Of messiahs and all

The major league

It was quite a sight watching many otherwise reasonable looking and sounding gentlemen who had been at the forefront of condemning at the drop of hat suddenly turn around and applaud the animated former minister after his explosive press conference on August 28.

Such somersaults are certainly not a rarity in this godforsaken republic. An edgy nation well known for always dreaming of a figurative messiah and a saviour riding in (in slow-motion) from a hazy horizon on a white horse/camel with a sword in one hand, a hangman’s noose in the other and the holy book spread out across his heart; or in the case of Zulfiqar Mirza, on his head!

Not that these dreams about benevolent strong men emerging to deliver justice and honour to the teeming millions have remained to be mere fantasies. Far from it.

From Ayub Khan to Z A. Bhutto to even the dreadful Ziaul Haq, all emerged as saviours.

After imposing the country’s first Martial Law, Ayub Khan was hailed by the majority of Pakistanis for rescuing the country from corrupt bureaucrats, squabbling politicians and ‘dangerous’ Bengali, Baloch, Sindhi and Pushtun nationalists.

The initial hailing of a relieved public only fattened Ayub’s messiah complex, so much so that by the late 1960s the messiah had truly lost touch with reality.

For example, in 1968 even when thousands of students and workers had begun a concentrated protest movement against the cronyism and corruption that had become the mainstay of the man’s government, Ayub decided to spend millions of Rupees to celebrate his regime’s ‘Decade of progress.’

Ayub’s fall mainly at the hands of those who’d hailed him as a saviour set a cyclic precedent that has continued to this day. Take the example of Z A. Bhutto for instance.

A truly popular leader, Bhutto was carried into power on the shoulders of millions of West Pakistanis, expecting him to perform a series of economic, political and social miracles.

Some six years later (in 1977) the same messiah was walking towards the gallows.

Did the country erupt with shame and anger at this atrocity engineered by a wily usurper, General Ziaul Haq? Nope. Why should it? After all here was a new messiah who, unlike Ayub and Bhutto, was waving the holy book in our faces calling it the country’s new constitution.

Those who were convinced that the secular despotism of Ayub and the left-liberal populism of Bhutto had failed to meet the hopes of Pakistan’s Muslim majority, were mighty impressed by Zia’s tough Islamist talk.

They were convinced that it was on his back they could piggyback their way towards making Pakistan an Islamic state.

Of course, apart from imposing certain ‘Islamic laws’ based on some puritanical strains and interpretations of the faith – in the process not only alienating the country’s minority religions, but many other Islamic sects as well – and actually institutionalizing corruption to keep his backers in the agencies, military, business community and feudal circles well fed, Zia soon fell from grace.

His unpopular dictatorship was only held afloat by the wayward ways of a divided opposition, relentless state repression and, of course, millions of Dollars and Riyals that kept pouring in from the coffers of the United States and Saudi Arabia to keep him at the forefront of a convoluted ‘jihad’ in Afghanistan against the already struggling Soviet forces.

In the end it was left to the state to finance and organize a momentous funeral for the once-upon-a-time messianic hope when he fell from the skies after an explosion in his plane saw it burst into flames over Bahawalpur in 1988.

Today the only thing one remembers of him are the seeds he sowed of whose poisonous trees and fruits we are still reaping and, of course, the many jokes that were cracked in his lifetime about his supposed piety.

But this did not stop another military man from getting entrapped by the messiah complex. And how could he not, especially in a country always on the lookout for miraculous saviours.

General Parvaz Musharraf’s popularity ratings in the first three years of his dictatorship (1999-2003) remained well over 60 percent. Surprisingly, this time around very few Pakistanis actually knew as to why they were hailing this messiah.

Here was a man who didn’t know his right eye (liberalism) from his left (propping-up Islamists). Believing he could carry on this cock-eyed charade, he ended up digging his own hole when the military’s own creations (the jihadis and the radicalization of society), sent him spinning to earth, committing one blunder after another.

In the end after facing an all-time low in his popularity ratings, this self-claimed eternal commando was forced to resign and go into exile, abused and cursed even by those who had so proudly voted for him in a so-called referendum in 2002.

As this country continues to look for, prop-up and then discard messiahs, very few it seems realize that messiahs fail because they are only our own exaggerated and mythical projections of justice, good governance and respect.

The mini-messiahs

Interestingly, whereas the major political parties seem to have sensed this and have started to avoid over-promising and getting trapped in the self-destructive messiah complex, Pakistanis have turned to certain minnows in this respect.

These are the mini-messiahs who arrive thinking they can become another Z A. Bhutto but usually end up in a limbo or worse, suffering from a rather sour case of delusion.

But it’s entirely not their fault. After all there is always going to be many young Pakistanis propping up a potential messiah, just like uploading an exiting new song on their Ipods only to be discarded and replaced by a newer tune.

Let’s profile a few well known cases of these mini-messiahs …

Asghar Khan

A former Air Martial who turned against the Ayub dictatorship, Ashgar Khan became an important clog in the progressive/democratic movement against the Ayub dictatorship.

For a while in the late 1960s, Asghar Khan’s popularity was at par with that of Z A. Bhutto’s.

Asghar reached a popularity peak in 1969. But Bhutto, with the backing of an emergent mass party, a well articulated ideology and a clearly-defined manifesto, eclipsed Khan in the 1970 election.

Asghar Khan’s line in the election on the other hand was simply ‘clean politics,’ but this didn’t mean much to an excitable electorate.

Just when it seemed Khan’s bubble had burst, he was propped-up once again, this time by the right-wing opposition alliance (the PNA) that went into the 1977 polls against Bhutto’s PPP.

He then led a mass movement against Bhutto that triggered Bhutto’s departure but at the same time put the country under its third martial law.

Though a democrat and secular, Asghar had joined a struggle led by right-wing religious parties against Bhutto and then he is also accused of being the man who actually invited the military to take over in July 1977.

Though Khan (through his own party, the Pakistan Thereek-i-Istaqlal) remained in politics till about the early 1990s, he was never again given the luxury of enjoying the saviour status.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed

A life-long member of the fundamentalist Jamat-i-Islami (JI), Qazi remained to be just another politician during most of his career in JI.

