Lankan embassy in Saudi Arabia hasalready made representations to the Ministry of Foreign Affairsrequesting funds to enable filing of this appeal. There also seems tobe good grounds for appeal since the entire case had been conducted in a language not understood by her and also without any meaningful interpretation provided to her. She had also not been legally represented at the trial. She is also quite young and is said to haveleft for employment a few months ago when she was only about 17 years of age. Furthermore the totality of evidence against her is supposedto be a confession which she had later withdrawn. In a foreign country under such circumstances and being of such young age, it isquite possible that she may have made the confession under duress.
Nonetheless, such defenses are hardly of much use within the legalsystem of Saudi Arabia. A Sri Lankan citizen--particularly ofthat young age--facing a criminal trial carrying the possibilityof the death sentence which within the particular jurisdiction is carried out rapidly Rizana Nasik would have deserved legal assistancefrom the embassy of her country from the very beginning. However, evenat this late stage, the Government of Sri Lanka owes it to this youngSri Lankan citizen to rapidly intervene and assist her. According tointerviews in the media, it appears that what prevents granting herlegal redress is some rule, regulation or policy that seems to denylegal assistance by the Sri Lankan Government to Sri Lankans migrating to other countries who are accused of criminal charges. I am sure you would agree that there is no legal basis to withdraw theprotection that the government of a particular country owes to itscitizens in this manner. Particularly, migrant workers who leave their countries for employment should not be deprived of legalprotection merely because they are accused of some crime. As you areaware, the Sri Lankan Constitution recognizes the presumption ofinnocence of a person until proven guilty.
It is hardly necessary to remind you of the fate of 4 other SriLankans who were beheaded recently--one of whom was in factsentenced only for 15 years of rigorous imprisonment. Even when thatmatter was being publicly discussed, Sri Lankan embassy officials in Saudi Arabia made promises to provide legal assistance to enablethese 4 persons to reviews their cases even at that last stage. The President of the country at the time, Chandrika Kumaratunga made apublic statement, which was published on the front page of some newspapers, that she will directly intervene with His Royal Highnessof Saudi Arabia to seek pardon on behalf of these 4 persons. The present President as Prime Minister then and later as President alsomade several public statements assuring that all attempts would be made to assist the 4 persons facing death sentence. However, when thedeath sentence was in fact carried out, no one--including embassyofficials in Saudi Arabia--was aware of it.
We are writing this to bring to your kind notice the pitiful plight of this young woman and to urge you to take all appropriate actionsto ensure that she will be provided with legal assistance to enableher to file this appeal. We also urge you to review any rule,regulation or policy that may exist obstructing the granting of protection owing to such a citizen.
Please sign the petition immediately to save Rizana at the following link:http://www.petitiononline.com/rizana1/petition.html
We hope that you will graciously and expeditiously intervene in thismatter.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
Moon Jeong Ho
Programme Officer,
Urgent Appeals Desk.
Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong
Sri Lanka accused of curbing freedom of expression
Sri Lankan journalists are increasingly worried about their safety, and the government has done little to protect them - even further endangering their lives, the International Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression Mission to Sri Lanka has found on its return visit to the country. The delegation of the international mission, comprised of five international press freedom and media development organisations, including IFEX members the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), International Press Institute (IPI) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF), found that eight months after their original mission, safety issues are more important than at any stage in the past year and a half. An increasing number of journalists were killed, kidnapped, arrested, assaulted and threatened - especially in conflict zones in the north and east. Most recently, Subash Chandraboas of the Tamil monthly "Nilram" and Selvarajah Rajivarman of the "Uthayan" newspaper were murdered in April in government-controlled areas. Although a special police unit was set up to investigate threats and disappearances, the mission saw little to demonstrate that action against impunity had been taken. Meanwhile, the authorities have been openly hostile to media workers, and are helping to create a climate of self-censorship, the delegation found. Government ministers have verbally attacked journalists, jeopardising their safety as well as their families'. In Jaffna, the government has restricted the passage of newsprint and ink to the city's Tamil media, blaming "transport restrictions." The authorities have also used tax officials to raid media organisations. Just last week, the leading Tamil information website, Tamilnet.com, was blocked by Sri Lankan Internet service providers (ISPs) on government orders. According to the Free Media Movement, a government minister said that he would love to hire hackers to disable it entirely, but hasn't found anyone yet to do the job. The mission is calling on the government to urgently undertake thorough investigations in the murder and threatening of media workers, devote special attention to workers in conflict-affected areas, and facilitate the presence of a United Nations human rights monitoring mission.
