Five pronged strategy--2

Third, socio-economic inclusion and mainstreaming may take away from the militant organizations a big chunk of the youth recruited in the peripheral areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan to carry out acts of terrorism. A comprehensive and holistic plan of socio-economic development could well deal a blow to the present illegal avenues (drug trafficking, kidnapping, etc) of the war economy. One of the reasons for the continuous insurgent and terrorist activities in the region is the expansion of the war economy and the absence of a legal, documented one.

Fourth, the media has emerged as a strong player and a vibrant tool to help the public form opinions. Keeping in view the deep-rooted militant discourse present in many sections of the mainstream media, the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan need to develop a comprehensive counter-militant media policy to deprive militant organizations of public support.

Fifth, a military response to insurgent and terrorist activities must be surgical, targeted, time-bound and accountable in nature. The security forces of Pakistan must succeed in dismantling militant centres, cut off militants’ networking points and break their supply lines. Reliance must be placed on efficient and coordinated intelligence gathering rather than on heavy weapons which inevitably affect the local population and create space for militants.

The writer is a researcher.

Khadimhussain565@gmail.com

Retrospect: The Five Pronged Strategy---Some suggestions for Internal National Security Policy

It seems Pakistan is imploding. With the existing dichotomies of the state of Pakistan as ‘the heartland’ vs. ‘the periphery’, conservatism vs modernism, centralization vs decentralization, populism vs Elitism, Iran vs. Saudia, parliament vs other institutions, quest for federalism vs quest for authoritarianism, and indigenous narrative vs alien narrative, the federal and provincial governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh have put their heads together before it is too late. Here are some suggestions that I had articulated in the forms of a piece that the daily dawn Karachi had published on July 23 2011.

Five-pronged strategy

http://beta.dawn.com/news/646358/five-pronged-strategy

THE complexity of the religious-militant phenomenon in Pakistan and Afghanistan can be gauged from the fact that Talibanisation, insurgency and terrorism are intertwined and present themselves as a seamless, organic whole.

Indeed, it would be difficult to altogether separate all the aspects of the militancy, which are interdependent, on-going in the two countries. From the classic ‘clear, hold and build’ paradigm of counterinsurgency to the more recent three D’s (dialogue, development and deterrence) of counterterrorism, the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan have assumed a correlation between economic and political deprivation and terrorism in their respective trouble spots. These are more the triggers than the causes of militancy.

More often than not, regional and other countries fail to differentiate between the causes and triggers of militancy, and hence respond to the complex phenomenon in a simplistic manner. This leads to more complications and further frustration for the security establishments, the governments and victim states in the region and beyond. The absence of a multi-pronged, comprehensive counterinsurgency, counterterrorism and counter-militancy strategy in Pakistan and Afghanistan clearly indicates a vague understanding of the complex phenomenon.

A five-pronged, comprehensive counterterrorism strategy should be considered by the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, with the facilitation of the international community. Implementing this strategy might bring about substantial results in reversing the tide of militancy, insurgency and terrorism in the states of the region. The five-pronged strategy is seen in the light of the ideological (militant) discourse, and includes political, military, economic and communication responses to the challenges. The composition of the five-pronged strategy takes into consideration long- and short-term measures, socio-cultural interventions, socio-economic development, the political process and strategic initiatives.

First, the construction of a counter-militant discourse needs to be initiated on an urgent basis. The militant discourse is based on a unidimensional reading of reality. Though the core of it is apparently and purportedly religious, the discourse, in fact, focuses on socio-cultural and sociopolitical homogenization, and excludes or rejects diversity in the social, cultural and political domains. ‘Otherization’ is used as a tool to allow the militant discourse to permeate the socio-cultural and sociopolitical spheres of state and society. Human civilization at its current stage is presented as an arch enemy of religion and the common people. Conspiracy theories with respect to the West, India and the Jewish lobby are propounded. The spread of the militant discourse over the past three decades owes much to the use of mosque loudspeakers, FM radios, pamphleteering, posters, decrees, periodicals, websites and word of mouth. Militant organizations have so far succeeded in advancing their cause as the environment has lent itself to their ambitions, thanks to the curricula of public schools here, the mainstream media as well as the mentality of religio-political parties. They have managed to bring about a shift in the concept of jihad — once regarded in the light of a struggle for spiritual purity, and even in the use of war requiring the state’s blessings, and now viewed as a privatized entity in conflict. For constructing a counter-militancy discourse, the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan need to initiate consistent and purposeful consultations with civil society organizations, the academia, liberal democratic parties, professionals and think tanks. A movement to initiate work at the grass-root level to promote a pluralist, democratic discourse based on the universal concept of human dignity but tackled through locally evolved wisdom needs to be initiated on an urgent basis. Public-school curricula need to be revised substantially and immediately.