The JI was a staunchly centralised and elitist Islamist party whose leadership and support mainly came from the conservative urban middle-class segments.

In 1987, at age 50, Qazi was elected to head JI.

As the country’s working and peasant classes stuck with populist parties like the PPP, the growing urban bourgeoisie and the petty-bourgeoisie (that had began springing up during the Zia dictatorship), gallivanted towards moderate right-wing parties like Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N).

Qazi soon began manoeuvring JI towards more mass-level politics so it could at least appeal to the rising political ambitions of the new bourgeoisie.

Thus, before the 1993 elections, Qazi put the JI forward as a third, more ‘cleaner and incorruptible’ alternative to the PPP and PML-N.

Through an expensive election campaign, Qazi advertised himself as a saviour so much so that many commentators were sure that JI would be able to win a large number of seats.

But, alas, out of about the 300 seats that it contested in the 1993 elections, Qazi’s JI only managed to win three seats!

Qazi retired from politics in 2008.

Murtaza Bhutto

Riddled and wounded by a series of ethnic clashes and operation clean-ups between after 1986, Karachi and Sindh seemed to have had enough of parties like PPP and MQM.

As MQM went under the gun of the military and the Rangers in the early and mid-1990s, the PPP’s two governments under Benazir Bhutto began wobbling from corruption charges as well as concentrated efforts by Zia’s remnants in the intelligence agencies to topple her.

Just before the 1993 elections, many newspapers in Karachi and Sindh began running heightened reports about the return of Benazir’s brother, Murtaza Bhutto who’d been in exile ever since 1979.

Benazir at once began hinting that certain agencies were trying to block her return to power by propping up Murtaza.

She might have been right because though Murtaza had been named by the Zia regime in various cases of terrorism (through his clandestine organization the Al-Zulfiqar), his return to Pakistan (after thirteen years) was rather smooth.

Nevertheless, judicial complications delayed his return but he promptly formed his own PPP faction (from Syria) and (according to newspapers of the time) was ‘gaining popularity in Sindh and Punjab due to his anti-Zardari and anti-corruption stance.’

Well, Murtaza’s faction only managed to win a single seat in the 1993 elections and Murtaza’s messianic bubble had burst even before he finally returned to the country in 1994.

Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry

An imposing but apparently reserved Chief Justice who got into a tussle with General Parvez Musharraf. In 2007, Musharraf asked him to resign only to set alight a movement led by the lawyers to reinstate the CJ.

The movement was then entered by both big and small opposition political parties. But it wasn’t until it was popularly adopted by the private electronic media that the deposed CJ began being moulded into a messianic figure who would not only cleanse the judiciary, but also herald in a political and economic revolution!

The movement was initially centered around liberal and democratic lawyers and ideals, but it soon took a rightwards turn when the largely right-wing electronic media entered the fray, mainly reflecting the growing reactionary tendencies emerging within the urban middle-classes.

The CJ was reinstated after Musharraf’s departure in 2008 but the messianic sheen of the movement is now peeling off giving way to a more pragmatic approach.

Imran Khan

The ultimate messianic figure, this former Pakistan cricket captain and philanthropist entered politics in 1996 with a brand new party, the Pakistan Threreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

Many observers have compared Imran with Asghar Khan: A clean politician but without the tact of organizing a winnable political party.

Imran entered the fray as a messianic figure right from the start but his party only managed to win a single seat in the 1997 and 2002 elections.

But just when it seemed his career was as good as over, he was embraced by the electronic media, an event that gave him the platform to re-emerge as a popular figure among the country’s new generation of young urban middle-class Pakistanis.

Mixing renegade right-wing ideals with bygone leftist sloganeering, Khan is now being hailed as the saviour that Pakistan needs.

However, parties like the PML-N and MQM have alleged that Khan is being propped-up by the ISI and by the agency’s supposed mouthpieces in the electronic media so he could electorally challenge the mainstream parties that the military and the ISI feel can threaten their ‘strategic’ interests.

They also suggest that Khan is being used as a pawn by those segments of the agencies who want to drive a hard bargain with the US on the issue of aid.

It is yet to be seen whether Imran Khan is able to transform his messianic appeal into actual votes.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi

A staunch PPP member and then the current government’s foreign minister, Qureshi suddenly resigned from his post due to the Raymond Davis incident that saw an American spook being allowed to leave after shooting down two Pakistanis in Lahore.

Qureshi held an emotional press conference accusing his party of bowing down to American pressure. This act turned Qureshi into a messianic figure – for exactly a week or so.

As young urbanites excitedly began dreaming of the emergence of a handsome, honourable and clean politician who can challenge the likes of Zardari and Nawaz, evidence began pointing towards his gullibility to exploitation by the politicised sections of the ISI.

Though refuting the accusations, there was no refuting the fact that in a matter of weeks Qureshi, who’d began imagining himself as a popular future prime minister, was found dangling in a limbo, largely forgotten and joked about and not knowing where his future political prospects lay.

Zulfiqar Mirza

Even more curious is the case of this PPP leader. An animated Sindh minister in the PPP-led government in Sindh, Mirza was also known to be close to President Zardari.

Nevertheless, he turned the ongoing political tussle between PPP and MQM in Sindh into something more personal, loud-mouthing his way to notoriety, especially among urbanites.

Interestingly though, his recent press conference in which he accused the MQM of murder and terrorism, suddenly turned many anti-PPP (even some pro-PPP) and anti-MQM youngsters into hailing him as ‘saviour of Sindh and Karachi!’

Many of them were the same folks who’d earlier denounced him as a ‘scoundrel,’ ‘drunk’ and ‘uncouth.’

Thus, Mirza, at least for some months, can now enjoy the status of being perhaps the most unlikely of political messiahs of them all.

Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn.com.

Pakistan likely to see two Eids...again

Most parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa set to celebrate Eid a day ahead of the rest of the country.

PESHAWAR: The controversy of two eids is likely to continue this year as well as with most parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa set to celebrate Eid a day ahead of the rest of the country.

The traditional moon-sighting committee of Masjid Qasim Khan in Pesahwar will be holding a committee today under Mufti Shahab-ud-Din Popalzai.

The committe had earlier sighted moon a day earlier as well to mark the start of the holy month of Ramzan.

