The News, April 9. 2005
Endpiece
Pakistan’s Taliban reincarnation
The reincarnation of the Taliban has begun in Pakistan. The events of the last few weeks, in which MMA activists unleashed brutal force against civil liberties and law are proof of this. These are not just random abnormal occurrences, but a forewarning of a dreadful situation developing in Pakistan, especially in the NWFP. These events have confirmed the series of dire predictions about the effects of the Hasba Act and the formation of the Hasba force in the NWFP by the MMA government.
The rise of the unlawful private force of religious zealots has produced a wave of panic among people who had expected that, with "modernisation" on the top of President Musharraf’s agenda, Pakistan would become a more enlightened and less repressive society. Instead, they are witnessing the growth of forces which seek an even more restrictive society, one which forces women back into purdah, uses terror to crush civil rights and free thought, and threatens to inflict the most barbaric punishments on those who defy its edicts. This is a form of fascism, not Islam.
Religious fanatics in the NWFP have such a free hand because of MMA support that opposition members of the provincial assembly are threatened of dire consequences if they oppose the unlawful acts of the fanatics. The opposition leader in the NWFP assembly, Shehzada Mohammad Gushtasip Khan, has himself received death threats. He dared to raise his voice against the MMA’s atrocities and oppression, and against the increasing lawlessness the alliance is promoting in Mansehra district through militants belonging to banned jihadi outfits, as well its own regular activists. Mr Gushtasip has been exposing the unlawful activities of the Mansehra amir of the outlawed Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, so the amir threatened him with death — at a press conference. This is not worrisome for Mr Gushtasip and his family alone; it is a greater source of concern for ordinary people, who are in a far weaker position than the leader of the opposition.
On March 25, MMA-backed militants of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen besieged the district courts in Mansehra over the cancellation of the bail before arrest of one of their local leaders, who subsequently threatened Mr Gushtasip with death. Wielding clubs and iron bars, these militants used malicious language against the judiciary and denounced the presence of woman judges in the Mansehra district courts as "un-Islamic." Surprisingly, the law was not applied against the militants.
The religious militants are against women playing any role outside the home. They stand for ancient laws and traditions that deprive women of their most basic civil rights. They are essentially anti-women. The hooliganism promoted by an MMA MNA against girls’ participation in the Gujranwala marathon is the latest exposure of the terror tactics applied by the religious alliance.
The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan began in the 1980s. On the one hand, General Zia-ul-Haq used religion to justify his rule, since he was "Islamising" the laws and thereby Pakistani society. On the other, he turned Pakistan into a base for forces opposing the Afghan revolution. Thousands of Pakistani guerrillas entered Afghanistan, and at the same time Pakistan became a corridor for 25,000 militants from other Muslim countries who participated in the US-funded proxy-war in that country. After the end of the Afghan war, the military started using these guerrilla forces to fight a proxy war in Kashmir, which is still going on.
However, the activities of the fanatics did not remain restricted to Kashmir. Since the fanatics are motivated to fight against all "infidels," they have now turned their attention to liberal values in Pakistan, to pose a big challenge to this country’s civil society. They are flexing their muscle with the encouragement of the MMA, which is determined to "Talibanise" Pakistani society.
Should this religious militancy be allowed to continue unchecked? No, it needs to be challenged with determination. The cancer has to be treated now because it can spread further.
The writer is a freelance contributor based in the NWFP
Email: zahid_zeno@yahoo.com
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Pak-Turkmenistan gas pipeline
The News, April 9, 2005
Pak-Turkmenistan gas pipeline
Tri-nation ministerial body to discuss feasibility report
By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
ISLAMABAD: The feasibility report of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline has been prepared and would be put before the tri-nation ministerial steering committee slated to meet here on Tuesday. Turkmenistan will produce credible international certification of its gas deposits before the committee to pave the way for laying the trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline to Pakistan.
Highly placed official sources disclosed to The News here Saturday that study has been started on the gigantic project and underground storage of imported gas in unused depleted gas wells within the country to enable Pakistan store the gas being purchased from more than one countries.
Talks with Iran for the gas pipeline will also go ahead when Iranian and Indian ministers for petroleum and natural gas would be visiting Islamabad in mid-May.
A pipeline through sea from Qatar to Pakistan will be yet another subject of active discussion when a high-level delegation headed by Secretary Petroleum and Natural Resources Ahmad Viqar Chaudhry will be visiting Doha for two days on 24th of this month. With this Pakistan has accelerated the pace of efforts to finalise deals for fulfilling its future needs of energy which are supposed to increase manifold in the years to come in the face of increasing development activities.
The delegation will also discuss the supply of Liquefied Natural Gas in Doha that can be used for future requirements of Karachi and coastal areas of the country. Pakistan is also planning to take up the issue of LNG supply with Iran.
Sources said the ministerial steering committee of Pakistan-Afghanistan and Turkmenistan is meeting for the eighth time. It would discuss a number of important aspects of the pipeline. The gas certification will be on the top while the route security from Afghanistan to Pakistan would be another vitally important issue to come up for discussion as the comfort level regarding security of the pipeline could attract any international consortium/investor to come forward and make heavy investment in the project involving billion of dollars. The gas pipeline will start from Daulatabad gas field in Turkmenistan and pass through Herat and Kandahar provinces of Afghanistan before entering Chaman in Balochistan.
Pak-Turkmenistan gas pipeline
Tri-nation ministerial body to discuss feasibility report
By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
ISLAMABAD: The feasibility report of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline has been prepared and would be put before the tri-nation ministerial steering committee slated to meet here on Tuesday. Turkmenistan will produce credible international certification of its gas deposits before the committee to pave the way for laying the trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline to Pakistan.
Highly placed official sources disclosed to The News here Saturday that study has been started on the gigantic project and underground storage of imported gas in unused depleted gas wells within the country to enable Pakistan store the gas being purchased from more than one countries.
Talks with Iran for the gas pipeline will also go ahead when Iranian and Indian ministers for petroleum and natural gas would be visiting Islamabad in mid-May.
A pipeline through sea from Qatar to Pakistan will be yet another subject of active discussion when a high-level delegation headed by Secretary Petroleum and Natural Resources Ahmad Viqar Chaudhry will be visiting Doha for two days on 24th of this month. With this Pakistan has accelerated the pace of efforts to finalise deals for fulfilling its future needs of energy which are supposed to increase manifold in the years to come in the face of increasing development activities.
The delegation will also discuss the supply of Liquefied Natural Gas in Doha that can be used for future requirements of Karachi and coastal areas of the country. Pakistan is also planning to take up the issue of LNG supply with Iran.
Sources said the ministerial steering committee of Pakistan-Afghanistan and Turkmenistan is meeting for the eighth time. It would discuss a number of important aspects of the pipeline. The gas certification will be on the top while the route security from Afghanistan to Pakistan would be another vitally important issue to come up for discussion as the comfort level regarding security of the pipeline could attract any international consortium/investor to come forward and make heavy investment in the project involving billion of dollars. The gas pipeline will start from Daulatabad gas field in Turkmenistan and pass through Herat and Kandahar provinces of Afghanistan before entering Chaman in Balochistan.
Friday, April 08, 2005
Pakistan's Nuclear Program to be expanded
Nation, Lahore
April 8, 2005
Pak N-power programme to be expanded
From AFZAL BAJWA
CHASHMA - Breaking the ground for over 300 MW Chashma Nuclear Power Plant (CHASHNUPP) Unit-II, Pakistan Friday embarked upon a long-term plan of installing a capacity of 8,800 MW power generation from atomic energy by 2030. Not only that the government is all out to build more nuclear reactors for electricity generation, Chinese being the vendor of CHASHNUPP units, are more than willing to continue supporting Pakistan even beyond the completion of the Chashma-II (C-2).
Dr Ashfaq Ahmad Khan, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister along with Wang Shoujun, Vice President of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), broke the ground for C-2 project, adjacent to CHASHNUPP-I of approximately the same capacity. Chashma unit one (C-1) is operational at 325 MW since 2000 at 95 per cent capacity utilization as a symbol of lasting friendship between China and Pakistan.
The C-2 is to be completed and connected to the national power grid by 2011 with an estimated cost of Rs 51.046 billion including the mark-up to be accumulated by the completion time. It would be the third nuclear power generating facility after KANUPP at Karachi and C-1. The site of the C-2 is adjacent to the C-1. The two operational nuclear reactors are being operated by the scientists and engineers of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission under the power generation licenses of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority. The nuclear power plants in Pakistan are working under the safeguards and regular monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN watchdog on nuclear technology.
As Pakistan has achieved self-reliance in development of nuclear fuel, the IAEA keeps a close eye on power generating nuclear reactors. According to officials of the PAEC, the IAEA inspectors visit after every three months while their camera eyes are open on us 24-hour. The senior officials of the PAEC told a media team the other day that the Commission after the 1976 withdrawal of Canadian Support from KANUPP up to 1991 when the Chinese came in for C-1, had been through a precarious conditions. Till date, they said, Pakistan was denied of any support other than that of Chinese while the IAEA advise comes up to the extent of safety but categorically denied for performance of the reactors.
Dr Ashfaq and Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan both stated while addressing the ground-breaking ceremony on the site of C-2 that the road of Pakistan’s endeavour to develop nuclear energy for peaceful use as well as that of Sino-Pak cooperation was not ending at the C-2.
According to Dr Ashfaq, the C-1 was the first ever export of a nuclear reactor by China over a decade ago, “but we reached the point of C-2 ground-breaking following the successful completion of C-1.
Earlier, the foreign secretary made an announcement in so many words that “C-2, in my view, is just a beginning of expansion of Sino-Pak ties in peace-purposes nuclear field, and economic development after the achievement of time-tested political friendship of the two countries.”
The Foreign Secretary who was in China as Ambassador of Pakistan on his previous posting, foresaw tremendous potential of Pak-China cooperation in the nuclear development for peaceful purposes under the umbrella of the Treaty of Friendship, and Cooperation recently signed by the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao this week at Islamabad.
Besides vice president of the CNNC, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Zhang Chunxiang, Chairman Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority Jamshed A Hashmir, Javed Iqleem Member Power PAEC, Sulman Bashir Pakistani Ambassador in China were also present at the ground-breaking ceremony.
APP adds: Pakistan will construct more nuclear power plants after Chashma Nuclear Power Plant Unit -2 (CHASHNUPP-2) for its peaceful purposes, as it has abundant expertise, manpower and reliable friends for cooperation in this regard. “Pakistan has now more dependable workforce and friends and our nuclear power programme is poised for expansion in order to meet the higher needs of accelerated economic development of the country,” said Advisor to the Prime Minister for Strategic Programme, Dr. Ashfaq Ahmed here on Friday. He was addressing the ground-breaking ceremony of Chashma Nuclear Power Plant Unit-2. Referring to Shahrah-e-Dosti, a road at Chashma site named to signify Pak-China friendship, Dr. Ashfaq Ahmed said this road has no end point, and symbolizes the ever growing cooperation between the two countries in peaceful usage of nuclear energy.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Chairman PAEC Parvez Butt said Pakistan has demonstrated its capability to operate nuclear power plants efficiently and safely for the last 34 years. The Chairman said President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz have provided their fullest support for the development of strong base for producing nuclear electricity as per requirement of the country.