Thursday, 24 May 2007
Pakistan on a perilous path
The recent developments in Pakistan force a person of ordinary prudence to conclude that Islamabad's role in the war against terror has been a farce that has strengthened the religious bigots while it has weakened civil society. 'Talibanisation' used to be Pakistan's 'export quality' product before 9/11. Now it is a domestic product.
In the heart of Islamabad, a Kandahar has come up in the form of Lal Masjid; a Mullah Omar in the form of Lal Masjid's prayer leader Maulana Abdul Aziz; a Mullah Dadullah in the form of Lal Masjid's deputy prayer leader Maulana Abdur Rashid; and a Ministry for Vice and Virtue in the form of the baton-wielding force of the Jamia Hafsa and the Jamia Faridya, consisting of thousands of its male and female fidayeen.
Maulana Abdul Aziz rose to prominence when women members of the Lal Masjid raided the house of Mrs Shahim and abducted her along with her daughter-in-law and the latter's child. The Lal Masjid accused Mrs Shahim of running a brothel and obtained a confession through coercion after which she was made to repent in front of the media. Shahim has now left Islamabad fearing for her life. So by scaring women Abdul Aziz came to prominence.
The Lal Masjid is 'Islamacising' Islamabad by attacking music shops and burning CDs. They have threatened to throw acid on the faces of women who don't wear a full burqa. Aziz has labelled the Quaid-e-Azam University as a "hub of prostitutes" declaring co-education an evil. He has issued an edict of hadd against Nilofar Bakhtiar, a staunch supporter of Pervez Musharraf who quit as Tourism Minister this week, for hugging a paraglider instructor. Abdur Rashid loves to talk to the media, crank out statements and write columns in jehadi publications to justify the Talibanisation drive.
The Talibanisation drive is not confined to Islamabad. A girls' school at Mardan received threats that it would be destroyed if the students did not wear burqas. The Taliban of Peshawar have threatened to bomb the Khyber Medical College if the administration did not impose the burqa on its female students. Female parliamentarians of the Jamat Islami have introduced a bill in the NWFP assembly that seeks a ban on using women as models in TV commercials and print ads. The Taliban of Bajaur (one of the agencies in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas [Fata]) has closed down music shops and instructed barbers not to shave the beards of their customers. The list of places under 'reconstruction' goes on.
Making Pakistan a 'true democracy' is a claim that Musharraf makes passionately, addressing public rallies and urging people to vote for his party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Q). The truth is he is hell-bent on being elected as President for another five years and remain army chief. The Constitution that he has amended states that the President of Pakistan cannot keep any other office of profit or such an office that entitles him to remuneration. And then he blames suspended Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry for proclaiming that such practices are undemocratic. It doesn't make sense. Instead State power is brutally unleashed against the public to stop it from expressing its sympathy for Chaudhry.
The protests against Musharraf are becoming violent. He has failed to curb terrorism and extremism and to improve the general law and order situation in Pakistan. He will have to proceed swiftly on at least two issues: the Talibanisation spree of the Lal Masjid and the growing public support for the Chief Justice. Musharraf has been expressing his inability to move against the Lal Masjid saying that doing so will disturb the law and order in Pakistan and the country will be in the grip of suicide attacks. If Musharraf does not tackle the Lal Masjid, the Americans might do it sooner or later.
