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Pakistani Democracy and Afghan Peace: Op-Ed

By Afrasiab Khattak

Afrasiab Khattak writes that Afghan and Pakistani advocates for peace and democracy should work together.

Starting with General Zia-ul-Haq’s martial law in the late 1970s, the anomaly of military control has become a permanent feature of Pakistan’s hybrid military-civilian system. Over the years it has also become a factor in tilting the balance in favor of the generals when it comes to calling the shots in framing the security and foreign policies of the state.

Pakistan’s Afghan policy has remained so completely in the control of the country’s military--of the Inter-Services-Intelligence (ISI) in particular--for so long, that the political class, both in the government and in the opposition, seem to have been totally cut off from dealing with it. 

The civil governments in the military-dominated hybrid system have so far been mostly content with symbolic involvement in Afghan policy, acting only when tasked by the military. The recent Kabul visit by Imran Khan was a case in point because it wasn’t anything more than a photo opportunity. 

The military’s monopoly over the country’s Afghan policy is a fait accompli, duly recognized by international players also. So it wasn’t surprising to see Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special representative, and US military commanders always going straight to the GHQ in Islamabad over the last two years to discuss Afghan peace instead of calling on the civilian leaders. 

But it’s significant to note that the military’s stranglehold has not been confined merely to the country’s Afghan policy. It is all encompassing--including politics, the economy and controlling the commanding heights of the state system. Producing test tube politicians and political parties and bringing them to power by rigging elections is a well-known practice by what is normally called the military establishment. The military’s involvement in victimizing defiant opposition political leaders in the name of accountability (a clearly selective one) is an open secret. Similarly, the military’s construction company (Frontier Works Organization) and transport company (National Logistics Cell) get all the public sector megaprojects without formal bidding or competition. The Defense Housing Authority (DHA) is a huge real estate business run by the army. Recently a retired general, Asim Salim Bajwa, was brought in as head of the CPEC Authority, a body that’s steering the China-Pakistan economic corridor. Serving and retired military officers are appointed to key civilian posts. It’s a long list that can go on and on.

With the passage of time, the militarization of the state and society has increased to the extent that it has strangled the country’s political and business classes. After the creeping coup launched in 2014 to overthrow the Nawaz Sharif-led Muslim League government, the aforementioned process entered a new stage. The hybrid democracy of the previous decades has transformed into hybrid martial law after the military went into overdrive to rig the general election held in July 2018. 

The opposition political parties have been forced to put up resistance to the extreme imbalance in civil-military relationship as they faced annihilation at the hands of deepening military authoritarianism. Credit also goes to the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement ( PTM) for breaking the silence and fear on the question of the military’s involvement in politics two years ago when no one else was ready to utter a word on the subject.

There are three new characteristics in the current political polarization in Pakistan that distinguish it from the previous ones:

One, for the first time Punjabis have joined the political resistance to the military’s domination on a large scale. The bulk of the army and business class of Pakistan comes from Punjab, which is also population-wise the biggest province in the country. Nawaz Sharif, the three-time elected former prime minister (and each time toppled by behind-the-scene political machinations of the generals) is leading the resistance from exile in London. Unlike Balochistan, Pakhtunkhwa or Sindh where the state security apparatus could use brutal methods to crush the opposition political forces, it can’t resort to such tactics in Punjab in view of the possible negative reaction from the rank and file in the military. Nawaz Sharif has not only made clear reference to the military’s past intervention in the country’s politics leading to its disintegration in 1971, but he has also accused General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the sitting chief of army staff (COAS) and General Faiz Hamid, the director general of the ISI, of being responsible for the present crises and chaos in Pakistan. The main political slogan of Nawaz Sharif-- “give respect to vote”--literally means establishing the civil supremacy provided for in the Constitution. All ten political parties in the grand opposition alliance known as the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) are supporting this demand.

Two, the military-installed government of Imran Khan has failed on almost all fronts during the last two-and-a-half years, including in governance, the economy and foreign policy. It’s becoming impossible for the government to manage the growing burden of foreign loans in terms of debt servicing. The implementation of the IMF recipe is leading to the skyrocketing of utility bills, price hikes and unemployment. The opposition is tapping into the deepening unrest and it has no problem in attracting large and charged crowds against the government everywhere in the country. The opposition campaign has entered the Punjab in its final stage, and it aims to topple the government with street agitation that is expected to culminate in a march on Islamabad in January. The opposition is also planning to resign en mass from the assemblies.

Three, the post-Zia hybrid system in Pakistan has reached a dead end. The draconian measures for curbing freedom of expression and the aggressive use of security agencies for crushing the political opposition (including enforced disappearances) indicate that the generals are imposing one party (the King’s party) rule in the country. They are reversing, by executive strong-arm tactics, the implementation of the 18th Constitutional Amendment, which defines the federal democratic character of the country. The opposition alliance PDM is also demanding a new social contract to ensure the supremacy of the Constitution and the Parliament. 

