Thursday, July 26, 2012

Report by the Asia Society Independent Commission on Pakistan Police Reform


Stabilizing Pakistan Through Police Reforms
A Report by the Asia Society Independent Commission on Pakistan Police Reform
Hassan Abbas (Editor)

For complete Report click here

Move over military: Police and counterterrorism in PakistanBy Hassan Abbas, AfPak Channel, Foreign Policy, July 24, 2012

It is generally believed in the West that military action can resolve the terrorism problem in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region as well as help efforts to thwart violent radicalism throughout the region. This idea, while sounding sensible when peering at Pakistan from the outside, misses an important reality on the ground: according to a new report released today by the Asia Society, it is the domestic police force that can best root out terror networks, find and disable their financial support, and even manage de-radicalization programs in association with local communities.
When faced with a serious internal security crisis, it is crucial that a state pursue reform that entails capacity building not just in the military and civilian government, but within the law enforcement sector. Pakistan is a case in point. The state is facing a variety of internal security challenges that are severely limiting its citizens' potential as well as creating tension between neighbors and potential allies abroad. Without police and law enforcement reform, stability is likely to continue eluding Pakistan.

Meaningful reform is not going to be an easy endeavor. A high number of terrorist attacks and increasingly troubling crime patterns tell the story of a state under siege. An increase in targeted killings of political and religious leaders, attacks on armed forces and police, kidnapping for ransom by the Taliban, and ‘mob justice' incidents show just how daunting the challenges for the police have become. Pakistan's efforts to combat crime and to counter terrorist activities are being outpaced by the innovation and agility of criminal networks and protean terrorist organizations. Radicalized elements within the political and religious spheres further complicate security challenges.

One might assume that, as a result, the government of Pakistan has prioritized reform of the police and other law enforcement agencies, allocating budgets accordingly. This simply is not the case. A lack of resources, poor training facilities, insufficient and outmoded equipment, entrenched corruption, and political interference mar law enforcement institutions throughout the country. Still, the police force is one of the country's few institutions in which internal reform is actually underway. This struggle merits attention and needs support.
Interestingly, the international support provided to Pakistan for antiterrorism operations in the last decade was largely geared towards the defense sector, and very little of that ever reached police. This created a situation in which military control trumped local knowledge and know-how. . A balanced approach is needed to help Pakistan tackle both internal and external challenges more effectively.

Few know that Pakistan is among the top five police-contributing countries to the United Nations over the last decade, and the professional performance of Pakistani officers in UN peacekeeping operations is rated highly. However, Pakistan has no mechanism in place to utilize the services of these officers in such a way that police institutions in-country might benefit from this experience. Many Pakistani police officers were successful in getting Fulbright scholarships and Hubert Humphrey fellowships in the United States in recent years as well. Thus, there is a lot of untapped potential in the country that can help transform the law enforcement institutions.

For complete report article, click here



Related:
To watch complete NYC Launch Event Video (July 24), click here; for a shorter segment taking about some themes of the report, click here
"Strong Pakistani Police Cited as Key to Stability," Voice of America, 24 July 2012
"Study Says Pakistan Must Revamp Police," AFP, 21 July 2012
For an Urdu report, click here

Friday, July 20, 2012

New Study on Police and Law Enforcment Reforms in Pakistan


Stabilizing Pakistan Through Police Reforms
Report by the Asia Society's Independent Commission on Police Reforms in Pakistan

Launch Event at Asia Society in New York
July 24, 2012: 6:00-8:00 pm
Register at: http://asiasociety.org/new-york/events/police-reform-pakistan-0

Launch Event at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC
July 25, 2012 - 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
(organized in association with the Middle East Institute)
Register at: http://asiasociety.org/calendars/police-reform-pakistan


Picture Source: Guardian/AFP

Experts from both Pakistan and the United States have collaborated to provide a framework for law enforcement reform in Pakistan. The culminating report by the Independent Commission on Pakistan Police
Reform is the result of extensive interviews conducted throughout Pakistan with experienced police officials, security analysts, and legal experts, in addition to articles contributed by experts in the field. Police reform efforts in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka are also discussed in the report besides an assessment of the law
enforcement reform models of the US, Indonesia and Turkey and their relevance to Pakistan.