The success of PAEC has been because of its people, work culture and systems which ensured a continued marched forward of its programme despite embargoes, Mr. Butt added.
The Chairman said Pakistan’s nuclear power plants are under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under the safeguard and it maintains a close liaison with IAEA, World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), Candu Operators Group (COG) and PNRA.
He informed there is resurgence of nuclear power in the world due to global warming and soaring oil prices and Pakistan nuclear electricity programme will be expanded as per local and global conditions. Representing Chinese government, Vice President of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), Wang Shoujun said Pak-China friendship has been steady and fruitful to the mutual benefits of their people and it will continue to grow in all areas including nuclear power. He said success of CHASHNUPP-1 which is the fruit of hard work of engineers and scientists of both the countries has paved the way for 340 MW CHASSNUP-2 and many others in future.
Earlier, Member Power PAEC, Javed Iqleem said the expertise and knowledge obtained from Chashma-1 and Chashma-2 will be our chief asset for embarking upon an ambitious nuclear power production programme. Recounting the achievements of Pakistani scientists and engineers in nuclear power generation, he said, after the completion of 30 years design life of KANUPP, PAEC has renovated it to extend its useful life for another 15 years.
Chairman PNRA, Jamshed Hashmi, who himself is a veteran of nuclear power put on record the efforts of Chairman PAEC Parvez Butt for his contribution to indigenous solutions of the problems faced by Pakistan’s nuclear power programme. Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, a key figure in supporting C-1 and C-2 assistance said China’s support to Pakistan is a permanent feature of our policy and in a lighter vein congratulated PAEC for CHASHNUPP-3 in advance at the ground-breaking of CHASNUPP-2
April 8, 2005
Pak N-power programme to be expanded
From AFZAL BAJWA
CHASHMA - Breaking the ground for over 300 MW Chashma Nuclear Power Plant (CHASHNUPP) Unit-II, Pakistan Friday embarked upon a long-term plan of installing a capacity of 8,800 MW power generation from atomic energy by 2030. Not only that the government is all out to build more nuclear reactors for electricity generation, Chinese being the vendor of CHASHNUPP units, are more than willing to continue supporting Pakistan even beyond the completion of the Chashma-II (C-2).
Dr Ashfaq Ahmad Khan, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister along with Wang Shoujun, Vice President of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), broke the ground for C-2 project, adjacent to CHASHNUPP-I of approximately the same capacity. Chashma unit one (C-1) is operational at 325 MW since 2000 at 95 per cent capacity utilization as a symbol of lasting friendship between China and Pakistan.
The C-2 is to be completed and connected to the national power grid by 2011 with an estimated cost of Rs 51.046 billion including the mark-up to be accumulated by the completion time. It would be the third nuclear power generating facility after KANUPP at Karachi and C-1. The site of the C-2 is adjacent to the C-1. The two operational nuclear reactors are being operated by the scientists and engineers of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission under the power generation licenses of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority. The nuclear power plants in Pakistan are working under the safeguards and regular monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN watchdog on nuclear technology.
As Pakistan has achieved self-reliance in development of nuclear fuel, the IAEA keeps a close eye on power generating nuclear reactors. According to officials of the PAEC, the IAEA inspectors visit after every three months while their camera eyes are open on us 24-hour. The senior officials of the PAEC told a media team the other day that the Commission after the 1976 withdrawal of Canadian Support from KANUPP up to 1991 when the Chinese came in for C-1, had been through a precarious conditions. Till date, they said, Pakistan was denied of any support other than that of Chinese while the IAEA advise comes up to the extent of safety but categorically denied for performance of the reactors.
Dr Ashfaq and Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan both stated while addressing the ground-breaking ceremony on the site of C-2 that the road of Pakistan’s endeavour to develop nuclear energy for peaceful use as well as that of Sino-Pak cooperation was not ending at the C-2.
According to Dr Ashfaq, the C-1 was the first ever export of a nuclear reactor by China over a decade ago, “but we reached the point of C-2 ground-breaking following the successful completion of C-1.
Earlier, the foreign secretary made an announcement in so many words that “C-2, in my view, is just a beginning of expansion of Sino-Pak ties in peace-purposes nuclear field, and economic development after the achievement of time-tested political friendship of the two countries.”
The Foreign Secretary who was in China as Ambassador of Pakistan on his previous posting, foresaw tremendous potential of Pak-China cooperation in the nuclear development for peaceful purposes under the umbrella of the Treaty of Friendship, and Cooperation recently signed by the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao this week at Islamabad.
Besides vice president of the CNNC, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Zhang Chunxiang, Chairman Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority Jamshed A Hashmir, Javed Iqleem Member Power PAEC, Sulman Bashir Pakistani Ambassador in China were also present at the ground-breaking ceremony.
APP adds: Pakistan will construct more nuclear power plants after Chashma Nuclear Power Plant Unit -2 (CHASHNUPP-2) for its peaceful purposes, as it has abundant expertise, manpower and reliable friends for cooperation in this regard. “Pakistan has now more dependable workforce and friends and our nuclear power programme is poised for expansion in order to meet the higher needs of accelerated economic development of the country,” said Advisor to the Prime Minister for Strategic Programme, Dr. Ashfaq Ahmed here on Friday. He was addressing the ground-breaking ceremony of Chashma Nuclear Power Plant Unit-2. Referring to Shahrah-e-Dosti, a road at Chashma site named to signify Pak-China friendship, Dr. Ashfaq Ahmed said this road has no end point, and symbolizes the ever growing cooperation between the two countries in peaceful usage of nuclear energy.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Chairman PAEC Parvez Butt said Pakistan has demonstrated its capability to operate nuclear power plants efficiently and safely for the last 34 years. The Chairman said President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz have provided their fullest support for the development of strong base for producing nuclear electricity as per requirement of the country.
The success of PAEC has been because of its people, work culture and systems which ensured a continued marched forward of its programme despite embargoes, Mr. Butt added.
The Chairman said Pakistan’s nuclear power plants are under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under the safeguard and it maintains a close liaison with IAEA, World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), Candu Operators Group (COG) and PNRA.
He informed there is resurgence of nuclear power in the world due to global warming and soaring oil prices and Pakistan nuclear electricity programme will be expanded as per local and global conditions. Representing Chinese government, Vice President of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), Wang Shoujun said Pak-China friendship has been steady and fruitful to the mutual benefits of their people and it will continue to grow in all areas including nuclear power. He said success of CHASHNUPP-1 which is the fruit of hard work of engineers and scientists of both the countries has paved the way for 340 MW CHASSNUP-2 and many others in future.
Earlier, Member Power PAEC, Javed Iqleem said the expertise and knowledge obtained from Chashma-1 and Chashma-2 will be our chief asset for embarking upon an ambitious nuclear power production programme. Recounting the achievements of Pakistani scientists and engineers in nuclear power generation, he said, after the completion of 30 years design life of KANUPP, PAEC has renovated it to extend its useful life for another 15 years.
Chairman PNRA, Jamshed Hashmi, who himself is a veteran of nuclear power put on record the efforts of Chairman PAEC Parvez Butt for his contribution to indigenous solutions of the problems faced by Pakistan’s nuclear power programme. Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, a key figure in supporting C-1 and C-2 assistance said China’s support to Pakistan is a permanent feature of our policy and in a lighter vein congratulated PAEC for CHASHNUPP-3 in advance at the ground-breaking of CHASNUPP-2
Elusive search for quality education
Dawn, April 8, 2005
Elusive search for quality education
By Shahid Kardar and Nadia Khar
The overarching constraint in Pakistan's ability to expand its industrial production, improve its productivity and international competitiveness and increase its global share of high value-added exports is the size and quality of its human capital.
Although Pakistan continues to be a laggard in its social indicators (in terms of low enrolment and high drop-out rates) and suffers from poor quality institutions of higher learning, little is known about the quality of basic education being imparted through educational institutions managed by government agencies.
While enrolment rates reflect the extent to which children are attending school - it covers only the "access" aspect of education - the real indicator of the quality of services delivered through educational institutions is the knowledge of students in subjects being taught to them.
To assess the learning outcomes of children, students of Grade 4 and their teachers were administered a test in a recently concluded survey of a sample of government schools in six representative districts of Punjab (Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur and Mianwali).
In the 104 schools that were surveyed, students were tested in mathematics and Urdu using an instrument designed by the National Education Assessment System (NEAS) for children who had completed the curriculum developed for Grade 3.
The performance of the students in the tests was so poor that it was heart-rending, highlighting the low quality of instruction delivered through public schools. Since the tests were meant to assess the familiarity of students with concepts that they had supposedly been taught in Grade 3, it was alarming that the vast majority of the students (70 per cent) were unable to score even 30 per cent in maths.
Of the 595 students tested in maths only six per cent were able to score more than 50 per cent. The students maintained that they were unfamiliar with a large proportion of the concepts covered in the test that had ostensibly been designed on the basis of the curriculum and textbooks of Grade 3.
The performance of students in the Urdu test was somewhat better. Around 42 per cent of the 619 students who sat for the Urdu test did not get pass marks (which were pitched at a mere 30 per cent) and 28 per cent scored more than 50 per cent marks.
In view of the difficulties experienced by students in attempting the tests, it was decided to administer the same tests to teachers to assess their knowledge of the concepts they were required to pass on to their students.
It was highly disturbing to discover that more than 18 per cent of the teachers were unable to score even 50 per cent in the same maths test, while a mere 31 per cent managed to get more than 75 per cent despite reliance on textbooks and collaboration with other colleagues in some instances.
Teachers who were matriculates (the minimum academic requirement for primary teachers until the recent change mentioned below) were able to attain an average of just 56 per cent, compared with the average of 69 per cent obtained by teachers who were graduates, although still well below what they should have scored considering that they were being tested on basic concepts that children in Grade 3 are expected to know!
Further analysis of test results in maths revealed that teachers, particularly females, encountered problems in solving questions relating to interpretation of very simple graphs, conversion of weights and measures, rather simple fractions and even calculations of the area of basic shapes.
The difficulties experienced by teachers in solving simple mathematical problems meant for students who have completed Grade 3 reflects the poor quality of the teaching force educating this country's future generations.
The policy of hiring teachers with low academic qualifications for primary grades in the past, the political patronage exercised during teacher recruitment, the ineffective mechanisms for providing on-going instructional support to teachers, the low quality and inadequate duration of the teacher training courses for staff development and rampant teacher absenteeism without any penalties for negligence of duty have all contributed to the dismal standard of education delivered through public institutions.