So, Pakistan stands at the crossroads. The ongoing political crises will have to be settled one way or the other in the coming spring because Pakistan can’t indefinitely live with the current dire economic situation and the dangerous political polarization. It’s the national bourgeoisie demanding a federal democracy enshrined in the Constitution, represented by the opposition alliance, versus the bureaucratic bourgeoisie of the generals imposing an extra-Constitutional authoritarian regime. The possible political change, unlike the past, is expected to have important consequences for the country’s Afghan policy as well. The strengthening of democracy and civil supremacy in Pakistan will bring more focus to the geo-economic and divert it from the obsession with the geo-strategic. Improved relations with neighbors and avoiding military adventurism is expected to dominate the policy of a democratic Pakistan as it has been the consistent policy of the major political parties in the country. Cooperation between forces of peace and democracy in the region is crucial in defeating the extremism/militancy that threatens peace and development in the region. 

Afghan political elites need to carefully watch the situation and develop a working relationship with democratic political forces in Pakistan. Major Pakistani political parties will also have to take a more clear stand on respecting an independent, peaceful and democratic Afghanistan as an equal partner in regional economic cooperation. So far there is almost a total disconnect on this front as formal people-to-people relations are quite weak at the moment.

https://tolonews.com/index.php/opinion-168423 

Daughter of Afghan envoy to Pakistan hurt in kidnapping

Umar FarooqAbdul Sediqi

The daughter of Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan was briefly kidnapped by unknown assailants who left her with injuries and rope marks, officials and a hospital report said on Saturday.

Silsila Alikhil was going home on Friday in the Pakistani capital Islamabad when she was seized for several hours and "severely tortured", Afghanistan's foreign ministry said.

"After being released from the kidnappers' captivity, Ms Alikhil is under medical care at the hospital," it added, urging an investigation and protection for Afghan diplomats.

A medical examination report, shared on social media and confirmed by the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences state hospital where Alikhil was treated, said she was admitted with swelling and rope marks on the wrists and ankles.

The report gave her age as 26, said she was held for more than five hours and also noted she had some swelling in the brain's rear occipital region.

Amid widespread consternation over the case in both nations, Afghan authorities summoned Pakistan's ambassador to Kabul to lodge a formal complaint.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement that the Afghan embassy had informed it Alikhil was assaulted while riding in a rented vehicle. Police were investigating the "disturbing incident" and security had been tightened for the ambassador and his family, it said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan wanted the matter treated as top priority and the culprits caught within 48 hours, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.

Neighbours Pakistan and Afghanistan have long had frosty ties. Kabul accuses Pakistan of allowing safe havens for Taliban insurgents, while Islamabad accuses Kabul of allowing militants to use their territory to carry out attacks in Pakistan.

Both deny the charges.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/daughter-afghan-envoy-pakistan-briefly-kidnapped-government-2021-07-17/

Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari - The abduction and torture of the #Afghan Ambassador’s daughter requires serious action by the Federal government

 

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has expressed grave concern over the abduction and torture of the daughter of the Afghan Ambassador in Islamabad and urged the authorities to bring the culprits to book.

In a statement, the PPP Chairman said that such an incident in the “safe city” was highly condemnable and needs very serious action on the part of the Federal government led by the elected Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the safety of the diplomatic corps and their families was the responsibility of the Federal government and any negligence in this regard won’t be pardoned by the people of Pakistan.

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/25260/

#Pakistan - Who’s afraid of a textbook?

 Dr. Ayesha Razzaque

Last year, on May 20 (2020), the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) issued a notice to the management of Sunrise Publications for printing and selling a booklet series for pre-primary (3-5 year-olds) titled ‘Infant Mathematics’ without obtaining an NOC. Apparently, it included content the PCTB deemed “detrimental for examination and assessment purposes or repugnant to the injunction of Islam or contrary to the integrity, defence or security of Pakistan, or any part of Pakistan or public order or morality” [sic].

Readers should keep in mind that obtaining an NOC has been a requirement de jure for private textbook publishers for years. However, the PCTB’s lack of capacity to review books and issue NOCs in a timely manner meant that this requirement remained de facto unenforced. But every now and then, when an influential person with access makes a complaint to the highest authorities or a random individual files a public interest case (as happened in December 2020 in Altamash versus the Government of Punjab), the PCTB jumps into action and weaponizes the requirement for an NOC. In last year’s instance, it was to save preschoolers from the ‘repugnant act’ of counting three cartoon piglets and all the “threats to the integrity, defence and security of Pakistan '' that carries with it.

The PCTB is back in the news. This time it has issued a notice (dated July 13, 2021) to the Oxford University Press for printing and selling another pre-primary book for the last two years (since 2019), predating the new textbook review process it put into place this year. The PCTB’s notice does not cite any violation besides the lack of an NOC. But then, older private textbooks/ supplementary materials were never issued NOCs. In that respect, this book is no different from many others from that period. The book in question was reportedly submitted to the PCTB for review in 2019, along with thousands of other books. It was returned without NOC, with a suggestion to resubmit when the review of books for the SNC starts. The PCTB’s lack of readiness to follow its own rules meant that this book, like others, kept being sold without an NOC. Despite assurances, it has been unable to expedite the issuance of NOCs in a timely manner due to its tedious review process, while the start of the already much delayed academic year looms in August.