Speakers

Hassan Abbas is a Senior Advisor at Asia Society and Professor of International Security Studies at National Defense University's College of International Security Affairs. He is the project director
and Editor of the report.

Aitzaz Ahsan is a Barrister-at-Law and a Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He is a former Federal Minister for Law and Justice, Interior, Narcotics Control, and Education. Elected to the
Senate of Pakistan in 1994, he then served as the leader of the House and the leader of the Opposition. He was previously the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

Arif Alikhan is a former Distinguished Professor of Homeland Security and Counterterrorism at National Defense University. He previously served as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development at the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security and as Deputy Mayor for Homeland Security and Public Safety for the City of Los Angeles.

Suzanne DiMaggio (moderator in NY event) is Vice President of Global Policy Programs, where she oversees Asia Society's task forces, working groups, and Track II initiatives aimed at promoting effective policy responses to the most critical challenges facing the United States and Asia.

Wendy Chamberlin (moderator for DC Event ) is President of the Middle East Institute. She previously served as Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees from 2004 to 2007. A 29-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign
Service, she was Ambassador to Pakistan from 2001 to 2002.

Project Details:
http://asiasociety.org/policy/task-forces/police-reform-pakistan

Canada's Afghan Legacy - A Critical View

Canada’s Afghan legacy: Shoddy school buildings and sagging morale
By Paul Watson, The Star, July 15, 2012

BAQI TANAH, AFGHANISTAN—The Pakistan border is a short walk through the desert from this village, and the rutted road that winds past it is a main thoroughfare for smugglers, Taliban insurgents and corrupt Afghan border police.

They all compete for the villagers’ loyalties, which shift as easily as the sand beneath their dusty feet, depending on who presents the biggest threat, or holds out the most alluring promises.
Canada hoped to win them over by building a new school just two years ago. Village elder Haji Abdul Raziq, an overbearing greybeard, named the school after himself.

He also took full credit for the gift from Canadians, at least until it quickly began to fall apart. Now, he tells his people that Canadians bungled the project because they didn’t give enough money.

The concrete walls are cracked and crumbling around the flimsy wooden door frames.

The paint, actually a thin splash of whitewash, is rubbing off where it isn’t covered with grime and graffiti.

READ MORE: Canada’s Afghan legacy: Failure at Dahla dam

There isn’t a stick of furniture in any of the classrooms, and a single, metal-framed blackboard sits propped against the front wall, the rough concrete floor covered in a layer of dirt that blows in through cracked windows.

The best-equipped side of the school is actually a health clinic.

A classroom in what was one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s “signature projects” in the Taliban’s birthplace has been turned into a curtained maternity ward.

Across the hall, another classroom is a well-stocked pharmacy where a man in a white lab coat dispenses medicine to women enshrouded in burqas, balancing infants on their laps.

Women sitting on rough-hewn benches in the dark hallway, the hoods of their heavy burqa veils draped over their shoulders, tittered and grumbled at the first glimpse of a foreign male.

For complete article, click here

RelatedHow millions in Canadian aid have failed to bring justice to Afghanistan

Also See: Canada's Engagement in Afghanistan

For Background See: Taliban Commander: We Cannot win war and al-Qaida is a plague - Guardian

Friday, July 13, 2012

Annual Urs of Great Sufi Lal Shahbaz Qalandar










Lal Shahbaz Qalandar’s Urs ends amid a call for more research on his life
The Express Tribune, July 12th, 2012.