This suggests that an issue much larger than the low rates of literacy and enrolment is the disappointing level of knowledge of not just the children but more importantly that of their teachers.
Recognizing the need to improve the quality of teachers, the Government of Punjab has introduced a transparent, merit-based system for recruiting teachers on contract and school-specific basis and has raised the minimum academic entry requirement for teachers to graduation, all in the hope of reducing the scope for political interference in teacher recruitment and transfers.
The new merit-driven recruitment policy is a step in the right direction as better qualified teachers are expected to significantly impact on the quality of education in publicly managed schools. However, it will take some time before this new policy starts making a visible difference to the learning outcomes of children as new teachers gain experience and replace the old group of poorly qualified and inadequately trained teachers.
Until this happens and the quality of the institutions of higher education is improved so that we can get a better crop of graduates to serve as teachers, we will continue to be constrained in our efforts to enhance the productivity and skills of our work force.
It appears, therefore, that there is still a long way to go, and that too if we start making, and sustaining, the necessary adjustments today. In the meantime, there is every reason to fear that these young, new entrants will eventually imbibe the culture and mindset of the "regular" teachers and adopt their relatively relaxed attitudes and work ethics and focus their energies on getting themselves re-categorized as "permanent" employees, resulting in most potential gains from the new policy being lost to the country.
Elusive search for quality education
By Shahid Kardar and Nadia Khar
The overarching constraint in Pakistan's ability to expand its industrial production, improve its productivity and international competitiveness and increase its global share of high value-added exports is the size and quality of its human capital.
Although Pakistan continues to be a laggard in its social indicators (in terms of low enrolment and high drop-out rates) and suffers from poor quality institutions of higher learning, little is known about the quality of basic education being imparted through educational institutions managed by government agencies.
While enrolment rates reflect the extent to which children are attending school - it covers only the "access" aspect of education - the real indicator of the quality of services delivered through educational institutions is the knowledge of students in subjects being taught to them.
To assess the learning outcomes of children, students of Grade 4 and their teachers were administered a test in a recently concluded survey of a sample of government schools in six representative districts of Punjab (Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur and Mianwali).
In the 104 schools that were surveyed, students were tested in mathematics and Urdu using an instrument designed by the National Education Assessment System (NEAS) for children who had completed the curriculum developed for Grade 3.
The performance of the students in the tests was so poor that it was heart-rending, highlighting the low quality of instruction delivered through public schools. Since the tests were meant to assess the familiarity of students with concepts that they had supposedly been taught in Grade 3, it was alarming that the vast majority of the students (70 per cent) were unable to score even 30 per cent in maths.
Of the 595 students tested in maths only six per cent were able to score more than 50 per cent. The students maintained that they were unfamiliar with a large proportion of the concepts covered in the test that had ostensibly been designed on the basis of the curriculum and textbooks of Grade 3.
The performance of students in the Urdu test was somewhat better. Around 42 per cent of the 619 students who sat for the Urdu test did not get pass marks (which were pitched at a mere 30 per cent) and 28 per cent scored more than 50 per cent marks.
In view of the difficulties experienced by students in attempting the tests, it was decided to administer the same tests to teachers to assess their knowledge of the concepts they were required to pass on to their students.
It was highly disturbing to discover that more than 18 per cent of the teachers were unable to score even 50 per cent in the same maths test, while a mere 31 per cent managed to get more than 75 per cent despite reliance on textbooks and collaboration with other colleagues in some instances.
Teachers who were matriculates (the minimum academic requirement for primary teachers until the recent change mentioned below) were able to attain an average of just 56 per cent, compared with the average of 69 per cent obtained by teachers who were graduates, although still well below what they should have scored considering that they were being tested on basic concepts that children in Grade 3 are expected to know!
Further analysis of test results in maths revealed that teachers, particularly females, encountered problems in solving questions relating to interpretation of very simple graphs, conversion of weights and measures, rather simple fractions and even calculations of the area of basic shapes.
The difficulties experienced by teachers in solving simple mathematical problems meant for students who have completed Grade 3 reflects the poor quality of the teaching force educating this country's future generations.
The policy of hiring teachers with low academic qualifications for primary grades in the past, the political patronage exercised during teacher recruitment, the ineffective mechanisms for providing on-going instructional support to teachers, the low quality and inadequate duration of the teacher training courses for staff development and rampant teacher absenteeism without any penalties for negligence of duty have all contributed to the dismal standard of education delivered through public institutions.
This suggests that an issue much larger than the low rates of literacy and enrolment is the disappointing level of knowledge of not just the children but more importantly that of their teachers.
Recognizing the need to improve the quality of teachers, the Government of Punjab has introduced a transparent, merit-based system for recruiting teachers on contract and school-specific basis and has raised the minimum academic entry requirement for teachers to graduation, all in the hope of reducing the scope for political interference in teacher recruitment and transfers.
The new merit-driven recruitment policy is a step in the right direction as better qualified teachers are expected to significantly impact on the quality of education in publicly managed schools. However, it will take some time before this new policy starts making a visible difference to the learning outcomes of children as new teachers gain experience and replace the old group of poorly qualified and inadequately trained teachers.
Until this happens and the quality of the institutions of higher education is improved so that we can get a better crop of graduates to serve as teachers, we will continue to be constrained in our efforts to enhance the productivity and skills of our work force.
It appears, therefore, that there is still a long way to go, and that too if we start making, and sustaining, the necessary adjustments today. In the meantime, there is every reason to fear that these young, new entrants will eventually imbibe the culture and mindset of the "regular" teachers and adopt their relatively relaxed attitudes and work ethics and focus their energies on getting themselves re-categorized as "permanent" employees, resulting in most potential gains from the new policy being lost to the country.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
Spread of bigotry: who is to blame?
Dawn, April 7, 2005
Spread of bigotry: who is to blame?
By Omar R. Quraishi
The violent attack last Sunday by some 800 armed activists of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal to disrupt a mini-marathon in Gujranwala because women were participating in it is disturbing proof of the increasing level of intolerance among the extremist/ obscurantist elements in the country.
Nineteen vehicles, including those of a provincial minister and a senior police official were burnt by the protesters, who were armed with home-made petrol bombs, clubs and stones.
According to the Punjab government, firearms were 'freely used'. A government press note also said that the MMA men entered Jinnah stadium, where the women's race was to end, and attacked the participants who were "pulled down from their seats, beaten and dragged on the ground". The attackers also tried to burn some petrol pumps around the stadium and hurled petrol bombs, the government said.
This violent reaction was in response to the fact that the Gujranwala administration had decided to hold a series of races on Sunday, including one which was for female participants.
Given that the starting point was the local divisional public school, it would be safe to say that most if not all of the female participants would have been school or college students.
Worst of all, the attackers were led by the local MNA who was elected on the MMA ticket and his son. After the attack, the member of parliament told a TV channel in rather an innocent tone that the protesters merely wanted to register their protest against the women's race by staging a 'dharna' or sit-in outside the stadium.
Without any apparent provocation, he went on to say, the police attacked the MMA activists as a result of which several people, including himself and his son, were "seriously injured".
The MNA said that the MMA had asked the local administration to call off the race but since the latter failed to do that, the alliance and its activists had no choice but to register their protest on the day itself of the race.
One of its local leaders who was among the attackers told a foreign radio channel that the MMA could not sit idly by as the "nation's daughters, wives and daughters-in-law" took part in a road race wearing "t-shirts and knickers".
This was the same objection raised, at that time by Jamaat-I-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, when the Lahore marathon was held a couple of months ago. Police and independent eyewitness reports however suggest that this is not what happened, and that the MMA activists came well-armed and in large numbers with the intention of disrupting the race in a violent manner.
Of course, this isn't the first time that religious extremists in Pakistan have used violence to shove their narrow and dogmatist version of religion down everyone else's throat. In fact, in Gujranwala itself a circus was attacked and burnt down last year by MMA activists who deemed it un-Islamic and decided to take matters in their own hands.
The Punjab government has said that it will try some of the attackers who have been arrested in anti-terrorism courts. However, the fact remains that flip-flops by the federal government on various issues has continuously emboldened the MMA and its supporters.
The recent U-turn on the religion column in the new machine readable passports came after the government had already said publicly that the column would not be re-inserted after the religious parties made a fuss in and outside of parliament.
According to some reports, one reason for the reversal of the earlier stand on this issue had to do with an unwritten understanding between PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and JUI and MMA leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman. When the decision to re-insert the column was made public recently, the maulana was quick to claim a victory for the religious alliance.
So who is to blame for this increasing spread of religious bigotry in Pakistan? Is it the government, which speaks ad nauseum of "enlightened moderation" and of building a "soft image" (whatever that means) of Pakistan and then does nothing (but retreat) to put into practice its self-professed progressive and liberal worldview or to support or provide a level playing field to mainstream political parties.
Or is it the religious parties, whose adherence to a narrow and retrogressive version of religion and archaic worldview have caused much heartburn and anger among some Pakistanis who see the world from a completely different perspective.
Are Pakistan's mainstream political parties to be blamed for not raising a voice against such bigotry and zealotry, save the odd press statements which find their way into newspapers from time to time.
One can understand their predicament because they - and here one is speaking of the PPP and PML-N specifically - are hamstrung by the current political dispensation but then how many of their members in parliament have actually taken part in rallies (as opposed to an air conditioned television studio in Dubai) to register their protest and outrage against acts like the attack in Gujranwala?
Perhaps, in all of this the greatest blame lies on civil society, especially those who hold progressive and forward-looking views. This includes intellectuals but the only problem with this variety of arm-chair critics is that apart from holding forth in air conditioned drawing rooms, or television studios or writing verbose articles in (mostly English) newspapers, they do nothing really to try and mould public opinion against rising intolerance and obscurantism in this country.
After all, it is the middle class and the intellectuals that are the driving force for modernity and progressive values in most developing countries, a good example being the activist role played by such forces in Latin American countries and even to quite a large extent closer at home in places like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly why intellectuals here have so far played no roles worth mentioning in the fight against increasing fanaticism and narrow-mindedness, but one link could be made to the (more or less) complete absence of a civilized culture of debate and dissent among the educated Pakistanis.
The many years of military rule have obviously created a suppressive political and social environment in which the issues and concerns of ordinary Pakistanis, or their views and opinions, hardly ever play a role in the policy/decision-making process.
In any civilized and suitably democratized country, where public opinion is respected, the norm would be for a government to first assess what the public thinks on a given issue and then formulate and finally implement a certain policy.
But in the case of Pakistan, the opposite always happens, with government policies often at odds with public demands and expectation. The recent religion column controversy is a case in point where public opinion, barring that of the MMA's constituent parties and their supporters, was by and large in favour of the initial decision to leave the religion column out of passports because it was wholly unnecessary.
However, to please a minority political grouping not even part of the ruling coalition, the government reversed its own policy outlined a few weeks earlier and restored the column.
Ironically, the U-turn seemed to go against the personal views if not wishes of the president, the prime minister and several members of the cabinet (including the interior minister who publicly had said that the column would not be re-inserted).