On the Chief Justice issue, Musharraf could help himself by distancing himself from the 'wrong kind of sycophants' and by dropping the idea of imposing Emergency. Some of his 'right kind of sycophants' are advising him to withdraw the reference against Chaudhry. Moreover, he should also drop the idea of seeking re-election from Parliament. He should step down both as the army chief as well as President. The US should also know that as long as it continues to support dictators, it will be strengthening terrorists and extremists, because the agenda of both is the same — jehad.
By Mohammad Shehzad
Mohammad Shehzad is a journalist based in Islamabad
In the heart of Islamabad, a Kandahar has come up in the form of Lal Masjid; a Mullah Omar in the form of Lal Masjid's prayer leader Maulana Abdul Aziz; a Mullah Dadullah in the form of Lal Masjid's deputy prayer leader Maulana Abdur Rashid; and a Ministry for Vice and Virtue in the form of the baton-wielding force of the Jamia Hafsa and the Jamia Faridya, consisting of thousands of its male and female fidayeen.
Maulana Abdul Aziz rose to prominence when women members of the Lal Masjid raided the house of Mrs Shahim and abducted her along with her daughter-in-law and the latter's child. The Lal Masjid accused Mrs Shahim of running a brothel and obtained a confession through coercion after which she was made to repent in front of the media. Shahim has now left Islamabad fearing for her life. So by scaring women Abdul Aziz came to prominence.
The Lal Masjid is 'Islamacising' Islamabad by attacking music shops and burning CDs. They have threatened to throw acid on the faces of women who don't wear a full burqa. Aziz has labelled the Quaid-e-Azam University as a "hub of prostitutes" declaring co-education an evil. He has issued an edict of hadd against Nilofar Bakhtiar, a staunch supporter of Pervez Musharraf who quit as Tourism Minister this week, for hugging a paraglider instructor. Abdur Rashid loves to talk to the media, crank out statements and write columns in jehadi publications to justify the Talibanisation drive.
The Talibanisation drive is not confined to Islamabad. A girls' school at Mardan received threats that it would be destroyed if the students did not wear burqas. The Taliban of Peshawar have threatened to bomb the Khyber Medical College if the administration did not impose the burqa on its female students. Female parliamentarians of the Jamat Islami have introduced a bill in the NWFP assembly that seeks a ban on using women as models in TV commercials and print ads. The Taliban of Bajaur (one of the agencies in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas [Fata]) has closed down music shops and instructed barbers not to shave the beards of their customers. The list of places under 'reconstruction' goes on.
Making Pakistan a 'true democracy' is a claim that Musharraf makes passionately, addressing public rallies and urging people to vote for his party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Q). The truth is he is hell-bent on being elected as President for another five years and remain army chief. The Constitution that he has amended states that the President of Pakistan cannot keep any other office of profit or such an office that entitles him to remuneration. And then he blames suspended Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry for proclaiming that such practices are undemocratic. It doesn't make sense. Instead State power is brutally unleashed against the public to stop it from expressing its sympathy for Chaudhry.
The protests against Musharraf are becoming violent. He has failed to curb terrorism and extremism and to improve the general law and order situation in Pakistan. He will have to proceed swiftly on at least two issues: the Talibanisation spree of the Lal Masjid and the growing public support for the Chief Justice. Musharraf has been expressing his inability to move against the Lal Masjid saying that doing so will disturb the law and order in Pakistan and the country will be in the grip of suicide attacks. If Musharraf does not tackle the Lal Masjid, the Americans might do it sooner or later.
On the Chief Justice issue, Musharraf could help himself by distancing himself from the 'wrong kind of sycophants' and by dropping the idea of imposing Emergency. Some of his 'right kind of sycophants' are advising him to withdraw the reference against Chaudhry. Moreover, he should also drop the idea of seeking re-election from Parliament. He should step down both as the army chief as well as President. The US should also know that as long as it continues to support dictators, it will be strengthening terrorists and extremists, because the agenda of both is the same — jehad.
By Mohammad Shehzad
Mohammad Shehzad is a journalist based in Islamabad
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