Prime minister’s challenge
THE new prime minister has taken the wheel. He must steer Pakistan to calmer waters at the earliest possible. Following a deeply contentious election, the opposition seems to be in no mood to let him get comfortable in his seat.
He can expect a tough fight over every piece of legislation his government brings to parliament. In fact, some of the more hawkish lawmakers affiliated with the PTI have made it clear they do not intend to allow him to function at all.
Regardless, the prime minister cannot afford to let himself get frazzled. It is his responsibility to bridge the gaping political chasm and restore some sense of unity within the nation as he attempts to tackle its historic social and economic crises. It will, without a doubt, require immense grit and a large heart to take the country forward as one.
Since Mr Shehbaz Sharif has chosen to lead, he should demonstrate that his second term will be better than the first. He must appoint a cabinet of capable individuals, chosen not for their proximity to the Sharif clan, but for how well-suited they are to manage the portfolios handed to them.
This is not the time to dish out ministries and important offices as payback for political favours. The PDM government offered ample lessons on why this would be a poor mistake to repeat during a crisis period.
Considering how much has been placed at stake for Mr Sharif to get a second chance to ‘deliver’, he must deliberate with great care on who will get him the results being expected from his government. He should remember that his government will be walking a tightrope: policy confusion can quickly snowball into a national disaster. The PDM’s last finance ministry was a case in point.
His other major responsibility would be to start shaping the contours of Pakistan’s immediate political future such that the country can start to move on from the bitter unravelling of its sociopolitical order that marked the interregnum between April 8, 2022, and March 3, 2024.
This will require the PML-N and its allied parties to, first and foremost, put an immediate end to any plans to further victimise the PTI and also to start a process to reconcile with its leadership and its supporters even if it means taking the difficult first step. It has been repeatedly commented that it was the hubris of the PDM coalition and its backers that the people of Pakistan voted against in the recent election.
It would be a grave miscalculation to continue disregarding this as the new prime minister makes an attempt to lead the nation forward. Mr Sharif will need to show immense courage if he wishes to be remembered well.
Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2024
Close to midnight
THE Ukraine war has entered its third year, with no signs of a peaceful resolution. If anything, the principal protagonists — Ukraine and its Nato backers on one side, Russia on the other — appear to be digging in for the long haul. In a troubling indication of just how dangerous this conflict remains to global stability, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s raising the spectre of nuclear war last Thursday, during an address to his nation, should be enough to get rational actors on the world stage to redouble their efforts to end the Ukraine war. In an ominous message to his Western and Ukrainian foes, Mr Putin reminded them that “we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory”, while specifically mentioning his country’s nuclear-strike capabilities. He also reminded his adversaries of the unenviable fate the armies of two of Russia’s historical foes — Napoleon and Hitler — suffered while trying to conquer his country. The Russian ruler’s combative rhetoric is a likely reaction to French President Macron’s recent comments at a Nato meeting that Western troops could fight in Ukraine.
The mere idea of nuclear deployment by heavily armed militaries is frightening, especially when both sides take a rigid position that does not allow much room for a negotiated settlement. The West’s threat of bringing Russia ‘to its knees’ is unlikely to intimidate Mr Putin. On the other hand, Moscow’s efforts to take other states’ territory by force is a recipe for continued conflict. The fact is that the Ukraine war — along with the bloodbath in the Middle East, and the confrontation between China and Taiwan — is amongst the global hotspots where even a conflict between two parties might spark a much wider conflagration. That is why it is in the interest of the international community to bring these conflicts to a peaceful close, or else prepare for massive turbulence in the global political and economic order. Any long-lasting solution must entail Russia giving up Ukrainian territory it has occupied, while the West should give Moscow guarantees that it does not seek to encircle it. These possibilities currently seem distant, as both sides have gone into Cold War mode. Perhaps this is why atomic scientists have put the Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight, with chances of turning back its hands diminishing rapidly.
Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2024
Losing history
WHILE we have history strewn all over, the debate around pro-preservation development is not loud enough. Last week, Wapda entered into a Rs46.5m cultural preservation contract with a consultancy firm for the “digitisation and 3D modelling of significant rock carvings within the impact zone of the upcoming Diamer Basha dam”. It is no secret that northern Pakistan is a well of antiquity comprising innumerable rock carvings. Although the authority intends to devise a cultural heritage management plan to preserve prehistoric etchings, establish a museum, and encourage cultural tourism, experts believe that the dam’s construction may put thousands of ancient engravings in jeopardy. The volume of potential damage can be assessed by the vastness of heritage in the locality — over 50,000 rock carvings and 5,000 inscriptions from the Epipaleolithic era to Buddhist times lie along the banks of the Indus, with ibex and sheep imprinted on the earliest petroglyphs.
Past incidents of apathy provide sufficient reason for concern: for example, in 1999, GT Road’s expansion project destroyed two historic waterpower facilities and the connecting walls of Shalimar Gardens, while in 2020, WWF-Pakistan’s intense pressure forced the Gilgit-Baltistan government to abort jeep rallies and a polo fiesta at Rama in Astore. While Wapda’s is a heartening plan on paper, the fact remains that the culture and museum department in the territory is dormant. Clearly, authorities do not regret old lapses. Once again, short-sighted policies threaten priceless inheritance as perhaps only a few ancient boulders can be relocated to the Wapda office. Further, digitisation is not to be confused with investing in relics, and isolated samples impede tourism and research. The government has to change tack: it must become cognisant of the advantages of preservation, raise awareness about sites erased from state narratives and reimagine progress with a conservation method. The enforcement of the Antiquities Act, 1975, will ensure smugglers, vandals and imprudent planners face the law.
Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2024