Second, a political response to militancy includes a review of previous state policies and the political inclusion of various ethnic, cultural, religious, economic and social narratives. The social contract must be able to provide for the masses. Social justice, good governance, transparency, equal opportunities and the continuity of the democratic process must be ensured.

Laws related to women and minorities should be revisited through a broader political consensus. This will win state institutions some credibility, provide a sense of ownership in the state to the public and isolate militant organizations.

The process of reconciliation and meaningful dialogue may be started with those elements belonging to militant organizations who are convinced of playing their part within the framework of constitutional democracy. The dialogue process should be undertaken by the elected government and elected representatives.

A plan for the purpose may be borrowed from Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Baacha Khan) who was able to apply his strategy of dialogue, mediation and reconciliation successfully in what was then the NWFP, Fata and Afghanistan in the first half of the 20th century. Baacha Khan constructed a non-violent narrative, attempted to de-legitimize tribalism, adopted pluralism and inclusion as a way of life and as a core element of the pro-people, political struggle. He went to the doorstep of the common masses, shared their grief, stood by them in their struggle for empowerment and built on the legacy of collective wisdom.

Badaber Bomb Blast: My village bleeds relentlessly but so is the Case with Quetta and Waziristan

Death is a norm in my land.
It's no more the land of flowers, doves and pigeons
It's now the land of flames, bombs and armored cars
I can't imagine the nightingale singing
And can't have the fantasy of making love
'Coz this is no more the land of flowers, doves and pigeons. Khadim Hussain

Lightening, a thundering sound and then thick smoke whirling around.  The screams of innocent kids and babies…Deafening sounds of firing from automatic guns and then wailing of women. Incomprehensible and dark moments, as if time has just frozen. After eyes could grasp the blown up and scattered human flesh, an Armageddon is just unfolding.   

This was the scene of the bomb blast in my village Badaber, 8 Kilometers in the South of Peshawar, the capital city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan,   in the noon of June 30, 2013. Right now at 9pm all the TV screens display nothing big has ever happened.  The daily Dawn reports:

At least 17 persons, including three children, were killed and more than 46 injured in a blast on Sunday near Peshawar's Badaber police station targeting a convoy of security vehicles. According to latest reports, Lady Reading Hospital sources confirmed that 17 people had died in the blast whereas 45 others were injured. The dead also included one woman and four children. 42 of the wounded were civilians whereas three FC personnel and an SPO were also among the injured. Deputy Commissioner Peshawar, Jawed Marwat, told media persons that 16 people, icluding a woman and children, were killed and 25 others injured in the blast. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Inspector General of Police, Ehsan Ghani, had also confirmed the deaths of 13 people in the car bomb targeting a convoy of the Frontier Corps. He added that the three vehicles, which comprised of the targeted convoy, were destroyed. SP Rural Shafiullah Khan told Dawn.com that the FC convoy was moving on Kohat road when a vehicle parked near a CNG station detonated. He added that several security personnel were injured in the attack but no one was killed. Bomb Disposal Squad official Abdul Haq told Dawn.com that 40-50 kilograms of explosives were used in the car bomb attack.  injuring many. (http://dawn.com/news/1021795/car-bomb-in-peshawars-badaber-area-kills-16-injures-25)

                       

I later saw on Aaj TV one of the ministers of the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, belonging to PTI,  was shown as saying, “I ask Nawaz Sharif that,  For God’s sake, come out of a somebody else’s war”.     I also saw on the same TV former information minister of ANP, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, reportedly went to hospital to inquire the health of the injured in the blast.