If the committee sights the moon this evening, most parts of the province will be observing eid on Tuesday.

The conflict is many years old as the official moon-sighting committe does not recognise the authority of the Qasim Khan Mosque.

The central moon-sighting committee under Mufti Muneeb is likely to hold a meeting tomorrow.

The Met office has predicted moon could be sighted on Tuesday.

Ironically, this year, Eid ul Fitr is expected to be observed on the same day all over the world. According to Saudi astrologists there is no chance of a moon sighting in Saudi Arabia on the evening of Monday 29 August and hence Ramazan will be 30 days long, ending on August 30.

I had a chance to watch Zulfiqar Mirza's press conference on Sunday; one that has sent shockwaves all the way from Karachi to Islamabad. However, while there are broad points on which I agree with Mr Mirza, I could not help but notice cracks developing in the PPP.

Mirza and the PPP

It is very strange that in a period of mere months one can readily identify at least two PPP leaders, i.e. Shah Mehmood Qureshi and now Zulfiqar Mirza, who have left their portfolios, professed love and commitment to an ailing PPP, which appears to shun them in response. But the most interesting facet of both resignations is the expressed admiration of both leaders for the Pakistan Army and intelligence community. At one time, statements such as 'the ISI is the only force currently saving Pakistan from oblivion' were heard from pseudo-intellectuals like Zaid Hamid. However, it now echoes within the halls of the fallen.

Is there some greater agenda at work here? Is the Pakistan establishment creating another new fifth column from within the ranks of these ex-veteran jiyalas?

Let’s play: 20 questions for Zulfiqar Mirza

Sindh’s former home minister Zulfiqar Mirza has announced his resignation from the government in yet another media circus.

During TV interviews he made personal attacks against journalists and politicians, making references to their facial features and appearance. However, his emotional outburst left lots of questions on the policy of the government unanswered.

A few questions I would like to ask Mr Mirza are:

1) If you claim to be so truthful, why have you never made these revelations before?

2) According to you, Rehman Malik does everything on the discretion of President Asif Ali Zardari. Why then is Rehman Malik accused of conspiring against the People’s Party and not President Zardari?

3) Is the president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari a fool to not understand the shrewdness of Rehman Malik?

4) Mirza Sahab, why did you never raise your voice in 2001 (or afterwards) when you got to know that MQM chief Altaf Hussain wrote a letter against the ISI?

5) What exactly made you speak up after the discovery of the torture cells and ammunition from Lyari?

6) You acknowledge that Rehman Malik is a “good politician and a good human being” but maintain that he is also a compulsive liar. What does this mean?

7) You placed the Holy Quran on your head and said that MQM has a false mandate in Karachi and Hyderabad. How many petitions have you filed in court about this?

8) Why are superior courts, Pakistani forces and Pakistani law enforcement agencies not taking any action on the MQM’s alleged crimes? Is the MQM really that powerful?

9) CPLC recovered most of the kidnapped people from Lyari. Is this the reason why the CPLC chief, Ahmed Chinoy, has suddenly turned into a villain?

10) You seem to be very worried about the people of Sindh. Why are you obsessed with Karachi only? Has karo-kari, dacoity and corruption ended in interior Sindh?

11) How many hospitals and schools have you built in your own constituency?

12) You say that you will fight against the criminal elements of Karachi in your private capacity. Is this legal?

13) Keeping in mind that a civilian cannot take the law into his own hands, how would you decide who is a criminal and who is not?

14) You claim that you haven’t recruited any MQM worker in the Sindh Police, and that recruitment in the police department was done on merit only. If this is so, then why does corruption and incompetency still prevail in the Sindh Police?

15) Why are the ISI chief and Army Generals not taking action on your “substantiated evidence”?

16) When are you going to the Supreme Court to submit this evidence?

17) How exactly have President Asif Zardari and the late Benazir Bhutto helped you in acquiring such a huge amount of money, villas, cars, sugar mills and thousands of acres of lands?

18) You alleged that during a meeting in London, the MQM chief Altaf Hussain had told you that America and other world powers had decided to ‘break’ Pakistan, and that Altaf Hussain had supported their idea. Since when has Altaf Hussain started sharing such secrets with you?

19) If America wants to break Pakistan up, according to you, then why did you go to the enemy country for a 40-day vacation?

20) Sir, do you still stand by your slogan “Pakistan na Khappay” (We don’t want Pakistan)?

Pakistani politics witnessed a new first. Holding the Holy Quran in his hand and then placing it upon his head, Sindh’s senior minister Zulfiqar Ali Mirza made some very bold revelations against his friend’s key, even if troubled, political ally as well as his friend’s closest and most handy aide.

President Asif Ali Zardari perhaps now faces the biggest challenge of his political career as none other than his most loyal friend and senior minister Sindh, Zulfiqar Ali Mirza, at a press conference issued a loaded charge sheet. Mirza gave specific information along with alleged evidence, against all those he accused. He said the ongoing operation was meaningless and that the real killers were not being apprehended.


Zulfiqar Mirza’s attack has produced a complex political dynamic. One with the ‘evidence’ that Zulfiqar Mirza claims he has against the MQM’s alleged involvement in target killings, he has put the MQM under pressure. An MQM on the defensive provides political leverage to the PPP in its ongoing negotiations with that party. It may also help to stem the growing alienation of the Sindhis against the PPP leadership, especially earlier the mishandling of the revival of the local bodies.


The claims made by Zulfiqar Mirza can also potentially strengthen the PPP’s hand in the Supreme Court’s suo motto hearing on the Karachi target killing. The SC bench now meeting in Karachi is bound to call Zulfiqar Mirza to make good his claims in court.


(Read: Suo motu action on Karachi – CJ seeks report from chief secretary, IGP Sindh)


But the most challenging for PPP’s internal politics is Mirza’s attack on Rehman Malik. Zulfiqar Mirza has made specific charges against the interior minister, holding him responsible for leading a “farcical operation” and for being primarily committed to keeping the MQM on board. In addition to his criticism at the press conference, Zulfiqar Mirza, later in a television program insisted that the interior minister “is Pakistan’s enemy and if Pakistan breaks up, then Rehman Malik will be responsible for it.”