HYDERABAD: After devotees whirled and prayed for three days at the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan, his Urs celebrations ended on Wednesday. 
....
The main events during the three-day Urs comprised Sugharan Ji Katchery (folklore discussion), an international literary conference, concerts, agro-industrial exhibition, malakhro (wrestling) and cattle shows.
Literati
Scholars, historians and writers who gathered at the literary conference called for research on the life and intellectual works of Qalandar, whose real name was Syed Usman Marvandi. “There is confusion about the right date of birth, arrival in Sindh and the poetry and prose work contributed by Qalandar,” said Dr Nawaz Ali Shauq.
The event was organised by Sindh culture department at Shahbaz Hall in Sehwan on Tuesday night. Dr Shauq argued that Qalandar was a proponent of the Mansoori thought – a reference to the ninth century mystic Mansoor alHallaj who raised the slogan of Annal Haq (I am the truth). The saint was convicted for heresy by the clergy and sentenced to death.
“His philosophy is about knowing oneself to know the Almighty,” he briefly explained. The scholar also highlighted the lack of knowledge and understanding about the philosophical and literary contributions of Qalandar compared to Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai. “For Qalandar we find more devotion than intellectual following.” He ascribed this to a lack of research work.
Shauq also referred to a dearth of research on the heritage, archaeological findings and culture of Sehwan and surrounding areas, advising the culture department to use the occasion of the Urs to promote the town’s history.
Noted Punjabi writer Mudassir Iqbal Butt recalled how Qalandar and his contemporaries spread the message of love and peace to every corner of Sindh and Punjab. Qalandar, Bahauddin Zakarya, Baba Fareed Ganjshakar and Makhdoom Jahanian Surkh Bukhari of Uch Sharif were contemporaries. “They were referred to as chaar yar (four friends) at that time.”
Ali Kumail Qazilbash, a writer from Balochistan, said historians are yet to agree on the most authentic meaning of the word Qalandar which can be specifically applied on the Sufi mystic. According to him, the meanings of the word include powerful, celibate, omniscient, spiritual and pure. Dr Raj Wali Khattak, a writer and poet from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, also noted the confusion on Qalandar’s birthplace. “He is said to have been born in Marvand, a city which exists in Azerbaijan and also in Afghanistan.” However, Khattak was more certain that he was born in Afghanistan as he referred to one of Qalandar’s titles of ‘Shamsuddin’.
Karachi University’s Dr Tanzeem Firdous emphasised the need to translating all of Qalandar’s Persian poetry in local languages. Archaeologist Hakim Ali Shah Bukhari said Sehwan and its adjoining areas have a rich heritage and research in the archaeological remains of Sehwan’s fort will explain many mysteries about the town.

For More Details, see

Lal Shahbaz Qalandar: The Red Sufi of Sehwan - Pakistaniat.com
Brief History of Lal Shabaz Qalandar - Blogpost at Qalandria
Lal Shahbaz Qalandar: A great saint - Noor Mohamed Mathyani
Lal Shahbaz Qalandar - Story of Pakistan

UPDATES
For poetry of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, click here and see:

Thursday, July 12, 2012

What has happened to Sufi Traditions in Pakistan?

What if Bulleh Shah were alive today?
By Raza Rumi, Express Tribune, July 12, 2012

The chilling news of a man burnt alive in Bahawalpur on alleged charges of blasphemy has escaped the national media as well as our collective conscience. Other than a token condemnation by PresidentAsif Ali Zardari, no major political leader has bothered to talk about this ghastly incident.
After the brutal assassination of Salmaan Taseer in January 2011, we had given up the hope of even holding a debate on man-made colonial laws on blasphemy. The voices that were asking for a review of the legislation had to retreat as the majority Sunni-Barelvi interpretation captured public discourse. Taseer’s killer, Mumtaz Qadri was defended by the same lawyer who viewed ‘rule of law’ as an articulation of a personalised, anti-democracy and Sharia-compliant version of justice. The fact that a former chief justice of Lahore is Qadri’s lawyer reflects the inherent biases and indoctrination that have spread in our society. If a billionaire, liberal politician could be murdered on the streets of Islamabad, what hope does a supposedly deranged man in the deep south of Punjab have?
The rise of vigilantism is also indicative of state failure. Not long ago, we witnessed the inhuman lynching of two young men in the Sialkotdistrict where the state machinery stood by and extended tacit support to ugly scenes of dead bodies being paraded around. A few months later, I was invited to a television talk show where, to my surprise, I was surrounded by a lawyer and a so-called aalim(religious scholar). During the show, the cheerful aalim continued to find obscure and irrelevant references to justify mob-lynching as a kosher form of justice.
As children, we grew up with an occasional visitor, who would show up at our doorstep and make strong incoherent statements about religion, society and political leaders. We were told that he was amajzoob (someone self-involved with his own spirituality). As I grew up, I discovered more of these characters at Sufi shrines, on pavements and even camped around rivers and canals. The world considers these characters insane, while their insanity has its own method and rules.
Media reports suggest that the victim of the mob attack in Bahawalpur was a similar character. A friend in Bahawalpur told me that the victim was a saeen (a peculiar kind of a mystic). Chanighot is not too far away from Uchh Sharif — the ancient seat of Sufism in south Asia. Another field informant says that the man killed was a devotee of Mansur al-Hallaj (858-922 AD, a Persian mystic, who was executed in Iraq on charges of blasphemy). Hallaj’s famous utterance “An’al haq” (I am the truth) became an inspiration for several poets and mystics in the succeeding centuries. The regions that comprise Pakistan have had a rich tradition of Sufi thought and practices. But south Punjab, the land of Sufis, is now occupied by armed militant groups and their foot soldiers who have established their own ideological and quasi-legal writ.
Punjabi poets such as Bulleh Shah have also challenged orthodoxy and I wonder what would have happened had Bulleh Shah been alive today? Would mobs attack him also? The unnamed victim of Chanighot was reportedly on his way to Sehwan and some people allegedly saw him burning the Holy book. The police arrested him but this was not enough. A blasphemer had to be killed there and then. The police station was raided and the man was taken to a public chowk and burnt to ashes.