Little did those who acquiesced in this realize that making such a concession to the religious parties on this, which the government will deny, will only embolden them further and the result, a la Gujranwala, is all before us.
Unfortunately, apart from issuing a press statement or two and writing an article or a letter to the editor in some English-language newspapers (a case of preaching to the already converted), not a single civil society organization, NGO or any of the so-called intellectuals took their protest to the street.
Herein lies the difference between these people and activists of religious parties who often have no qualms about using violence to thrust their views on the rest of society, blackening billboards, harassing musicians and actors, damaging public property and preventing women from taking part in an athletics event. After all, why shouldn't they?
In almost all such incidents, except perhaps the one that took place last Sunday in Gujranwala, no action was ever taken against them, no convictions, no fines, no jail sentences.
E-mail: omarq@cyber.net.pk.
Spread of bigotry: who is to blame?
By Omar R. Quraishi
The violent attack last Sunday by some 800 armed activists of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal to disrupt a mini-marathon in Gujranwala because women were participating in it is disturbing proof of the increasing level of intolerance among the extremist/ obscurantist elements in the country.
Nineteen vehicles, including those of a provincial minister and a senior police official were burnt by the protesters, who were armed with home-made petrol bombs, clubs and stones.
According to the Punjab government, firearms were 'freely used'. A government press note also said that the MMA men entered Jinnah stadium, where the women's race was to end, and attacked the participants who were "pulled down from their seats, beaten and dragged on the ground". The attackers also tried to burn some petrol pumps around the stadium and hurled petrol bombs, the government said.
This violent reaction was in response to the fact that the Gujranwala administration had decided to hold a series of races on Sunday, including one which was for female participants.
Given that the starting point was the local divisional public school, it would be safe to say that most if not all of the female participants would have been school or college students.
Worst of all, the attackers were led by the local MNA who was elected on the MMA ticket and his son. After the attack, the member of parliament told a TV channel in rather an innocent tone that the protesters merely wanted to register their protest against the women's race by staging a 'dharna' or sit-in outside the stadium.
Without any apparent provocation, he went on to say, the police attacked the MMA activists as a result of which several people, including himself and his son, were "seriously injured".
The MNA said that the MMA had asked the local administration to call off the race but since the latter failed to do that, the alliance and its activists had no choice but to register their protest on the day itself of the race.
One of its local leaders who was among the attackers told a foreign radio channel that the MMA could not sit idly by as the "nation's daughters, wives and daughters-in-law" took part in a road race wearing "t-shirts and knickers".
This was the same objection raised, at that time by Jamaat-I-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, when the Lahore marathon was held a couple of months ago. Police and independent eyewitness reports however suggest that this is not what happened, and that the MMA activists came well-armed and in large numbers with the intention of disrupting the race in a violent manner.
Of course, this isn't the first time that religious extremists in Pakistan have used violence to shove their narrow and dogmatist version of religion down everyone else's throat. In fact, in Gujranwala itself a circus was attacked and burnt down last year by MMA activists who deemed it un-Islamic and decided to take matters in their own hands.
The Punjab government has said that it will try some of the attackers who have been arrested in anti-terrorism courts. However, the fact remains that flip-flops by the federal government on various issues has continuously emboldened the MMA and its supporters.
The recent U-turn on the religion column in the new machine readable passports came after the government had already said publicly that the column would not be re-inserted after the religious parties made a fuss in and outside of parliament.
According to some reports, one reason for the reversal of the earlier stand on this issue had to do with an unwritten understanding between PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and JUI and MMA leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman. When the decision to re-insert the column was made public recently, the maulana was quick to claim a victory for the religious alliance.
So who is to blame for this increasing spread of religious bigotry in Pakistan? Is it the government, which speaks ad nauseum of "enlightened moderation" and of building a "soft image" (whatever that means) of Pakistan and then does nothing (but retreat) to put into practice its self-professed progressive and liberal worldview or to support or provide a level playing field to mainstream political parties.
Or is it the religious parties, whose adherence to a narrow and retrogressive version of religion and archaic worldview have caused much heartburn and anger among some Pakistanis who see the world from a completely different perspective.
Are Pakistan's mainstream political parties to be blamed for not raising a voice against such bigotry and zealotry, save the odd press statements which find their way into newspapers from time to time.
One can understand their predicament because they - and here one is speaking of the PPP and PML-N specifically - are hamstrung by the current political dispensation but then how many of their members in parliament have actually taken part in rallies (as opposed to an air conditioned television studio in Dubai) to register their protest and outrage against acts like the attack in Gujranwala?
Perhaps, in all of this the greatest blame lies on civil society, especially those who hold progressive and forward-looking views. This includes intellectuals but the only problem with this variety of arm-chair critics is that apart from holding forth in air conditioned drawing rooms, or television studios or writing verbose articles in (mostly English) newspapers, they do nothing really to try and mould public opinion against rising intolerance and obscurantism in this country.
After all, it is the middle class and the intellectuals that are the driving force for modernity and progressive values in most developing countries, a good example being the activist role played by such forces in Latin American countries and even to quite a large extent closer at home in places like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly why intellectuals here have so far played no roles worth mentioning in the fight against increasing fanaticism and narrow-mindedness, but one link could be made to the (more or less) complete absence of a civilized culture of debate and dissent among the educated Pakistanis.
The many years of military rule have obviously created a suppressive political and social environment in which the issues and concerns of ordinary Pakistanis, or their views and opinions, hardly ever play a role in the policy/decision-making process.
In any civilized and suitably democratized country, where public opinion is respected, the norm would be for a government to first assess what the public thinks on a given issue and then formulate and finally implement a certain policy.
But in the case of Pakistan, the opposite always happens, with government policies often at odds with public demands and expectation. The recent religion column controversy is a case in point where public opinion, barring that of the MMA's constituent parties and their supporters, was by and large in favour of the initial decision to leave the religion column out of passports because it was wholly unnecessary.
However, to please a minority political grouping not even part of the ruling coalition, the government reversed its own policy outlined a few weeks earlier and restored the column.
Ironically, the U-turn seemed to go against the personal views if not wishes of the president, the prime minister and several members of the cabinet (including the interior minister who publicly had said that the column would not be re-inserted).
Little did those who acquiesced in this realize that making such a concession to the religious parties on this, which the government will deny, will only embolden them further and the result, a la Gujranwala, is all before us.
Unfortunately, apart from issuing a press statement or two and writing an article or a letter to the editor in some English-language newspapers (a case of preaching to the already converted), not a single civil society organization, NGO or any of the so-called intellectuals took their protest to the street.
Herein lies the difference between these people and activists of religious parties who often have no qualms about using violence to thrust their views on the rest of society, blackening billboards, harassing musicians and actors, damaging public property and preventing women from taking part in an athletics event. After all, why shouldn't they?
In almost all such incidents, except perhaps the one that took place last Sunday in Gujranwala, no action was ever taken against them, no convictions, no fines, no jail sentences.
E-mail: omarq@cyber.net.pk.
Guarding Pakistan's nuclear estate
Asia Times
April 6, 2005
Guarding Pakistan's nuclear estate
By Kaushik Kapisthalam
Even as media and public attention in the United States and South Asia has focused on the issue of nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets going to Pakistan, there has been a series of interesting developments within the US regarding policy toward Pakistan's nuclear program.
Public nonchalance
Publicly, Bush administration officials have been remarkably guarded, and even nonchalant, about Pakistan's leaky nuclear program, even as one revelation after another came out regarding nuclear proliferation from Pakistan to Iran, Libya, North Korea and other unnamed countries. After exerting pressure behind the scenes on Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf, the US has quietly accepted his explanation that all proliferation acts were the responsibility of one man, Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, and lent its blessings to Khan being pardoned and kept under house arrest in Pakistan.
The official Washington spin is that the administration of President George W Bush has persuaded Pakistan to end its nuclear trade once and for all and that it is better to move forward than dwell on the past.
Despite this public posture, many experts and former government officials in Washington and elsewhere are not so sanguine. Virtually every report on nuclear security from major US and Western think-tanks, such as the Carnegie Endowment, the Monterrey Institute and the Cato Institute, consistently raise the issue of the leaky nature of Pakistan's nuclear assets. The Congressional Research Service, the advisory arm of the US Congress, has issued numerous reports on Pakistan's nuclear program highlighting the need to do something. However, until recently, Bush administration officials had in effect stonewalled on this issue and avoided talking about it on or off the record, other than a few cryptic remarks on occasion.
That has slowly begun to change.
The curtain lifts?
In testimony to the Senate on March 17, Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, who is the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, spoke at length about the fragility of Pakistan. After the usual platitudes about Musharraf's virtues, Jacoby noted in his submitted statement, "Our assessment remains unchanged from last year. If Musharraf were assassinated or otherwise replaced, Pakistan's new leader would be less pro-US. We are concerned that extremist Islamic politicians would gain greater influence."
Interestingly, it was former presidential candidate Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts who was one of the first to talk about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal openly. In a January 2004 debate with other contenders from his Democratic Party, Kerry said that if he were elected president, he would get tough with Pakistan on nuclear safety, noting that past Pakistani leaders had lied to him and the US quite blatantly on the nuclear issue. Kerry added that failing to protect Pakistan's nuclear weapons from falling into the wrong hands was "one of the most glaring weaknesses in this [Bush] administration's entire foreign policy". More curious, Kerry said the US should work with India to make a plan for taking out Pakistan's nukes in case of an emergency. Another Democratic senator, Barack Obama of Illinois, went a step further and said the US should launch surgical strikes on Pakistan in a nuclear leak eventuality.
After the re-election of Bush, it was Kerry who once again raised the issue. During the Senate hearing to confirm Bush's appointment of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state, Kerry had a fiery exchange with Rice, which needs to be quoted in full for readers to appreciate its significance.
Kerry: And what about any initiatives or discussions with President Musharraf and the Indians with respect to fail-safe procedures in the event - I mean, there have been two attempts on President Musharraf's life. If you were to have a successful coup in Pakistan, you could have, conceivably, nuclear weapons in the hand of a radical Islamic state automatically, overnight. And to the best of my knowledge, in all of the inquiries that I've made in the course of the last years, there is now no failsafe procedure in place to guarantee against that weaponry falling into the wrong hands.
Rice: Senator, we have noted this problem, and we are prepared to try to deal with it. I would prefer not in open session to talk about this particular issue.
Kerry:Okay. Well, I raise it again. I must say that in my private briefings as the nominee I found the answers highly unsatisfactory. And so, I press on you the notion that, without saying more, that we need to pay attention to that.
Rice: We're very aware of the problem, Senator, and we have had some discussions. But I really would prefer not to discuss that.In essence, Kerry noted that as a presidential candidate, the US "secret plan" for Pakistan's nukes as conveyed to him was unsatisfactory. But Rice hinted that while the plan might not be perfect, the administration was working on it. There are some signs that this may already be happening.