Although Mirza insisted that he would remain loyal to the president till his dying day and would give his life in the party’s service, within the immediate context he has created major political challenges for the president. He has alleged that the president’s right-hand man is hand in glove with the killers of innocent citizens.


As for whether these extraordinary revelations will lead to any action against Rehman Malik or the MQM, the punch-line comes from Zulfiqar Mirza himself. While speaking on television he said, “I have rolled the ball, now the ball in the court of the president, army chief, the ISI chief, the PM, the speaker of parliament and the chairman of the senate.” Mirza expects them to use the evidence that he has presented to take action against the MQM and the interior minister. He said the moment the CJP asks him to present himself in court, he will do so.


Zulfiqar Mirza may have become a thorn in the president’s side. But Mirza is one PPP leader that the president will not find it easy to sideline. He will also not able to easily brush aside the alleged charge sheet presented against Rehman Malik nor the MQM. Clearly these moves by Zardari’s closest friend puts the Karachi operation in an even greater spotlight and for all the wrong reasons. It also sharply exposes the weaknesses in Zardari’s politics of “mufahimmat.”


The questions that Mirza’s charge sheet raises only confirms public criticism of the operation. Questions that have no easy answers but ones that will now be repeatedly asked by many political and non-political stake-holders from across the country.

Asking extortionists to leave...

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has warned extortionists to leave Karachi and go somewhere else. Where does the chief minister want the extortionists to go? Lahore? Rawalpindi? Islamabad? Instead of taking stern measures to deal with these criminals, our chief minister is requesting the criminals to leave his city and go somewhere else. Strange!

Why doesn't the CM himself go somewhere else and let some competent person take charge of his office?

Into Gaddafi's Bunker: The Rebels Overrun the Regime's Nerve Center

After hours of pounding battle on Tuesday, Libya's rebels smashed through the fortified perimeter of Muammar Gaddafi's compound in western Tripoli — the nerve center of the old regime — in the late afternoon, sending huge plumes of black smoke over the city, and perhaps dealing a fatal blow to Gaddafi's ability to cling to power. Footage apparently shot by rebels and aired on al-Jazeera showed armed rebels deep inside the Bab al-Aziziyah complex, rejoicing as they clambered upon the ruins of Gaddafi's old house, which was bombed by U.S. jets in 1986 and had been left by Gaddafi as a memorial to the West's evils.

This time, it was his rebel foes — and likely the last foes of his 42-year iron rule — who owned the territory. Explosions and what sounded like bursts of sniper fire resounded across the city from the complex throughout Tuesday, as rebels fought pitched battles, attempting to rout the last remaining fighters inside; the complex has been thought to be the sanctuary of Gaddafi's most hard-core fighters, some officials and close advisers and perhaps even the fugitive leader himself since the rebels stormed the capital on Sunday night. "We are liberating Libya from north to south," said Mahmoud Shammam, a spokesman for the rebels' National Transitional Council (NTC).

Yet even as Pentagon officials announced in Washington that the rebels appeared to control much of Libya's capital, the rebels' apparent military breakthrough was tempered by a setback earlier in the day, when Saif al-Islam Gaddafi — who had supposedly been in rebel custody — appeared as a free man, relaxed and smiling. His appearance in the early hours of Tuesday morning shattered the sense that the rebels' victory in Libya was at hand. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's son was seen talking to the press while surrounded by supporters, raising concerns that the opposition might be struggling to knit together a cohesive government-in-waiting as it battles to finally crush Gaddafi's regime — as well as to hunt down the fugitive leader himself.

Invisible millions pay price of

statelessness

People rejected by countries they call home live in a shadowy limbo

 

Rejected by the countries they call home and denied the most basic of rights, stateless people live in a shadowy limbo — in the words of one such person, like being "between the earth and the sky."

Up to 15 million people are stateless, not recognized as nationals by any country. They are some of the most invisible people on the planet — an anonymity the United Nations hopes to lift when it launches an international campaign on Thursday to highlight their plight.

"One of the big problems we have is that this simply is not recognized as being a major issue globally," said Mark Manly, head of the stateless unit at the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.

"In the media there's very little discussion, in universities there's very little research and in the U.N., until relatively recently, there hasn't been a lot of discussion either, so the effect of all that is that we still have major gaps in our knowledge," Manly told AlertNet, a humanitarian news service run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Statelessness exacerbates poverty, creates social tensions, breaks up families and destroys children's futures. In some cases it can even fuel wars when disenfranchised people pick up weapons, as has happened in Ivory Coast and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Yet only 38 countries have signed the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness which marks its 50th anniversary on Aug. 30.

One of the largest stateless groups is the Rohingyas, a Muslim people of South Asian descent refused citizenship by the Myanmar government. Hundreds of thousands are scattered throughout Bangladesh and Southeast Asia.


"There are no countries in this world for Rohingyas," said Kyaw Myint, 44, now living in Malaysia.



"Even animals can have peace of mind, but for the Rohingyas, because we are stateless, there is no peace of mind."



The effects vary by country, but typically stateless people are barred from education, healthcare and formal employment. They often can't start a business, own property, hold a driving license or open a bank account. They can't get married legally or travel abroad to work or visit family.



And they can't vote, which means they can't elect politicians who might be able to improve their lot.

Being stateless is like being "between the earth and the sky", said Mohamed Alenezi, a Bedouin from Kuwait.

"You are here and not here," added Alenezi, 42, who now lives in London.

Like many Bedouins (stateless Arabs) he is the descendant of nomadic Bedouin tribes which for centuries roamed freely across what is now Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan and Iraq.

Origins of statelessness

Probing the origins of statelessness is a lesson in world history and geography.

In many cases groups failed to be included when their countries became independent or drew up a new constitution. Many Kuwaiti Bedouins fell through the cracks when the country became independent in 1961, and the Roma in Europe have faced major problems in obtaining citizenship in the new countries that emerged after the break-up of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.

Manly said the UNHCR is closely watching the succession of South Sudan. It is also scrutinizing the drafting of Nepal's new constitution amid fears millions could end up stateless.

A major factor behind statelessness is often racial or ethnic discrimination. Syria, for example, denationalized many Kurds in 1962 and Mauritania expelled around 75,000 Black Mauritanians in 1989.