I had wished to tell you the story of my village but while I am penning these lines at 10:00 pm,  I feel compelled to put the nostalgia off and inform you about blasts that are just being reported in Quetta which have left 25 dead and 60 injured. The blasts occurred at Balkhi Chowk in Hazara Town Quetta. I also see electronic media reporting that an attack on the security forces’ convoy in Mir Ali, North Waziristan, leaves three security personnel dead and several others in injured.

Pakistan seems to be imploding.

Jab dharti dhar dhar dharkegi. (Faiz)

Energy, Governance and Security-III--Factors behind ANP’s Performance in Elections 2013 in Pakistan-1

For an objective understanding as to how patterns of discourse of Political Economy of states and Geo-politics of the region interact to marginalize socio-cultural narrative of a collective entity, we can study performance of Awami National Party (ANP) in the elections held in 2013 in Pakistan. The Awami national Party, which claims to have based its political struggle on the indigenous narrative of the land, was observed to have shown unexpected results for the cadre and leadership of the party, common masses and objective analysts (the ANP has just a nominal presence in the National and Provincial Assemblies of Pakistan)[1]. The indigenous narrative, which is the continuation of the Ghanadara Civilization, Indus Civilization and Persian Civilization down to the Khudai Khidmatgar Movement back in 1920s, seems to have been apparently  ignored by the masses.  Analysis of the results might lead us to the question as to why a discourse that harbingers happiness, progress and sustainability for a social entity can be apparently disowned by individuals of the same social entity.

The ANP in the Preamble of its manifesto for the elections 2013 had declared:

The Awami National Party (ANP) draws its inspiration from the example and teachings of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, affectionately known to his people as Baacha Khan. With peace and non violence as his guiding principles, he spent his entire life in the ceaseless and unrelenting struggle in the cause of freedom and justice, and against all kinds of injustice, oppression and exploitation. He and his Khudai Khidmatgars supplied the vanguard of the tremendously demanding fight for the liberation of South Asia against the great imperial and colonial power of the day, and rendered, in that path, sacrifices which were matchless and which have remained a beacon for those who seek justice and rights.  He aimed and strove not only to liberate the masses of South Asia, particularly his own people, the Pakhtuns, from the shackles of foreign domination, oppression and exploitation, but also to rid his own people of the curse of poverty, ignorance, harmful customs and biases, internal disharmony and political inertia.  He wanted both political and social justice for all peoples and nations, and wished that all peoples and nations should live in freedom, with internal peace and justice, and with mutual accommodation and cooperation on International level.  In sum, in Bacha Khan’s scheme of things politics and public service was two sides of the same coin. In keeping with this spirit, the ANP, like its predecessors, the NAP (National Awami Party) and the NDP (National Democratic Party), considers politics and public service essentially as two complementary and indispensable branches of the same activity.  Hence, the party is dedicated to the promotion of democracy and freedom, the eradication of poverty and ignorance, the protection of all basic human rights and liberties, and the fulfillment of the genuine and legitimate aspirations of all groups and strata of the society-particularly the weak, the disadvantaged and the dispossessed. The ANP firmly believes in peace and non violence and stands against extremism and violence in all its forms.  It believes that dialogue is the best way to resolve all issues. The ANP is for equal opportunities for all citizens without discrimination and bias. The ANP is committed to securing for all the federating units of Pakistan their full political social and economic rights as equal partners in the federation and their full share in the national progress and prosperity. The ANP opposes parochial interpretation of religion and customs and uphold Bacha Khan’s discourse of human dignity, pluralism and indigenous wisdom and identity through large scale awareness movement.[2]

The manifesto seems to incorporate almost all the ingredients of an indigenous narrative. Let us now make an effort to make sense of the performance of ANP in the elections.

---

[1] http://www.ecp.gov.pk/

[2] http://awaminationalparty.org/main/?p=4554

Pervez Khattak, WAPDA, Load-shedding and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has said the other day:

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Tuesday said his government could end load shedding within a week if Wapda was placed under its control. “We can resolve energy crisis within a week if Wapda is handed over to us,” he told the provincial assembly a point of order. The chief minister said it was federal government’s responsibility to provide electricity to the local residents and not the provincial government. He said Wapda had adopted indifferent attitude towards Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as it was giving it electricity less than due share and thus, causing power outages in some areas for more than 18 hours daily.