Follow the money
In Washington it is said that all plans stay on paper until Congress appropriates funds for them. There are a variety of agencies and bureaus in the US government that deal with various aspects of the nuclear cycle. One such agency is the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
The official budget presented by the NRC for the upcoming 2006 fiscal year includes US$800,000 for "initiatives supporting nuclear safety cooperation with India and Pakistan". One Washington insider noted that while the NRC's cooperation with India was in the realm of providing advice on emergency procedures, fire safety issues and the safety of ageing plants, as well as collaborative nuclear research, the initiatives with Pakistan were likely focused on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and its safety.
"American non-proliferation laws and international treaty commitments may severely restrict direct assistance to the safety of Pakistan's warheads and fissile material, you can wager good money that the Bush administration is not going to let global treaties to compromise American security interests," noted the insider.
The source insisted that it is highly likely that such cooperation is already under way behind the covers, but the NRC budgeting makes it possible on a larger scale with congressional oversight. One possible option is the provision of Permissive Action Links (PALs). A PAL is basically a box with sophisticated cryptography electronics inside that prevents unauthorized access to a nuclear weapon by disarming or disabling the triggering mechanism if the wrong code is entered or if the box is tampered with in any manner. PAL locks could make a nuclear warhead unusable in the wrong hands.
Interestingly, after the two successive assassination attempts on Musharraf in December 2003, NBC News reported that the US had installed PAL locks on Pakistani nuclear warheads. The report quoted former US ambassador to Pakistan Robert Oakley confirming the cooperation behind the scenes. About this time Bush was asked in a press conference whether Pakistan's nukes were secure. Bush replied, "Yes, they are secure," and changed the subject immediately.
However, not everyone agrees that providing PAL locks to Pakistan is a wise choice. Leonard Weiss, a prominent non-proliferation expert and former Senate staffer who helped author many US non-proliferation laws, feels that it is a "hoary idea" and compared it to "providing clean needles to drug addicts, thereby making proliferators seem like helpless victims of uncontrollable physiological appetites". He cautions that PALs may make it easier for a Pakistani leader to consider using a nuclear weapon. Despite this, the Washington insider tells Asia Times Online that PALs and other safety devices are likely to be in the cards for guarding Pakistan's nuclear weapons, if they are not in place already.
Damage control
It is a known fact that foreign governments use seminars and sponsored studies by private and quasi-government think-tanks to explain or elaborate on their country's policies. In recent months, many serving and retired Pakistani military officials and diplomats have launched a seemingly coordinated campaign in the US and Western strategic-policy circles. The goal of this campaign seems to be to reassure the power brokers and academics who often go on to become key players in the US and Western governments that Pakistan's nuclear estate is safe and that Pakistan will take its nuclear non-proliferation commitments seriously, after the Khan scandal.
One such effort was by retired Pakistani army Major-General Mahmud Ali Durrani at the Sandia Labs in New Mexico. It is to be noted that Sandia Labs is owned by defense contractor Lockheed Martin and is affiliated with the US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. Durrani states in his report titled "Pakistan's Strategic Thinking and the Role of Nuclear Weapons" that he was able to tour many sensitive Pakistani nuclear facilities and found the safety procedures to be credible, though there was room for improvement in certain security aspects.
But not everyone who read the Durrani study was convinced. One former US security official, who did not want to be identified, told Asia Times Online that he had more questions about Pakistan's nuclear safety procedures after reading the Durrani report than before. He noted that Durrani highlighted the claim that Pakistan has a "three-man rule" for nuclear-weapon safety that it claims is superior to the "two-man rule" in practice in the US. What that means in essence is that three people are supposed to enter codes before a nuclear weapon can be deployed, but he pointed out that the three people can sometimes be at a lower level in the military hierarchy, such as the base commander and unit commander. He wondered whether that was really a safe procedure, given that Pakistan has already acknowledged that al-Qaeda has penetrated lower levels of the military forces.
The expert also highlighted that the Durrani report's stated exception to the "three-man rule" is in the case of a Pakistani air force pilot who can solely be given the full weapon-arming code in certain situations. "This is not comforting to anyone [who] does not know what those 'special situations' are and what if any fail-safes are there to prevent a rogue pilot from taking off with a nuclear weapon," the expert cautioned. It is to be noted that the Durrani report includes a sobering note about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear installations, while dismissing the possibility of Islamist radicals being on the inside. "There is an urgent need to improve the technical skills of personnel charged with the security of [Pakistan's] nuclear installations and develop an institutional security culture," the report warns. Coming from a Pakistani insider, this must be alarming to some within the US government, the expert surmised.
Making the plan
Soon after September 11, 2001, American investigative reporter Seymour Hersh wrote in The New Yorker magazine of a supposed secret US-Israeli plan to take control of Pakistan's nuclear facilities in the case of an Islamist coup there. In a book by Washington Post's Bob Woodward, President Bush is quoted as telling Musharraf that "Seymour Hersh is a liar" after the Hersh story came out. Whether the US had a secret plan for Pakistan's nukes in 2001 or not, there is evidence that the US government and Congress are beginning to accept the reality that a US military action plan is needed to prepare for taking over and managing a state-failure situation in a country that possesses mass-destruction weapons.
In a public hearing in March conducted by the US Senate's Armed Services Committee on plans for the US Army's transformation, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut raised the question of whether the US military was ready for a "contingency" situation in Pakistan or Iran. In response, General Richard A Cody, the US Army's vice chief of staff, said that such questions were the ones US Army leaders "grapple with every day", without going into details. The timeframe for these plans mentioned a requirement to be ready by as early as 2007.
The US Military Force Structure Review Act of 1996 directed the secretary of defense to conduct a Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) of the strategy, force structure, force modernization plans, infrastructure and other elements of the defense program and policies with an intent of establishing a revised defense program. It is therefore interesting to note that the next QDR, planned to be released this autumn, reportedly includes plans for scenarios such as a rogue commander getting hold of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. "The more the scenarios hit a nerve ... the more I know I am onto something," a Pentagon official working on the QDR 2005 was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal recently.
The significance of these hearings and the QDR plans is that the normally secretive US Defense Department does not make its ideas public for the purposes of public relations. These plans are made public to pressure Congress into releasing massive funds to the US military to be able to realize the plans. They also signify that the US considers the eventualities being planned for in the QDR to be realistic enough to happen in the next four years. Previous QDRs had plans for a conventional combat operation against the likes of Iraq. It may very well turn out that the US State Department, always sensitive to Pakistan's concerns, steps in to force the Pentagon to omit any references to Pakistan in the public QDR version, but if the Pentagon wants debate on the matter, a well-timed leak could do the trick.
Islamabad must be watching these developments with a wary eye, but any protestations it might choose to express are unlikely to deter the US from making plans to slowly yet deliberately cast a net around Pakistan's nuclear estate.
Kaushik Kapisthalam is a freelance defense and strategic affairs analyst based in the United States. He can be reached at contact@kapisthalam.com.
April 6, 2005
Guarding Pakistan's nuclear estate
By Kaushik Kapisthalam
Even as media and public attention in the United States and South Asia has focused on the issue of nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets going to Pakistan, there has been a series of interesting developments within the US regarding policy toward Pakistan's nuclear program.
Public nonchalance
Publicly, Bush administration officials have been remarkably guarded, and even nonchalant, about Pakistan's leaky nuclear program, even as one revelation after another came out regarding nuclear proliferation from Pakistan to Iran, Libya, North Korea and other unnamed countries. After exerting pressure behind the scenes on Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf, the US has quietly accepted his explanation that all proliferation acts were the responsibility of one man, Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, and lent its blessings to Khan being pardoned and kept under house arrest in Pakistan.
The official Washington spin is that the administration of President George W Bush has persuaded Pakistan to end its nuclear trade once and for all and that it is better to move forward than dwell on the past.
Despite this public posture, many experts and former government officials in Washington and elsewhere are not so sanguine. Virtually every report on nuclear security from major US and Western think-tanks, such as the Carnegie Endowment, the Monterrey Institute and the Cato Institute, consistently raise the issue of the leaky nature of Pakistan's nuclear assets. The Congressional Research Service, the advisory arm of the US Congress, has issued numerous reports on Pakistan's nuclear program highlighting the need to do something. However, until recently, Bush administration officials had in effect stonewalled on this issue and avoided talking about it on or off the record, other than a few cryptic remarks on occasion.
That has slowly begun to change.
The curtain lifts?
In testimony to the Senate on March 17, Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, who is the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, spoke at length about the fragility of Pakistan. After the usual platitudes about Musharraf's virtues, Jacoby noted in his submitted statement, "Our assessment remains unchanged from last year. If Musharraf were assassinated or otherwise replaced, Pakistan's new leader would be less pro-US. We are concerned that extremist Islamic politicians would gain greater influence."
Interestingly, it was former presidential candidate Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts who was one of the first to talk about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal openly. In a January 2004 debate with other contenders from his Democratic Party, Kerry said that if he were elected president, he would get tough with Pakistan on nuclear safety, noting that past Pakistani leaders had lied to him and the US quite blatantly on the nuclear issue. Kerry added that failing to protect Pakistan's nuclear weapons from falling into the wrong hands was "one of the most glaring weaknesses in this [Bush] administration's entire foreign policy". More curious, Kerry said the US should work with India to make a plan for taking out Pakistan's nukes in case of an emergency. Another Democratic senator, Barack Obama of Illinois, went a step further and said the US should launch surgical strikes on Pakistan in a nuclear leak eventuality.
After the re-election of Bush, it was Kerry who once again raised the issue. During the Senate hearing to confirm Bush's appointment of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state, Kerry had a fiery exchange with Rice, which needs to be quoted in full for readers to appreciate its significance.
Kerry: And what about any initiatives or discussions with President Musharraf and the Indians with respect to fail-safe procedures in the event - I mean, there have been two attempts on President Musharraf's life. If you were to have a successful coup in Pakistan, you could have, conceivably, nuclear weapons in the hand of a radical Islamic state automatically, overnight. And to the best of my knowledge, in all of the inquiries that I've made in the course of the last years, there is now no failsafe procedure in place to guarantee against that weaponry falling into the wrong hands.
Rice: Senator, we have noted this problem, and we are prepared to try to deal with it. I would prefer not in open session to talk about this particular issue.
Kerry:Okay. Well, I raise it again. I must say that in my private briefings as the nominee I found the answers highly unsatisfactory. And so, I press on you the notion that, without saying more, that we need to pay attention to that.
Rice: We're very aware of the problem, Senator, and we have had some discussions. But I really would prefer not to discuss that.In essence, Kerry noted that as a presidential candidate, the US "secret plan" for Pakistan's nukes as conveyed to him was unsatisfactory. But Rice hinted that while the plan might not be perfect, the administration was working on it. There are some signs that this may already be happening.