Stateless people are vulnerable to exploitation, including slavery and prostitution, and risk arbitrary detention. Their lack of identity can make accessing legal help impossible — no one knows how many stateless people are locked up worldwide.


Manly said the UNHCR is closely watching the succession of South Sudan. It is also scrutinizing the drafting of Nepal's new constitution amid fears millions could end up stateless.

A major factor behind statelessness is often racial or ethnic discrimination. Syria, for example, denationalized many Kurds in 1962 and Mauritania expelled around 75,000 Black Mauritanians in 1989.

Stateless people are vulnerable to exploitation, including slavery and prostitution, and risk arbitrary detention. Their lack of identity can make accessing legal help impossible — no one knows how many stateless people are locked up worldwide.


Among the biggest sufferers are children. Open Society Foundations, the George Soros initiative which among other things tries to improve the lives of marginalized people, estimates around 5 million children globally are stateless, often simply because their parents are.

The 1961 convention stipulates signatories must grant nationality to a person born in their territory who would otherwise be stateless. Experts say this is key to resolving the problem.

"This is really a crucial principle that needs to be realized if you want to break the cycle of statelessness," said Sebastian Kohn, Open Society's expert on statelessness.

"It doesn't mean giving nationality to everyone born on your territory. It's just about giving nationality to


stateless persons born on your territory."

Kohn also urged governments to abolish citizenship laws which discriminate against women -- another big cause of statelessness. In at least 30 countries, mothers cannot pass nationality to their children. If the father is stateless, foreign or absent, the child usually ends up stateless.

Some hope

There have been some successes. For example, Sri Lanka has amended laws to allow Hill Tamils, descendants of immigrants from India, to obtain nationality. Ukraine has reintegrated Crimean Tartars deported to Central Asia under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

And experts believe awareness is growing.


"I think states are actually starting to recognize that there is a potential overlap between statelessness and national security issues," Kohn said.


"Obviously, if you disenfranchise people . that can lead to all sorts of social and potentially security issues, and in the worst cases civil war."


In December the UNHCR will host a ministerial-level meeting where countries will be asked to join the 1961 convention and make pledges to address specific concerns on their territory.


"It's an issue whose time has come," said Maureen Lynch, a consultant to the International Observatory on Statelessness.


Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.


72Share.Sponsored links

A land in the grip of fairytales If there is a single country across the planet endlessly obsessed with its origins – how it came to be created and on what basis – it has to be the Islamic Republic, Gen Kayani’s Fortress of Islam.

Nuke capability, Allah be praised, we have attained, and when in moments of patriotic emotion we sing its praises, we give the impression that nothing else matters. But simple things, like running municipal services with a modicum of efficiency or being able to think rationally about a basic need such as public transport, seem beyond our foremost abilities.

Colonialism may have been bad in every sense of the word, but at least it gave us two things: an administrative edifice based on that much-abused term “the rule of law” and a basic infrastructure: roads, canals, a railway system, and so on. We can see for ourselves what we have done with this heritage. Where we should have built upon it we have presided over its vandalising. What is more, deriving pleasure from this experience.

If the Islamic Republic has one ruling deity, real estate would beat everything else into second place. Generals have triggered needless wars, but if the military has excelled in anything it is not, perish the thought, the art of war, but the acquisition and embellishment of real estate. Our defence housing authorities have no parallel anywhere else in the world. Nor is there the least interest in abolishing this culture. If put to the test, the army can forego its guns, not its housing colonies.

And this is the army of the Fortress of Islam. Buttressing its flanks is that misty concept used as a punitive instrument to keep the recalcitrant in line, the ideology of Pakistan.

Six decades of fitful existence is a long enough time to put theories of existence to one side and concentrate on the practical aspects of running a country. But, no, a national politician says something sensible – our national leaders not being particularly famous for saying sensible things – to the effect that we should live like good neighbours with India, and the ideology-of-Pakistan school, whose contribution to the spread of national bigotry and ignorance over the years has been greater than anyone else’s, rips into him as if what has been uttered is the biggest heresy of all.

Oliver Twist asks for a second bowl of porridge and in the orphanage in which he is lodged consternation breaks out, because the unbelievable has just occurred. From table to table the whisper spreads: “Oliver Twist has asked for more.” In the haunts of national ideology we have heard thunder erupting because Nawaz Sharif has spoken of a sensible relationship with India. And because, unspeakable heresy again, he said that the Lord of the Universe was Lord to all of us, not just Muslims.

If the savants of national ideology could have their way India, and Pakistan would not just be at war, their cherished desire, but lobbing nuclear bombs at each other. They seriously ask, what is our nuke capability for? The implication being that if not for use against India, for what then?

The army seriously believes that nuke capability is not enough of a deterrent. In order to achieve nuclear stability, and consequently forestall the use of battlefield nuclear weapons, it is essential that conventional arms capability keep on improving. That is, more rockets and more tanks. This is not just logic reversed, put on its head, but strategy, and the concept of deterrence, gone mad: a recipe for bankruptcy.

Sharif may have started his political journey from the bosom of military rule, but if his remarks on India are taken as a signpost he has come a long way. The fount of misplaced patriotism was always Punjab. And so virulent was this strain of patriotism, championed first and foremost by the ideology-of-Pakistan school of thought, that it spread a message of intolerance.

The people of East Pakistan were alienated. Now it is the youth of Balochistan none too happy with their plight. So for a Punjabi politician to call for a lessening of the paranoia which has been a characteristic of establishment thinking in Pakistan is nothing short of remarkable.

We remain a confused country which could do with less ideological claptrap. But the good thing about the reaction to Sharif’s remarks is that the attack on him has come mainly from the trenches and outposts of the far right. Sharif was once a creature of the far right himself. For someone like him, a scion of Punjab to boot, to undergo a shift to the centre is a positive development. While it has become a fashion to be pessimistic about Pakistan’s future, we should take note of some of the good things happening.

The other good thing is that extremism seems to have run its course. Or at least it has reached the highest points of its expansion. This may sound like an unnecessarily bold statement but it can be put into context.

Pakistan, more than any other nation in the world, can bear witness to the fact that it has seen every form of extremism: sectarian to I don’t know what. With every firebrand and holy warrior taking the shortest route to heaven we have become familiar. The jihadi organisations we have spawned can proliferate no further. North Waziristan or the rest of Fata cannot become more safe havens than they already are. Like a drunk reaching the limits of drunkenness, where his liver can take no more, we have exhausted the limits of extremism.