For complete article, click here

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Negotiated Settlement Between the US and Pakistan about NATO Supply Routes

Clinton’s ‘Sorry’ to Pakistan Ends Barrier to NATO
By ERIC SCHMITT, New York Times, July 3, 2012

WASHINGTON — Pakistan told the United States that it would reopen NATO's supply routes into neighboring Afghanistan after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was sorry for the deaths of two dozen Pakistani soldiers in American airstrikes in November, officials from the two countries said Tuesday.      

The agreement ended a bitter seven-month stalemate that threatened to jeopardize counterterrorism cooperation, complicated the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and cost the United States more than $1 billion in extra shipping fees as a result of having to use an alternative route through Central Asia.
      
Mrs. Clinton said that in a telephone call on Tuesday morning to Pakistan’s foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, they had agreed that both sides made mistakes that led to the fatal airstrikes.
“We are sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military,” Mrs. Clinton said in a statement that the State Department issued but that officials said had been coordinated with her Pakistani counterpart. “We are committed to working closely with Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent this from ever happening again.”   
For complete article, click here

Related:

Why Geography is Destiny for South Asia's Troubled Heartland ?

What's Wrong with Pakistan?
Why geography -- unfortunately -- is destiny for South Asia's troubled heartland.
By Robert D. Kaplan, Foreign Policy, JULY/AUGUST 2012

Perversity characterizes Pakistan. Only the worst African hellholes, Afghanistan, Haiti, Yemen, and Iraq rank higher on this year's Failed States Index. The country is run by a military obsessed with -- and, for decades, invested in -- the conflict with India, and by a civilian elite that steals all it can and pays almost no taxes. But despite an overbearing military, tribes "defined by a near-universal male participation in organized violence," as the late European anthropologist Ernest Gellner put it, dominate massive swaths of territory. The absence of the state makes for 20-hour daily electricity blackouts and an almost nonexistent education system in many areas.

The root cause of these manifold failures, in many minds, is the very artificiality of Pakistan itself: a cartographic puzzle piece sandwiched between India and Central Asia that splits apart what the British Empire ruled as one indivisible subcontinent. Pakistan claims to represent the Indian subcontinent's Muslims, but more Muslims live in India and Bangladesh put together than in Pakistan. In the absence of any geographical reason for its existence, Pakistan, so the assumption goes, can fall back only on Islamic extremism as an organizing principle of the state.

But this core assumption about what ails Pakistan is false. Pakistan, which presents more nightmare scenarios for American policymakers than perhaps any other country, does have geographical logic. The vision of Pakistan's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in the 1940s did not constitute a mere power grab at the expense of India's Hindu-dominated Congress party. There was much history and geography behind his drive to create a separate Muslim state anchored in the subcontinent's northwest, abutting southern Central Asia. Understanding this legacy properly leads to a very troubling scenario about where Pakistan -- and by extension, Afghanistan and India -- may now be headed. Pakistan's present and future, for better or worse, are still best understood through its geography.

For complete article, click here