Follow the money
In Washington it is said that all plans stay on paper until Congress appropriates funds for them. There are a variety of agencies and bureaus in the US government that deal with various aspects of the nuclear cycle. One such agency is the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
The official budget presented by the NRC for the upcoming 2006 fiscal year includes US$800,000 for "initiatives supporting nuclear safety cooperation with India and Pakistan". One Washington insider noted that while the NRC's cooperation with India was in the realm of providing advice on emergency procedures, fire safety issues and the safety of ageing plants, as well as collaborative nuclear research, the initiatives with Pakistan were likely focused on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and its safety.
"American non-proliferation laws and international treaty commitments may severely restrict direct assistance to the safety of Pakistan's warheads and fissile material, you can wager good money that the Bush administration is not going to let global treaties to compromise American security interests," noted the insider.
The source insisted that it is highly likely that such cooperation is already under way behind the covers, but the NRC budgeting makes it possible on a larger scale with congressional oversight. One possible option is the provision of Permissive Action Links (PALs). A PAL is basically a box with sophisticated cryptography electronics inside that prevents unauthorized access to a nuclear weapon by disarming or disabling the triggering mechanism if the wrong code is entered or if the box is tampered with in any manner. PAL locks could make a nuclear warhead unusable in the wrong hands.
Interestingly, after the two successive assassination attempts on Musharraf in December 2003, NBC News reported that the US had installed PAL locks on Pakistani nuclear warheads. The report quoted former US ambassador to Pakistan Robert Oakley confirming the cooperation behind the scenes. About this time Bush was asked in a press conference whether Pakistan's nukes were secure. Bush replied, "Yes, they are secure," and changed the subject immediately.
However, not everyone agrees that providing PAL locks to Pakistan is a wise choice. Leonard Weiss, a prominent non-proliferation expert and former Senate staffer who helped author many US non-proliferation laws, feels that it is a "hoary idea" and compared it to "providing clean needles to drug addicts, thereby making proliferators seem like helpless victims of uncontrollable physiological appetites". He cautions that PALs may make it easier for a Pakistani leader to consider using a nuclear weapon. Despite this, the Washington insider tells Asia Times Online that PALs and other safety devices are likely to be in the cards for guarding Pakistan's nuclear weapons, if they are not in place already.
Damage control
It is a known fact that foreign governments use seminars and sponsored studies by private and quasi-government think-tanks to explain or elaborate on their country's policies. In recent months, many serving and retired Pakistani military officials and diplomats have launched a seemingly coordinated campaign in the US and Western strategic-policy circles. The goal of this campaign seems to be to reassure the power brokers and academics who often go on to become key players in the US and Western governments that Pakistan's nuclear estate is safe and that Pakistan will take its nuclear non-proliferation commitments seriously, after the Khan scandal.
One such effort was by retired Pakistani army Major-General Mahmud Ali Durrani at the Sandia Labs in New Mexico. It is to be noted that Sandia Labs is owned by defense contractor Lockheed Martin and is affiliated with the US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. Durrani states in his report titled "Pakistan's Strategic Thinking and the Role of Nuclear Weapons" that he was able to tour many sensitive Pakistani nuclear facilities and found the safety procedures to be credible, though there was room for improvement in certain security aspects.
But not everyone who read the Durrani study was convinced. One former US security official, who did not want to be identified, told Asia Times Online that he had more questions about Pakistan's nuclear safety procedures after reading the Durrani report than before. He noted that Durrani highlighted the claim that Pakistan has a "three-man rule" for nuclear-weapon safety that it claims is superior to the "two-man rule" in practice in the US. What that means in essence is that three people are supposed to enter codes before a nuclear weapon can be deployed, but he pointed out that the three people can sometimes be at a lower level in the military hierarchy, such as the base commander and unit commander. He wondered whether that was really a safe procedure, given that Pakistan has already acknowledged that al-Qaeda has penetrated lower levels of the military forces.
The expert also highlighted that the Durrani report's stated exception to the "three-man rule" is in the case of a Pakistani air force pilot who can solely be given the full weapon-arming code in certain situations. "This is not comforting to anyone [who] does not know what those 'special situations' are and what if any fail-safes are there to prevent a rogue pilot from taking off with a nuclear weapon," the expert cautioned. It is to be noted that the Durrani report includes a sobering note about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear installations, while dismissing the possibility of Islamist radicals being on the inside. "There is an urgent need to improve the technical skills of personnel charged with the security of [Pakistan's] nuclear installations and develop an institutional security culture," the report warns. Coming from a Pakistani insider, this must be alarming to some within the US government, the expert surmised.
Making the plan
Soon after September 11, 2001, American investigative reporter Seymour Hersh wrote in The New Yorker magazine of a supposed secret US-Israeli plan to take control of Pakistan's nuclear facilities in the case of an Islamist coup there. In a book by Washington Post's Bob Woodward, President Bush is quoted as telling Musharraf that "Seymour Hersh is a liar" after the Hersh story came out. Whether the US had a secret plan for Pakistan's nukes in 2001 or not, there is evidence that the US government and Congress are beginning to accept the reality that a US military action plan is needed to prepare for taking over and managing a state-failure situation in a country that possesses mass-destruction weapons.
In a public hearing in March conducted by the US Senate's Armed Services Committee on plans for the US Army's transformation, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut raised the question of whether the US military was ready for a "contingency" situation in Pakistan or Iran. In response, General Richard A Cody, the US Army's vice chief of staff, said that such questions were the ones US Army leaders "grapple with every day", without going into details. The timeframe for these plans mentioned a requirement to be ready by as early as 2007.
The US Military Force Structure Review Act of 1996 directed the secretary of defense to conduct a Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) of the strategy, force structure, force modernization plans, infrastructure and other elements of the defense program and policies with an intent of establishing a revised defense program. It is therefore interesting to note that the next QDR, planned to be released this autumn, reportedly includes plans for scenarios such as a rogue commander getting hold of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. "The more the scenarios hit a nerve ... the more I know I am onto something," a Pentagon official working on the QDR 2005 was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal recently.
The significance of these hearings and the QDR plans is that the normally secretive US Defense Department does not make its ideas public for the purposes of public relations. These plans are made public to pressure Congress into releasing massive funds to the US military to be able to realize the plans. They also signify that the US considers the eventualities being planned for in the QDR to be realistic enough to happen in the next four years. Previous QDRs had plans for a conventional combat operation against the likes of Iraq. It may very well turn out that the US State Department, always sensitive to Pakistan's concerns, steps in to force the Pentagon to omit any references to Pakistan in the public QDR version, but if the Pentagon wants debate on the matter, a well-timed leak could do the trick.
Islamabad must be watching these developments with a wary eye, but any protestations it might choose to express are unlikely to deter the US from making plans to slowly yet deliberately cast a net around Pakistan's nuclear estate.
Kaushik Kapisthalam is a freelance defense and strategic affairs analyst based in the United States. He can be reached at contact@kapisthalam.com.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Sale of US Jets to Pakistan is a Leap Forward!!
The Financial Times
Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Sale of US Jets to Pakistan is a Leap Forward
The US's emerging foreign policy pragmatism took a giant leap forward with the announcement that Washington would sell non-nuclear capable F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, write Mansoor Ijaz and Thomas McInerney.
By MANSOOR IJAZ and THOMAS McINERNEY
Mansoor Ijaz, chairman of Crescent Investment Management, was joint author of the blueprint for the Kashmir ceasefire in July 2000; Thomas McInerney, non-executive chairman of Crescent Technology Ventures, served as US Air Force assistant vice chief of staff from 1992-1994
The Bush administration's emerging foreign policy pragmatism took a giant leap forward with the recent announcement that Washington would sell non-nuclear capable F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan and - if New Delhi wants them - to India as well. Historically, such controversial decisions are remembered more for what was not said about their origin than what was.
This decision, meant in part to placate a disgruntled ally, Pakistan, could be transformational in stabilising South Asia if the US administration uses its initiative as a platform to encourage domestic policy shifts in Islamabad on key political, economic and strategic issues.
Unravelling what the nuclear black market run by A. Q. Khan, the Pakistani scientist, supplied to Iran and North Korea tops the list. If Mr Khan cannot be made available to the US for interrogation, supplying International Atomic Energy Agency scientists and United Nations officials with examples of the parts sold - such as Pakistani uranium enrichment centrifuges - would help determine how far client countries including Iran and North Korea have advanced their nuclear programmes.
Irrefutable evidence of Iranian and North Korean nuclear malfeasance would greatly enhance prospects for using international diplomacy rather than militaristic bluster to resolve these two thorny problems, a possibility that alone justifies the F-16 sale. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, recently indicated he was considering a move to share such evidence with UN officials - he should do so without delay. Iran, which admits to holding some al-Qaeda leaders, might consider handing them over to a neutral authority in exchange for reasoned diplomatic management of its nuclear imbroglio - a result that would be possible only with Pakistan's carefully co-ordinated and planned disclosures.
Gen Musharraf should also use the leverage gained from resuming a strategic military supply relationship with Washington to stare down hawks within his army to accept the emerging blueprint for long-term peace with India over the disputed Himalayan enclave of Kashmir. For its part, New Delhi should take advantage of Gen Musharraf's forthcoming visit to India for a cricket match to proceed in resolving the 58-year-old dispute that has thrice taken the nuclear rivals to war. A staged withdrawal of troops by both sides along the Line of Control prior to the snowmelt in the Himalayas would be one such step.
There is also an intangible benefit in the new F-16 deal. In rewarding a loyal ally for siding with America against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the aftermath of the September 11 2001 attacks, George W. Bush begins healing more than a decade's worth of damage done by his father, then-president George H. W. Bush, with his decision in 1990 to impose sanctions on Pakistan for its nuclear weapons ambitions. At the time, Washington ended military sales to Islamabad after Pakistan had already paid hundreds of millions of dollars in deposits for 38 F-16s, a decision that alienated Pakistanis and fuelled extremist movements.
Moreover, the F-16 deal will help improve America's image on the streets of Pakistan and with Islamabad's generals. Longer term, the deal could be used to compel Islamabad to allocate more domestic resources to education and poverty alleviation programmes by using military spending to create new pockets of funding. The Bush administration should focus its creative energies here by, for example, asking Islamabad to redefine and use the offset programme accompanying any F-16 sales to channel funds into Pakistan's new programme to encourage non-religious schools rather than into dubious business deals. Gen Musharraf has touted this programme as a priority for Pakistan's future - here is his chance to prove it.
Lockheed Martin, the US aerospace giant that will deliver the F-16s and run the offset programme, could make matching contributions in fields such as healthcare and rural electrification so that Pakistan's poor and disaffected might also feel the benefits of US military largesse. It is not often that such a controversial decision can yield so many collateral benefits. Selling F-16s to Pakistan is a model of the more pragmatic US foreign policy emerging from the state department under Condoleezza Rice; it should be repeated in other problematic areas of the world.
Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Sale of US Jets to Pakistan is a Leap Forward
The US's emerging foreign policy pragmatism took a giant leap forward with the announcement that Washington would sell non-nuclear capable F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, write Mansoor Ijaz and Thomas McInerney.