The ideology-of-Pakistan school has thus served its purpose. Into the hapless body (still not the carcass) of the Republic further ideology cannot be injected. It just can’t take any more. We have also reached the limits of hypocrisy. We would have to be more creative than we are to write further chapters in the saga of national hypocrisy. (Have the defenders and warriors of the Holy Grail reached the limits of real estate? This is a question not easily answered.)

Does this mean that the time for reinventing the Republic has finally arrived? But we can move closer to a less ambitious agenda. Asked what communism was, Lenin famously said: “Soviet power plus electrification of the entire country.” Why can’t we have a similar definition of the ideology of Pakistan?

Why can’t the ideology of Pakistan be to put every child in school, have one curriculum for the entire country, have taxis running on meters, have a public transport system in every major city? Why can’t the ideology of Pakistan, to the exclusion of everything else, be these things: a crash programme to overcome the energy crisis, a crash programme to revive Pakistan Railways and an overnight programme to rid the republic of that devil’s invention which is the polythene bag?

The polythene bag will destroy Pakistan sooner, and more effectively, than the Taliban. Don’t we have the eyes to see its ravages? And a favour: if we can’t fix simple things, let us at least not waste time and energy on metaphysical abstractions.

We know angels won’t descend from heaven to fix these problems. Saladins and Bismarcks we do not have. Greed is a national pastime. The options for change are limited. The stars are implacable in their indifference. We have to create our own miracles, from the material that is available.

But let us also count our blessings, the latest being the confusion into which the ideology-of-Pakistan school has been thrown. Let us agree with Gen Kayani that Pakistan is the Fortress of Islam. Allah again be praised. But we should at least ensure that the drawbridge of this fortress doesn’t creak and the chains are not rusty. The origins of Pakistan have been debated enough. After 64 years, shouldn’t the age of practicality begin?

Pakistan’s relationship with America

At a well-attended meeting at the National Defence University in Washington on August 16, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta tried to describe the “troubled” Pakistan-US relationship. Mr Panetta, formerly director of the CIA, had a lot to say on the subject, while Secretary Clinton made a better effort to describe it as “bilateral efforts to preserve national interests of both sides”.

 According to a report in this newspaper, Mr Panetta said that the US had little choice but to maintain its relationship with Pakistan despite the latter’s contradictory behaviour as America’s partner in the war against terrorism. Ms Clinton thought that the US was willing to acknowledge the differences it had with Pakistan on approaching the war on terror and she said that this stemmed from the latter’s “national interest” to which it (Pakistan) had all the rights. Since Pakistan has always enjoyed more intimate relations with the Pentagon and less intimate ones with the US State Department, the press conference seemed like a switching of roles between the two over Pakistan.

Mr Panetta outlined the “differences” briefly: Pakistan has links with the Haqqani network, which he said was continuing to carry out cross-border attacks on US forces in Afghanistan and that it has “a relationship with the Lashkar-e-Taiba that goes into India and threatens attacks there”. He was clear in his mind that the US was compelled to maintain a relationship it did not relish because of the compulsions of war against terrorism in which Pakistan played a crucial role. Ms Clinton, however, conveyed the impression that though ‘transactional’, the Pakistan-US equation was not under sufferance and was there to stay. Both did not say what Pakistan’s interests were, but it would be fair to assume that a large portion relates to concerns about India. Also, of late, they would be concerned with the issue of drones in that Pakistan wants a complete end to this strategy used by the Americans. Panetta was more matter of fact. He included Pakistan’s status of a nuclear state as one of the factors that compelled the US to remain soft on Pakistan. It would not be out of place to presume that some observers will read this as a precursor to a coming rupture in ties between the two states.

The two countries, unfortunately, are challenging each other to make the final decision and cut the umbilical cord. The US has not exactly followed Ms Clinton’s policy of restraint. It has suspended the strategic dialogue with Pakistan, withheld the $800 million in military assistance to Pakistan and arrested a Kashmiri activist that Pakistan funded, a revelation that surely must not have been new. Meanwhile, ‘leaks’ in the American press say that Pakistan allowed the Chinese a peek into the stealth technology of a US helicopter that crashed in Pakistan. (Both Pakistan and China have strongly denied this.)

It has to be said that Pakistan has acted out of anger rather than policy after the killing of Osama bin Laden, although the CIA-ISI spat was on since 2010 when a report prepared at an American university alleged that the agency was in effect funding the Taliban to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan. The arrest of Raymond Davis in Pakistan was a nadir in this relationship. Nato supplies, already subject to colossal corruption, have been vandalised in Pakistan and American officials are being harassed in an unprecedented drive by the Pakistani police, which must be happening only with orders from elsewhere.

No matter what Ms Clinton says, the Pakistan-US relationship remains on a rocky path. Peoples on both sides suffer from paranoid emotions; and Pakistan could be standing on the precipice of a desperate decision to save its India policy at the cost of losing America’s support. Out of the two, most of the negative fallout will be on Pakistan. And that is precisely why it must let go off the anger over the Abbottabad raid and formulate its ties with America on the basis of pragmatism and reality.

Pakistan packing globe: World population to reach seven billion by year’s end

The world population will reach seven billion later this year, with African population increases offsetting declines in birth rates elsewhere, according to a French study published on Thursday.

Just seven countries now account for half the world’s population including Pakistan. China tops the list with over 1.33 billion people, with another 1.17 billion in India.The other five countries, in order, are the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan and Nigeria.

According to INED, India will become the most populous nation by 2050, with Beijing’s one-child policy moderating their numbers. In historical terms global population growth has been soaring since the 19th century. “It has increased seven-fold over the last two hundred years, topping seven billion in 2011, and is expected to reach nine or 10 billion by the end of the 21st century,” the report said.

While the overall numbers continue to grow, the rate of increase is already dropping, according to INED, standing at 1.1 percent this year from 2 percent 50 years ago.

Karachi bleeds: Karachi’s unabated violence

Death toll 52 as Pakistan violence rages

POLICE say four more bodies have been found in Pakistan's largest city of Karachi, bringing the death toll in three days of suspected gang-related violence to 52.