(Dawn June 26, 2013 available on http://dawn.com/news/1020744/no-loadshedding-if-wapda-given-to-kp-claims-cm)

The statement, instead of giving a tangible road map, indicates the same often repeated ‘I can do’ mantra which has now become the hall mark of the newly elected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. The CM instead of boasting of his capacity to perform should have talked about the road map as to how production, governance and distribution of energy could be devolved to the provinces.

Only if collective memory is not too short, one would like to remind the CM that an All Parties Conference on Energy had been called in July 2012 by the Awami National Party to develop a roadmap for production, distribution and governance of electricity. Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf had declined to participate in the conference on the plea that only the ANP led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is responsible to fix the problem.

The Express Tribune reported in its July 31 2012 issue:

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

In light of continuing protests against constant load-shedding, the ruling Awami National Party (ANP) has decided to convene an all parties conference on August 9. The aim of the conference is to find a tangible solution to the growing power outages across the province. They demanded that the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) as an entity should be shut down. ANP provincial president, Senator Afrasiab Khattak, said: “Wapda has completely failed and is unable to run a system like this.” “Power outages are managed from Islamabad which is an illogical decision and this centralisation has created huge issues,” Khattak said. “Power companies in every province know the needs of their respective areas better.” There are many power production units in the province, including the Tarbela dam with a production capacity of 3478MW, the Warsak dam with 240MW, the Khanpur power project with 72MW and the Malakand-III power project with 81MW. Khattak said the province produced more power than it needed, yet it has been subjected to 18-20 hours of power outages daily. He said that this was completely unjustified. Available on http://tribune.com.pk/story/415126/mismanaging-power-k-p-govt-takes-stand-against-power-outages/

If collective efforts had started last year, the incumbent government would have a road map by now. But what to do with the Double Speak George Orwell so imaginatively depicted in his novel ‘1984’. The PTI leadership might find some characters in the novel interestingly similar to them.  

Energy, Governance and Security-II

The socio-cultural narrative of the discourse takes precedence over the rest of the narratives for the simple reason that it is the very raison d’être of a collective entity. I am tempted to borrow a lengthy quote from Fairclough: http://www.sfu.ca/cmns/courses/2012/801/1-Readings/Fairclough%20Dialectics%20of%20Discourse%20Analysis.pdf

We can see social life as interconnected networks of social practices of diverse sorts (economic, political, cultural, family etc). The reason for centering the concept of ësocial practiceí is that it allows an oscillation between the perspective of social structure and the perspective of social action and agency ñ both necessary perspectives in social research and analysis (Chouliaraki & Fairclough 1999). By ësocial practiceí I mean a relatively stabilized form of social activity (examples would be classroom teaching, television news, family meals, and medical consultations). Every practice is an articulation of diverse social elements within a relatively stable configuration, always including discourse. Let us say that every practice includes the following elements:

Activities

 Subjects and their social relations

Instruments

Objects

 Time and place

 Forms of consciousness

 Values

 Discourse

Almost all the components of collective existence exhibit themselves in the socio-cultural thread remaining in consonance with Nature…biological self, emotional self, historical self, intellectual self and spiritual self. This collective existence sprouts means and tools for biological, historical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual survival and continuation. This collective existence also teaches a collective entity how to learn and interact with other collective entities in the universe. The collective existence also sprouts individual and collective aesthetics, creativity and innovative evolution.

The complexity arises when the socio-cultural thread of Political Economy interacts with political power and sanctioning authority. This leads us to the core of the question as to why political movements in South and Central Asia having owned the socio-cultural narrative of the discourse have been persecuted by the sanctioning authority of the regional and international sanctioning authorities and political powers. We shall discuss this question with the case study of the Khudai Khidmatgar Movement http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/studies/PDF-FILES/Shah-4%20new.pdf moving on to the National Awami Party and then Awami National Party   http://awaminationalparty.org/main/ to analyze marginalization of the socio-cultural discourse in the context of International, South Asian and Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s Political Economy with special reference to the performance of Awami National Party in the elections held on May 11 2013.