With no other identifiable content that could be deemed objectionable, it appears the PCTB is once again responding to assuage offence caused by Malala’s picture to the sensibilities of someone influential enough to move the wheels of the bureaucracy. Incidentally, these events also coincide with July 12, which happens to be Malala’s birthday and the day the UN has declared as World Malala Day for her education activism work.

The ‘offensive’ lesson contains a portrait of Malala Yousafzai in a lesson titled ‘Important People’. It opens with the line, “Here are some of our heroes”, and lists pictures and names of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Liaqat Ali Khan underneath. On the opposite page it continues, “Here are some famous people” and lists pictures and names of Abdul Sattar Edhi, Begum Raana Liaqat Ali Khan, Major Aziz Bhatti, and Malala Yousafzai, in that order. That is all. Yet, such a grave offence is the inclusion of Malala in a list of ‘famous people’ that bookshops are being raided, books confiscated, and sternly worded official notices issued to the publisher (but no other).

Predictably, Pakistani Twitter erupted at this news. If you still think that the inclusion of Malala in a lesson listing some famous personalities cannot possibly be the reason, take a gander on Pakistani Twitter today and witness the venom spewed by so many literate, internet connected fellow citizens, seemingly blinded by jealousy.

A country infected by the old-boys mentality is unwilling to bestow the descriptor of ‘famous person’ or hero on someone who does not meet any of our hero standards: a) she is alive; b) she is a woman; c) she is young; d) she lives in the West; e) she was not from the ‘elite class’ (politically, socially or economically) we show servility to; and f) she is not the underdog victim that makes us feel good about defending her. This is petty, small-minded, jealousy that seeks to drag down those who manage to achieve something despite odds. It is as simple as that and there is no need to intellectualize it.

According to its own website, the PCTB’s raison d’ etre is to develop textbooks, “understanding curriculum and pedagogy of the subject”, review textbooks “for assurance of quality and error free” [sic], publish, supply and check piracy. However, the PCTB has abdicated the responsibility of developing textbooks and has instead adopted the ones developed by the National Curriculum Council (NCC) in Islamabad. Its capacity to review textbooks seems to be solely focused on sanitizing textbooks according to an extreme right-wing ideology that requires girls and women to wear hijabs and does not allow recognition of Malala as a famous Pakistani. Pedagogical priorities have firmly taken a back seat. If the PCTB has surrendered its primary roles of developing and pedagogically reviewing textbooks, does it still need to exist? I wonder what, according to the PCTB, the ideal textbook looks like. Will it be a book that all 120 million of Punjab’s citizens agree to and that caters to a common denominator? What does that even look like? For the answer, look at past textbooks. Urdu and Social Studies textbooks rarely venture beyond praising Quaid-e-Azam, Allama Iqbal, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Liaqat Ali Khan, and a handful of martyrs of the 1965 war and more recently Arfa Karim and Ruth Pfau, both deceased. Many other personalities are deemed too controversial.

Yet, important questions we should be asking ourselves have fallen by the wayside: can there be no room for a difference of opinion in textbooks that lend themselves for discussions? That seems to be the idea the PCTB has. Where then, does that leave the goals of fostering critical thinking in children? Do we wish our society to be one where the state bans books for the smallest perceived infractions, a la an Orwellian dystopia?

The PCTB ought to look in the mirror and see who is standing by it – the usual clique of unappointed guardians of public morality and mob of non-experts while independent and unaffiliated area experts have largely coalesced on the other side of the argument. It is also worth noting that the end of what some call Pakistan's golden period in public education roughly coincides with the establishment of the Punjab Textbook Board (now the PCTB) in the 1960s, and the decline that followed tracks the increasingly tighter control of government departments on education. With the PCTB making one misstep after another in recent years, is it not time for some introspection?

It is also worth noting that criticism of the PCTB’s operations is bipartisan. A few days ago, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry lent his voice to the issue by putting it plainly: “The trend in Punjab has been problematic. Before this issue they banned a book like ‘The First Muslim’ and they banned Raza Aslan’s book….if we keep following this trend the issue of extremism which is already plaguing us is going to become an even deeper issue, causing serious social issues”. He also referred to the inclusion of the Muttahida Ulema Board in the process of book review, a problematic step – albeit by an act of parliament.

The geopolitical situation on our borders is rapidly changing following the US troop pull-out from Afghanistan. Pro-Taliban right-wingers are coming back out of their closets after the APS attack. According to a report from Radio Free Europe filed from Mazar-e-Sharif on July 14, “Women banned from going outside alone. Girls barred from attending school. Unmarried women forced to marry fighters”; This is contrary to the stories of reformed Taliban we have been hearing from their apologists on evening talk shows.

The question to ask of ourselves as a nation is: do we think of ourselves as pro-Malala, an international symbol and champion of girls’ education, or would we rather align ourselves with regressive extremism because our resentment and hate for Malala’s fame and good fortune outweighs the damage that the extremists have already started inflicting?

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/865108-who-s-afraid-of-a-textbook