Uniformed criminals
RECENT news reports in local media have been a disturbing reminder of the depths our uniformed protectors fall to while pursuing diabolical schemes for self-enrichment. According to a story published in Monday’s papers, two young men earlier reported to have been kidnapped from Karachi’s Zakaria Goth were found to have been held in the Shah Latif Town police station all along. The law-enforcement officers who had been pursuing the case managed to trace and nab four suspects who had arrived to receive the abductees’ ransom. Of the four arrested, two were later discovered to be active-duty policemen. One suspect who managed to flee is also said to belong to the Malir Division police team. The interrogation of the suspects revealed the location of the abductees and that the young men had been kidnapped on the orders of the Shah Latif Town SHO, who, upon questioning, accused personnel from the Malir police.
The Sindh government, which has historically micromanaged the provincial police force, must be asked why so many dangerous criminals are walking around the country’s largest city wearing official uniforms. This was clearly not a one-off incident: just last month, the SHOs of two other police stations in Karachi were suspended after the recovery of three friends from another police station in very similar circumstances. In recent years, dozens of police officers have been booked for criminal activities, and hundreds kicked off the police force for their criminal records. Why has criminality permeated the Sindh Police so deeply, and why has the force failed to decisively root out criminal elements from within its ranks? Why are police officers so brazenly abusing the powers granted to them by the state to perpetuate the same criminal activities that they have been tasked with eliminating? These and related questions must be addressed by police high-ups and the provincial government. They owe an explanation to the citizens of Karachi.
Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2023
Shifting ME sands
RAPID geopolitical changes have been seen in the Middle East over the past few days with regard to the Syrian and Yemeni conflicts. The Bashar al-Assad government in Syria has begun to re-enter the Arab fold, after several years in the wilderness following the outbreak of the civil war. Meanwhile, in Yemen, there are indications that a more permanent ceasefire is possible, which would bring to an end the sufferings of that impoverished nation’s people, exacerbated by the power struggle between the Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government. It would not be wrong to suggest that developments in both the Syrian and Yemeni cases are linked to the thaw in relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, following the decision of the two countries to bury the hatchet in a surprise announcement in Beijing last month. Riyadh and Tehran have considerable influence in the Syrian and Yemeni conflicts, and better relations between them could help stabilise these and other hotspots in the Middle East. The kingdom is also said to be mending fences with the Palestinian political and resistance group Hamas, which is close to Tehran.
Syria and Yemen have suffered for years, thanks to external machinations and bloody internal feuds. In 2011, during the height of the Arab Spring, the West and Arab states hijacked the anti-Assad popular movement, which exacerbated the civil war and opened the gates for extremist militants to join the fight against the Syrian president. Thanks to Iranian and Russian military intervention, the Damascus regime was able to survive, and now, the overtures to Syria from its Arab brethren are a sign that the regime change strategy has failed. The Syrian foreign minister was well-received in Jeddah last week, and the rehabilitation of Damascus within the Arab bloc seems only a matter of time. As for Yemen, there the pro-Iran Houthis dislodged the Saudi-allied government, leading to Riyadh’s intervention in 2015. Despite Western logistical support, the Saudis have been unable to defeat the Houthis, and the desire to wind down a costly, bloody war must have convinced Saudi decision-makers to give peace a chance. This explains the recent exchange of nearly 900 prisoners between the Houthis and the Yemeni administration. It is hoped these developments help bring durable peace to Syria and Yemen, and that the people of these shattered states can start rebuilding their lives.
Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2023
Still no funds
IT has been a long wait. It seems that the IMF is still refusing to budge, even as Pakistani authorities thought the bailout loan would be finalised and the long-stalled funding programme resumed after confirmation of the promised financial assistance from Saudi Arabia and UAE.
That the demand from the IMF for further assurances to seal the deal came just around the time Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was assuring the markets that the lender had now no reason to put off its approval for the staff-level agreement after “friendly countries” had given monetary assurances was quite surprising.
Indeed, other nations in financial distress, such as Sri Lanka, Zambia, etc, also had to wait — for a longer time than usual — to finalise their respective loan deals with the IMF in recent months owing to the clash between China and the Western economies over how to provide relief to poor and middle-income countries. But in Pakistan’s case, the Fund appears to have little justification to further delay the resumption of the programme.
Initially, the IMF’s reluctance to complete the performance review and its insistence on the implementation of harsh prior actions were seen as the outcome of the deepening trust gap between the Fund and Pakistan due to the repeated breach of programme targets by both previous dispensations and the present government. But the IMF kept delaying matters despite the PDM government executing practically all prior actions to qualify for the Fund’s dollars.
This hasn’t helped the IMF’s image in Pakistan as the delay in the release of the funds is compounding the financial woes of a country hit by consistently soaring prices, for which the Fund’s stringent conditions for assistance are partly responsible.
But while there is every reason to be puzzled by the IMF’s stance regarding the delay in the restoration of the programme, Pakistan’s politicians and policymakers need to learn some hard lessons from the way multilateral and bilateral lenders have acted this time. They must realise that the world has changed a great deal in the last two decades.
The world is no longer ready to help those who don’t help themselves. The Saudis have repeatedly said of late that they want Pakistan to work within IMF discipline and tax its people if it wants the kingdom’s money to fix its external account. Others have told us the same thing.
The Americans said as much after the catastrophic 2010 floods. We did not listen to them then, and continue to ignore such warnings. But for how long? True, this time too we may get help sooner or later. But unless our politicians and policymakers take and act on hard decisions, the world will no longer step in to rescue us from a mess of our own making.
Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2023