To be continued

Imran Khan's Press Conference in Peshawar on June 24 2013

Imran Khan finally set his foot on the soil of Peshawar after keeping his supporters waiting for a whole month after the elections 2013. Let alone that one would have expected him to to delve a little deeper into the issue of extremist violence and terrorism in the three provinces of Pakistan, especially Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, his press conference ignited several questions in the minds of common mortals of Peshawar. Mr. IK chewed the old gum of relating terrorism and violent extremism to the presence of NATO/ISAF forces in Afghanistan and drone strikes by the US in the tribal belt of Pakistan even after losing his two MPAs to terrorism recently. Let us remind ourselves a few hard realities. 

First, NATO/ISAF sent their forces in 2001 while:

1- The banned Tahreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) that brought the whole Malakand Division to a standstill in 1994 after making session judges hostage in Matta Swat was formed in 1989--1992 in Malakand Division. A fatwa of Jihad and compulsory military training was issued by the leader of TNSM back in the lat eighties after the Soviets had already withdrawn from Afghanistan.

2- The banned Sipah-e-Suhaba Pakistan (Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is the SSP's offshoot who is on a killing spree in different parts of Pakistan) was formed in 1985 in Jhang.

3- Lashkar-e-Tayyiba which is said to be involved in Mumbai attacks came into being in 1990. The LeT reportedly provides all sorts of ideological, technical and financial support to scores of militant organizations in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

4- Jaish-e-Mohammad, reportedly, involved in terrorism in different countries of the region, was launched in 2000.

Second, the first Drone strike in Pakistan was carried out in 2004 while:

1- The first stoning to death event took place in Orakzai Agency in 1998 (Reference Dawn Karachi) which means that militant organizations had already established their writ in different parts of Pakistan, especially the tribal belt.

2- The first attack on a Pakistani military convoy took place in 2002 in Waziristan.

3- The predecessors of Lashkar-e-Islam and Ansar-ul-Islam had already established their brand of religion in parts of Khyber Agency before any drone strikes was carried out.

One would like to suggest to the PTI leadership the following literature for reading:

1-   Abbas, Hassan. Pakistan's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America's War on Terror. London: M. E. Sharpe, 2005.

2- Ali, Tariq. The clash of fundamentalisms. London: Verso. 2002.

3- Aziz, KK. The murder of History. Islamabad: Vanguard. 2004

4-  Hussain, Khadim. The Militant Discourse. Islamabad: Narratives. 2012

5- Hussain, Zahid. Frontline Pakistan. Islamabad: Vanguard. 2007

6- Marwat, Dr. Fazal-ur- Rahim. From Muhajir to Mujahid: Peshawar: Politics of war through aid. Pakistan Study Centre, University of Peshawar, Pakistan, 2005.

7- Saleem, Ahmad and A.H.Nayyar. The Subtle Subversion. Islamabad: SDPI, 2006

Energy, Governance and Security-I

There seems to be three threads of political discourse in Pakistan, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh.                                                                                                                          

Firstly, a Corporate Discourse of Governance (the end corruption mantra), secondly reforms and adjustments in Market Economy (energy and trade) and, thirdly, a socio-cultural discourse of the permeation of a militant discourse.

If we take the threads in a reverse order, the third thread of the discourse of political economy of Pakistan seems to take priority. Since the PTI+JI+QWP coalition has come into power in Khyber Pakhtunkha, a concerted effort to construct a discourse of isolation, segregation and homogenization has started. This is how 'Cognitive Dissonance' works. They all came to power with the slogan and manifestos to get rid of economic dependence but instead, consciously or unconsciously, they have started perpetuating the same. Theoretically, rejecting diversity, pluralism and indigenous continuity leads to intellectual and cognitive dependence (for definition of culture see.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c9O_ysPq68

Intellectual and cognitive dependence leads to sterility in creative thinking and in turn this sterility leads to a demand for importing ideas and knowledge. In the age of Knowledge Economy, lack of capacity to create innovative ideas lands a community, a social group or a state into marginalization........http://beta.dawn.com/news/612686/reviving-a-vision-of-cultural-enlightenment.

To be continued