Many of the victims were tortured, shot and stuffed in sacks dumped on streets.

Police chief Saud Mirza says the new bodies were discovered thismorning. Seventeen people were killed Wednesday, and 31 yesterday.

The gangs are allegedly affiliated with the city's main political parties and have been blamed for a surge in killings in recent months in the city of some 18 million people.

Although Karachi has a long history of political, ethnic and sectarian violence, the recent wave is high by historical standards.

More than 300 people were killed in July alone.

The trend of brutal incidents that emanated from the city’s south district on Wednesday evening stretched to the west on Thursday and police said victims were kidnapped and tortured before being shot dead. Their bodies were stuffed in gunny bags and dumped at various places.

Most of the victims, police said, were common wage-earners who had been kidnapped mostly on Wednesday evening while returning home from their workplaces. In some cases they were dragged off public transport.

With the latest round of abductions, torture and brutal killings, Lyari and other parts of old Karachi and its adjoining neighbourhoods have remained in grip of extreme ethnic tension.

Accusations and counter accusations by various politicalgroups over the past 24 hours clearly suggest that the latest round of killings in old Karachi has very little to do with the ongoing war between Lyari’s criminal gangs.

Eyewitnesses and political observers say ethnic and political rivalries were the dominant factors behind most of the killings over the past three days.

They point out that while most of those abducted and gunned down earlier in the week were pre-dominantly Lyari’s local Baloch, including footballers and a former MNA, many of those forcibly taken away and shot dead in overnight violence belonged to the Urdu- speaking community.

Allegations levelled by the PPP-backed Lyari Amn Committee and Muttahida Qaumi Movement against each other confirm that divisions during the current wave of violence in old parts of Karachi are along ethnic lines.

Alleged involvement of some Lyari gangsters in the Haqiqi-led attack on an MQM stronghold in Landhi-Malir area last month, a protest campaign by many traders of Kharadar and adjoining areas against so-called ‘protection money’, and retaliatory action by the extortionist mafia and other affected groups were also said to be factors behind the latest phase of targeted killings.

Saud Mirza, Additional IG of Sindh police, said the violence was triggered by a clash between two criminal gangs in Lyari on Wednesday evening.

“But somehow over the hours it turned into an ethnically motivated affair. We have found that criminal gangs are targeting Urdu-speaking and Baloch common men in their respective areas,” he said.

He said the most affected areas were those adjacent to Lyari and pockets in trans-Lyari, including Kharadar, Meethadar, Pak Colony, Rizvia and Baldia Town, and the law enforcers were all set to launch an operation there to arrest the criminals.

The overnight scattered grenade attacks and intense firing sowed fear in the south district where residents of old city areas and Baldia Town spent a sleepless night.

In a rare admission of failure, a depressed Home Minister Manzoor Hussain Wasan said the government and law-enforcement agencies had not been able to quell violence.

“Today is not a good day for the Sindh government, police and other law-enforcement agencies,” he said while briefing the media on decisions taken at a meeting convened by the chief minister on the law and order situation.

Accompanied by provincial police chief Wajid Ali Durrani, he said: “We are quite aware of the hands behind this killing spree and disturbance and the government is well aware of its responsibility to protect the life and property of people.”

He said the fresh bout of killings could be an attempt to sabotage the ongoing reconciliation talks between the Pakistan People’s Party and the MQM in Islamabad.

But the MQM alleged t:hat “certain leaders in the government” wanted to derail the reconciliatory process between the two parties.

“President Asif Ali Zardari wants to promote the process of reconciliation in Pakistan and he wants better relations between the PPP and the MQM. The president must think what benefit the public will get from the reconciliatory process if the killing of innocent citizens continues,” MQM leader Raza Haroon said at a press conference.

Nation celebrates Independence Day

The nation is celebrating its 65th Independence Day with great fervour but simplicity. The day began with special prayers in mosques for the unity, solidarity and prosperity of the country.

The celebrations began with a 31-gun salute at the federal capital and 21-gun salute at all the provincial headquarters. Quran Khawani are being held for the martyrs of the Pakistan Movement for their eternal peace.The national flag has been hoisted on government and private buildings. Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani hoisted the national flag in a ceremony at 9:00am in Jinnah Convention Centre. The national anthem was also played on the occasion.

The prime minister felicitated the nation on its 65th Independence Day and paid tribute to the founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and leaders of Pakistan Movement for providing a spirited leadership which created the world's first ideological state through democratic struggle.

The flag hoisting ceremonies were also held at provincial capitals.

Political reforms: A century later, some rights for the tribals

And here are two of the several comments, all of which, amazingly, are positive!

A very brave and bold step taken by the present government. It was also the wish of FATA people which was ignored in the past. Timely and right step. Congrats to the people of FATA. Zardari Sahib this area came under direct control of the Presidency so you fulfilled the wishes of which others could not dare to attempt. So another feather in your cap and the party. Believe me, I am not a member of PPP but see things as a Third Umpire.

Though I shall vote for PTI, but I must congratulate people of FATA and commend Zardari for such a bold step for strengthening democracy and devolving power. This one step weighs more than the combined efforts of musharaf for this country, if any.( Sohaib Ibrahim email dated August 13th 2011 )

FATA stands honoured: Political activities allowed in Tribal Areas, FCR reformed

IT was indeed strange and humiliating that a vast track of land, called Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), remained neglected on constitutional, legal, political, administrative and economic fronts even after creation of Pakistan and continued to be governed through political agents and the special law known as Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) devised by the then British colonialists and local tribes way back in 1901 as per demands of that time. Every successive government from Field Marshall Ayub Khan had been doing some loud thinking regarding political reforms in FATA but these remained mere hollow slogans as no worthwhile practical steps were taken for the purpose except in 1997 when the Government of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto took the bold decision of extending the adult franchise to the region.