By MANSOOR IJAZ and THOMAS McINERNEY
Mansoor Ijaz, chairman of Crescent Investment Management, was joint author of the blueprint for the Kashmir ceasefire in July 2000; Thomas McInerney, non-executive chairman of Crescent Technology Ventures, served as US Air Force assistant vice chief of staff from 1992-1994
The Bush administration's emerging foreign policy pragmatism took a giant leap forward with the recent announcement that Washington would sell non-nuclear capable F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan and - if New Delhi wants them - to India as well. Historically, such controversial decisions are remembered more for what was not said about their origin than what was.
This decision, meant in part to placate a disgruntled ally, Pakistan, could be transformational in stabilising South Asia if the US administration uses its initiative as a platform to encourage domestic policy shifts in Islamabad on key political, economic and strategic issues.
Unravelling what the nuclear black market run by A. Q. Khan, the Pakistani scientist, supplied to Iran and North Korea tops the list. If Mr Khan cannot be made available to the US for interrogation, supplying International Atomic Energy Agency scientists and United Nations officials with examples of the parts sold - such as Pakistani uranium enrichment centrifuges - would help determine how far client countries including Iran and North Korea have advanced their nuclear programmes.
Irrefutable evidence of Iranian and North Korean nuclear malfeasance would greatly enhance prospects for using international diplomacy rather than militaristic bluster to resolve these two thorny problems, a possibility that alone justifies the F-16 sale. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, recently indicated he was considering a move to share such evidence with UN officials - he should do so without delay. Iran, which admits to holding some al-Qaeda leaders, might consider handing them over to a neutral authority in exchange for reasoned diplomatic management of its nuclear imbroglio - a result that would be possible only with Pakistan's carefully co-ordinated and planned disclosures.
Gen Musharraf should also use the leverage gained from resuming a strategic military supply relationship with Washington to stare down hawks within his army to accept the emerging blueprint for long-term peace with India over the disputed Himalayan enclave of Kashmir. For its part, New Delhi should take advantage of Gen Musharraf's forthcoming visit to India for a cricket match to proceed in resolving the 58-year-old dispute that has thrice taken the nuclear rivals to war. A staged withdrawal of troops by both sides along the Line of Control prior to the snowmelt in the Himalayas would be one such step.
There is also an intangible benefit in the new F-16 deal. In rewarding a loyal ally for siding with America against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the aftermath of the September 11 2001 attacks, George W. Bush begins healing more than a decade's worth of damage done by his father, then-president George H. W. Bush, with his decision in 1990 to impose sanctions on Pakistan for its nuclear weapons ambitions. At the time, Washington ended military sales to Islamabad after Pakistan had already paid hundreds of millions of dollars in deposits for 38 F-16s, a decision that alienated Pakistanis and fuelled extremist movements.
Moreover, the F-16 deal will help improve America's image on the streets of Pakistan and with Islamabad's generals. Longer term, the deal could be used to compel Islamabad to allocate more domestic resources to education and poverty alleviation programmes by using military spending to create new pockets of funding. The Bush administration should focus its creative energies here by, for example, asking Islamabad to redefine and use the offset programme accompanying any F-16 sales to channel funds into Pakistan's new programme to encourage non-religious schools rather than into dubious business deals. Gen Musharraf has touted this programme as a priority for Pakistan's future - here is his chance to prove it.
Lockheed Martin, the US aerospace giant that will deliver the F-16s and run the offset programme, could make matching contributions in fields such as healthcare and rural electrification so that Pakistan's poor and disaffected might also feel the benefits of US military largesse. It is not often that such a controversial decision can yield so many collateral benefits. Selling F-16s to Pakistan is a model of the more pragmatic US foreign policy emerging from the state department under Condoleezza Rice; it should be repeated in other problematic areas of the world.
Tackling domestic violence
Dawn, April 7, 2005
Tackling domestic violence
By Zubeida Mustafa
The same day when Mukhtar Mai filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the acquittal of her alleged rapists by the Multan bench of the Lahore High Court, this paper carried a report of the Progressive Women's Association (PWA), an Islamabad-based NGO, that 7,000 burn cases involving women were brought to only four hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
The report didn't specify the period in which these incidents of violence took place. Mukhtar Mai's anguish is too recent for it to have been erased from people's collective memory. She is the woman who was gangraped in 2002 in Meerwala village on the orders of a jirga.
And as long as men and women of conscience are alive, Mukhtar Mai will not find herself alone. Only recently an American woman, Benita Lubic, wrote to me, "I want you to know that we do care! I was most distressed reading an article in the Washington Post about Mukhtar Mai and the terrible problems she has had to face and the fight she has against her alleged rapists. My heart goes out to her and others who experience similar situations. I pray for her."
Mukhtar Mai's case received world wide publicity, given the brutal nature of the incident and how adversely it reflected on the power structure of the state and society in Pakistan. But there are many other women who are victims of domestic violence on a daily basis and not much is heard about their agony.
For the fact is that domestic violence is on the rise in this country. It comes into public notice only when the woman is killed or seriously injured. Otherwise domestic violence is hidden behind a veil of secrecy and it remains within the four walls of the home.
Human rights activists have struggled to make it a culpable crime so that the police can register a case against a man who beats his wife or seeks to hurt her in any other way. But so far not much has been achieved because a woman continues to be looked upon as her husband's property to be bullied and bandied about as he wishes. When she complains - women's police stations were set up supposedly to provide such women succour - she is advised to go home and bear it. That is how it has been going on for generations she is told and the family honour is at stake.
The chairperson of the PWA complained against the women parliamentarians who, she said, had failed to play an effective role in preventing violence against women.
While the law has to be tightened to legally restraint a person from beating or abusing his wife, a man who physically assaults his wife - burns her, throws acid on her face or causes grave bodily injury - can be hauled up under the existing laws. Yet cases are not registered as the PWA confirms.
According to the staff of a woman's shelter in Karachi (Pannah), the perpetrators of domestic violence in Pakistan, however, are not only husbands but also the in-laws, parents and male relatives.
Women are unable to cope with this culture of violence on their own and often endure it to prevent the break up of the family. It is surprising that women activists have not done enough to preempt domestic violence.
Mobina Bhimani, an East-African born Canadian development activist who has worked for several years in Pakistan, points out that the struggle for women's rights, especially to protect them against violence in the home, should not be directed at breaking up the family.
"The woman has to be made aware about her rights to be safe and that violence against women is a crime," Mobina says. But the approach to dealing with domestic violence should not be at the expense of breaking up the home.
In Canada, many NGOs use a two-pronged strategy to deal with wife abuse. The first one is to educate society and create awareness about what is abuse and inculcate zero-tolerance for it.
Ontario's government has produced many flyers and leaflets on the subject, highlighting the root cause of abuse being the man's desire to have complete control and power over the wife. This may take many forms, such as physical abuse, emotional abuse, economic abuse and sexual abuse.
While the Canadian government is quite focused on women's rights and the preservation of the family, the Pakistan government has regrettably not been so attentive to the rights of women.
Mercifully, many Pakistani NGOs, such as the Aurat Foundation, have addressed this issue and produced similar literature on violence against women. True its impact has been limited because of the low rate of literacy in the country.
What is, however, more important is that the second prong of the strategy should be addressed simultaneously - one that seeks to help a woman and her family to get out of an abusive situation without taking the extreme measure of breaking up the family.
Nothing of significance seems to have been done in this area. Shelters, which take in battered women, are essential but are not the ultimate solution. They provide temporary respite to a woman but, in the end, she is expected to seek legal redress and stand up on her own feet if she does not wish to go back to her husband and the abusive situation. Hence shelters are designed for extreme cases of violence when a woman's life may actually be in danger.
A troubled family should also be provided a via media, that is, the option to change the abusive situation. In Canada, the government and the NGOs have set up round-the-clock help lines to allow a woman in distress to call and receive emotional support, crisis counselling, referrals for shelters, legal services, housing and financial assistance.
The abusing man can also call the help line for assistance. The only help line that seems to be working here is the police's "madadgar" but that is more an emergency centre to report crimes and obtain assistance against car snatching, housebreaking and kidnapping attempts. It is not designed to offer emotional support.
Another essential need is for counselling units where trained social workers and psychologists can talk to the family and reorient their thinking in finding constructive solutions to domestic disputes without using violence. It calls for a change in the culture vis-a-vis woman and her marital rights within the family and marriage.
In fact, many casualties can be averted through family counselling because it is known that the extreme cases of family violence do not occur out of the blue. They are preceded by a long history of chronic tension and conflict. Counselling and intervention at this stage can prove to be a positive measure.
Many of these services can be provided through community centres that should be set up in every locality. NGOs can set up help lines and provide assistance where their resources allow.
By networking with each other, these NGOs can expand their reach without creating unnecessary duplication. As a number of NGOs working in the field of population have shown, a communication strategy based on direct person-to-person contact works better in our society where the majority of the women and a large chunk of the men are illiterate.
Tackling domestic violence
By Zubeida Mustafa
The same day when Mukhtar Mai filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the acquittal of her alleged rapists by the Multan bench of the Lahore High Court, this paper carried a report of the Progressive Women's Association (PWA), an Islamabad-based NGO, that 7,000 burn cases involving women were brought to only four hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
The report didn't specify the period in which these incidents of violence took place. Mukhtar Mai's anguish is too recent for it to have been erased from people's collective memory. She is the woman who was gangraped in 2002 in Meerwala village on the orders of a jirga.
And as long as men and women of conscience are alive, Mukhtar Mai will not find herself alone. Only recently an American woman, Benita Lubic, wrote to me, "I want you to know that we do care! I was most distressed reading an article in the Washington Post about Mukhtar Mai and the terrible problems she has had to face and the fight she has against her alleged rapists. My heart goes out to her and others who experience similar situations. I pray for her."
Mukhtar Mai's case received world wide publicity, given the brutal nature of the incident and how adversely it reflected on the power structure of the state and society in Pakistan. But there are many other women who are victims of domestic violence on a daily basis and not much is heard about their agony.
For the fact is that domestic violence is on the rise in this country. It comes into public notice only when the woman is killed or seriously injured. Otherwise domestic violence is hidden behind a veil of secrecy and it remains within the four walls of the home.
Human rights activists have struggled to make it a culpable crime so that the police can register a case against a man who beats his wife or seeks to hurt her in any other way. But so far not much has been achieved because a woman continues to be looked upon as her husband's property to be bullied and bandied about as he wishes. When she complains - women's police stations were set up supposedly to provide such women succour - she is advised to go home and bear it. That is how it has been going on for generations she is told and the family honour is at stake.
The chairperson of the PWA complained against the women parliamentarians who, she said, had failed to play an effective role in preventing violence against women.