And now one must complement President Asif Ali Zardari who signed on Friday two landmark instruments extending Political Parties Act to FATA and reforming, to some extent, the FCR, bringing it somewhat closer to the basic norms of justice. By doing so the present Government has established yet again its capacity of far-sightedness and taking courageous decisions for the greater interests of the country. Though there would understandably be opposition to the move and some elements might try to put obstacle in its implementation but sagacity demands that the Government must implement them in letter and spirit as these measures would surely empower people of FATA and bring them into national mainstream, which is in line with the aspirations of the common man of the region. FATA deserves special attention as ever since inception of Pakistan, its people, we would dare say, proved that they were more patriotic than others, as they rendered supreme sacrifices for the cause of the country. It was pathetic that under foreign pressure we have been meting out contemptuous treatment to the people of the area during the last few years and the reforms announced on eve of Independence Day are, therefore, reflective of a change in the mindset, which augurs well for peace, security and progress in tribal region. Permission of full scale political activity in FATA would help create necessary awareness among its people about their rights and obligations while reforms in FCR, as Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani rightly pointed out, would help its people play more active role in the administrative work. Though there were differing views on FCR with some people demanding its total replacement and others suggesting minor changes but the gradual approach adopted by the Government is wiser as given the highly conservative nature of the society radical reforms would not produce the desired results. There is definitely need for extension of the country’s systems of governance including policing, revenue collection, the judiciary and parliament to the tribes but this should be done in a systematic and harmonious manner without a clash with local traditions.

In Defence of Asif Ali Zardari: Abdullah Zaidi

What comes to your mind with the mention of Asif Ali Zardari? “A cunning, vile, and corrupt man,” said my 19 year old cousin. This was a good summation of what the urban middle-class thinks of him. The more I hear people talking about him the more I am convinced of the power of propaganda. “Give the dog a bad name and hang him,” Zardai once said about himself. That is what is at work here.

Despite what has been said about him, Zardari did have a political background. His father Hakim Ali Zardari entered politics well before Partition and was a member of the Khaksaar Tehreek in 1931. He was first elected to the National Assembly in 1970s. All this talk of Zardari as a political orphan who hogged the Bhutto dynasty upon marriage with Benazir, is a non-starter. In Benazir’s husband, the Bhutto family wanted someone who would remain loyal to her. That is exactly what they got in him. For Zardari, family would always come first. This was the case at the time of Benazir’s death, when he kept the family together. Benazir would often tell close aides that despite his failings, Zardari always remained loyal to the family.

During the ’80s and ’90s Zardari moved from the Prime Minister’s house to prison and back to the Prime Minister house again. All in all, Zardari’s time in prison comes to a total of 11 years. It is ironical that if convicted, all of the cases he is implicated in have a combined sentence of only 10 years. This easily makes him the biggest political prisoner of the country. In 1999, he was almost tortured to death, with the government alleging that he attempted suicide by cutting off his tongue. He developed spondylitis because of rickety police van rides from Karachi to Lahore for court hearings. He could either sit on a wooden bench or stand straight. He started walking with a cane and had to undergo physiotherapy. It is well within imagination that during this time, Zardari could have brokered a deal with the establishment, broken with Benazir and went into exile. Instead, what happened was that Benazir was murdered and Zardari took over a country divided on ethnic lines, on the brink of an economic meltdown, with a full-fledged insurgency in Balochistan and an ever growing militant threat.

Today, the greatest criticism of the Zardari regime is its massive involvement in corruption. While it is impossible to defend the regime’s corruption and nothing can excuse it, one is forced to think that the whole idea of corruption is inverted in this country. The narrative of corruption has two problems. The first is its singular focus on elected politicians. One hears a lot about politicians being corrupt but almost nothing about the enormous amount of corporate corruption. Corporate corruption is the most heinous form of corruption today. However, in Pakistan it would seem that every corporation is working well within its boundaries and is completely cognisant of its responsibilities. A major part of this corruption is related to the Pakistani military which has the greatest economic stake in this country. Are all these military-run business giants working cleanly? Is the military’s $17 billion business empire clean? Is the acquisition of 12 million acres of public land by the military clean?

Although it is the Government’s responsibility to weed out this menace, it would be wishful thinking to demand that a weak civilian government stand up to an overpowering army. Nevertheless, it is the parliament, and not the judiciary, which probed corruption in National Logistic Cell (NLC), a military-run organization, and indicted two Lt. Generals and one Major General. The Supreme Court today is in essence the anti-corruption regime of this country however almost all of the cases it has taken up involve civilian politicians. It does not receive much attention that the judiciary’s own performance with regard to disposal of cases and prosecution of terrorists has been questionable.

The second problem with the corruption narrative is the middle class’ concept of corruption. For the urban middle class a non-corrupt state would mean a laissez fair system which would leave the rural population at the mercy of the corporates. The Pakistani term for such a system is ‘meritocracy’ or ‘technocracy’. This is also why the urban middle class, which dominates the media, bureaucracy and military, fails to understand why the same ‘corrupt’ politicians come back to power through elections. Rural voters vote for people who they think can best connect them to the ‘English speaking state’. They are concerned with immediate issues such as tube-wells, canal lining, roads, employment, sanitation, water. They live largely aloof from the issues that the mainstream media raises. This is also the reason why Jamshed Dasti was re-elected despite a fierce campaign against him by the middle class.

The middle class rhetoric against ‘corruption’ is not unique to Pakistan. In India, a similar movement led by Anna Hazare calls for passing a Lokpal (Ombudsman) Bill which would make elected representatives accountable to a committee of ‘good’, ‘clean’ but un-elected citizens. Unlike Pakistan, however, the Indian media has been very critical of this movement. It is also worth mentioning that corruption in Indian politics way surpasses the corruption here. To cite an example, just the 2G spectrum allocation scam cost the Indian exchequer $39 billion.

So while we castigate the current regime’s corruption, which we should, we should also be cognisant of the parallel narratives of corruption. In this country politicians have continually been booked for corruption while everyone else goes scot-free.

Finally, there have been substantially positive things that have been initiated by this regime but they need several articles to discuss. For now we can do with just noting them. The NFC award, the 18th and 19th Amendment, the Devolution plan, and the Benazir Income Support Program are all success stories to say the least. It is for the first time that we have a functioning Parliament (in which the opposition and government coexist), an independent and aggressive judiciary, and a free media, all at the same time in this country. All of these are institution-building measures which shall have a lasting impact on the country’s political dynamics.

(The writer works with a think tank in Islamabad. These are his personal views. His email is abdullah.muhammad.zaidi at gmail dot com.)