While the law has to be tightened to legally restraint a person from beating or abusing his wife, a man who physically assaults his wife - burns her, throws acid on her face or causes grave bodily injury - can be hauled up under the existing laws. Yet cases are not registered as the PWA confirms.
According to the staff of a woman's shelter in Karachi (Pannah), the perpetrators of domestic violence in Pakistan, however, are not only husbands but also the in-laws, parents and male relatives.
Women are unable to cope with this culture of violence on their own and often endure it to prevent the break up of the family. It is surprising that women activists have not done enough to preempt domestic violence.
Mobina Bhimani, an East-African born Canadian development activist who has worked for several years in Pakistan, points out that the struggle for women's rights, especially to protect them against violence in the home, should not be directed at breaking up the family.
"The woman has to be made aware about her rights to be safe and that violence against women is a crime," Mobina says. But the approach to dealing with domestic violence should not be at the expense of breaking up the home.
In Canada, many NGOs use a two-pronged strategy to deal with wife abuse. The first one is to educate society and create awareness about what is abuse and inculcate zero-tolerance for it.
Ontario's government has produced many flyers and leaflets on the subject, highlighting the root cause of abuse being the man's desire to have complete control and power over the wife. This may take many forms, such as physical abuse, emotional abuse, economic abuse and sexual abuse.
While the Canadian government is quite focused on women's rights and the preservation of the family, the Pakistan government has regrettably not been so attentive to the rights of women.
Mercifully, many Pakistani NGOs, such as the Aurat Foundation, have addressed this issue and produced similar literature on violence against women. True its impact has been limited because of the low rate of literacy in the country.
What is, however, more important is that the second prong of the strategy should be addressed simultaneously - one that seeks to help a woman and her family to get out of an abusive situation without taking the extreme measure of breaking up the family.
Nothing of significance seems to have been done in this area. Shelters, which take in battered women, are essential but are not the ultimate solution. They provide temporary respite to a woman but, in the end, she is expected to seek legal redress and stand up on her own feet if she does not wish to go back to her husband and the abusive situation. Hence shelters are designed for extreme cases of violence when a woman's life may actually be in danger.
A troubled family should also be provided a via media, that is, the option to change the abusive situation. In Canada, the government and the NGOs have set up round-the-clock help lines to allow a woman in distress to call and receive emotional support, crisis counselling, referrals for shelters, legal services, housing and financial assistance.
The abusing man can also call the help line for assistance. The only help line that seems to be working here is the police's "madadgar" but that is more an emergency centre to report crimes and obtain assistance against car snatching, housebreaking and kidnapping attempts. It is not designed to offer emotional support.
Another essential need is for counselling units where trained social workers and psychologists can talk to the family and reorient their thinking in finding constructive solutions to domestic disputes without using violence. It calls for a change in the culture vis-a-vis woman and her marital rights within the family and marriage.
In fact, many casualties can be averted through family counselling because it is known that the extreme cases of family violence do not occur out of the blue. They are preceded by a long history of chronic tension and conflict. Counselling and intervention at this stage can prove to be a positive measure.
Many of these services can be provided through community centres that should be set up in every locality. NGOs can set up help lines and provide assistance where their resources allow.
By networking with each other, these NGOs can expand their reach without creating unnecessary duplication. As a number of NGOs working in the field of population have shown, a communication strategy based on direct person-to-person contact works better in our society where the majority of the women and a large chunk of the men are illiterate.
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Madrassa statistics
Daw, April 5, 2005
Madrassa statistics based on unscientific surveys: speaker
By Faiz Rehman
WASHINGTON: Madrassa enrolment figures in the press and in institutional reports are sometimes highly inflated, said Tahir Andrabi, associate professor at the Pomona College, on Monday.
Speaking at a seminar organised by Johns Hopkins University’s Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Andrabi criticised media reports, including the 9-11 Commission report, for using numbers about madrassas based on unscientific surveys.
“Madrassas’ enrolment accounts for approximately 0.3 percent of all children between the ages of 5 and 19. Given that the overall enrolment rate for this group is roughly 42 percent, this represents less than 0.7 percent of all enrolled children, less than the 33 percent cited by the International Crisis Group report,” said Andrabi, who recently released a study on religious schools’ enrolment in Pakistan.
He alleged the 9-11 Commission used unsubstantiated numbers in its famous reports and claimed some figures about Pakistan were based on “a Karachi police commander’s interview.”
Another speaker, Prof Anita Weiss, who has visited Pakistan several times to study madrassas, said Pakistan should invest in mainstream public schools rather than reforming madrassas, saying, “Numbers are important; every dollar spent on modernising madrassas should be invested in mainstream education.”
University of Vermont professor Dr Saleem Ali said most madrassas varied in substance and form. Dr Ali claimed that most “indoctrination” occurred at mosques and not at madrassas. He said, “Only a small number of madrassas teach militancy and are affiliated with Jihadi groups,” adding that students at most madrassas did not have the time to learn anything other than the Quran, hadith and fiqh.
Sindh Education Minister Dr Hamida Khuro said the British left an education system designed to produce clerks for the colonial regime. Successive governments did not give education a priority and “failed to realise that education was crucial for the nation’s development,” she said, adding that the current government had doubled GDP spending on education. She criticised Ziaul Haq’s regime for purposefully ignoring education to manipulate the people.
Madrassa statistics based on unscientific surveys: speaker
By Faiz Rehman
WASHINGTON: Madrassa enrolment figures in the press and in institutional reports are sometimes highly inflated, said Tahir Andrabi, associate professor at the Pomona College, on Monday.
Speaking at a seminar organised by Johns Hopkins University’s Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Andrabi criticised media reports, including the 9-11 Commission report, for using numbers about madrassas based on unscientific surveys.
“Madrassas’ enrolment accounts for approximately 0.3 percent of all children between the ages of 5 and 19. Given that the overall enrolment rate for this group is roughly 42 percent, this represents less than 0.7 percent of all enrolled children, less than the 33 percent cited by the International Crisis Group report,” said Andrabi, who recently released a study on religious schools’ enrolment in Pakistan.
He alleged the 9-11 Commission used unsubstantiated numbers in its famous reports and claimed some figures about Pakistan were based on “a Karachi police commander’s interview.”
Another speaker, Prof Anita Weiss, who has visited Pakistan several times to study madrassas, said Pakistan should invest in mainstream public schools rather than reforming madrassas, saying, “Numbers are important; every dollar spent on modernising madrassas should be invested in mainstream education.”
University of Vermont professor Dr Saleem Ali said most madrassas varied in substance and form. Dr Ali claimed that most “indoctrination” occurred at mosques and not at madrassas. He said, “Only a small number of madrassas teach militancy and are affiliated with Jihadi groups,” adding that students at most madrassas did not have the time to learn anything other than the Quran, hadith and fiqh.
Sindh Education Minister Dr Hamida Khuro said the British left an education system designed to produce clerks for the colonial regime. Successive governments did not give education a priority and “failed to realise that education was crucial for the nation’s development,” she said, adding that the current government had doubled GDP spending on education. She criticised Ziaul Haq’s regime for purposefully ignoring education to manipulate the people.
Delhi's main worry is 'nuclear threat'
Dawn, April 5, 2005
Delhi's main worry is 'nuclear threat'
By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, April 4: Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told senior army commanders on Monday that a future conventional war in the region was neither likely nor something to worry about , but said it was a larger nuclear threat as well as a far less tractable terrorist menace they should watch out for.
Addressing the Army Commanders' Conference here, Mr Mukherjee said in this context there was a need to search for a cost-effective combination of technology and manpower to meet the country's defence requirement.
"The most potent challenges faced by the country is not from conventional wars, but from unconventional threats at both the low end of the spectrum such as religious fundamentalism, terrorism, insurgency, arms smuggling and at the high end from nuclear and missile threats and weapons of mass destruction," Mr Mukherjee said.
"We have to strengthen our border and airspace management, internal security and maritime environment to face these challenges successfully," he said. Referring to India's neighbours, Mr Mukherjee said New Delhi's approach towards Pakistan is to pursue a dialogue with the government on all outstanding issues and simultaneously to expand people-to-people contacts and promote confidence-building measures.
He urged the commanders to guard the country against the use of "softer borders" to promote subversion and terrorism. Mr Mukherjee said Russia continued to be India's major strategic partner. "While there has been an expansion in defence cooperation with the US, Israel has also emerged as an important technological partner," he added.
Taking up the army's reorganisation plans, Mr Mukherjee said as a part of streamlining the command and control for India's western borders, approval had been given for creation of the new South-Western Command.
The situation in Jammu and Kashmir has shown a perceptible change towards the better, according to the defence minister. He said the cease-fire along the Line of Control except for a few violations had generally held.
Infiltration figures and casualties have come down. However, he cautioned the security forces to be alert, "as the terrorist infrastructure along the LoC remains still intact."
For the first time perhaps the defence minister made an open call for manpower reduction in the armed forces expressing concern that large part of defence budget allocation was taken up by manpower expenditure. Mr Mukherjee said there should be a move for a smaller "tail" in the army, hinting that action should be initiated to prune support elements in the armed forces.
Delhi's main worry is 'nuclear threat'
By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, April 4: Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told senior army commanders on Monday that a future conventional war in the region was neither likely nor something to worry about , but said it was a larger nuclear threat as well as a far less tractable terrorist menace they should watch out for.
Addressing the Army Commanders' Conference here, Mr Mukherjee said in this context there was a need to search for a cost-effective combination of technology and manpower to meet the country's defence requirement.
"The most potent challenges faced by the country is not from conventional wars, but from unconventional threats at both the low end of the spectrum such as religious fundamentalism, terrorism, insurgency, arms smuggling and at the high end from nuclear and missile threats and weapons of mass destruction," Mr Mukherjee said.
"We have to strengthen our border and airspace management, internal security and maritime environment to face these challenges successfully," he said. Referring to India's neighbours, Mr Mukherjee said New Delhi's approach towards Pakistan is to pursue a dialogue with the government on all outstanding issues and simultaneously to expand people-to-people contacts and promote confidence-building measures.
He urged the commanders to guard the country against the use of "softer borders" to promote subversion and terrorism. Mr Mukherjee said Russia continued to be India's major strategic partner. "While there has been an expansion in defence cooperation with the US, Israel has also emerged as an important technological partner," he added.
Taking up the army's reorganisation plans, Mr Mukherjee said as a part of streamlining the command and control for India's western borders, approval had been given for creation of the new South-Western Command.
The situation in Jammu and Kashmir has shown a perceptible change towards the better, according to the defence minister. He said the cease-fire along the Line of Control except for a few violations had generally held.
Infiltration figures and casualties have come down. However, he cautioned the security forces to be alert, "as the terrorist infrastructure along the LoC remains still intact."
For the first time perhaps the defence minister made an open call for manpower reduction in the armed forces expressing concern that large part of defence budget allocation was taken up by manpower expenditure. Mr Mukherjee said there should be a move for a smaller "tail" in the army, hinting that action should be initiated to prune support elements in the armed forces.
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