Out of ideas
THE events of the past two days suggest that the state has cracked open its old playbook to clamp down on Imran Khan. First, an Islamabad Police team was dispatched to Lahore on Sunday afternoon to arrest the PTI chief from his Zaman Park residence.
However, when a large number of charged PTI supporters gathered around their leader’s house and faced off with the arresting party, it turned back on mere ‘assurances’ that Mr Khan was “not available”. It now seems we may see yet another ugly stand-off between citizens and police when officers are once again dispatched to Mr Khan’s home to execute the warrant, which has been upheld by the sessions court despite Mr Khan’s plea to have it rescinded.
It defies understanding why the PTI chief has not simply appeared before the court to plead his case as he has in other instances. The concerns for his safety may be valid, but if he could ensure his appearance before the other courts, he ought to have done so in the Toshakhana case as well.
But while there can be no defence of Mr Khan’s failure to turn himself into the law, the authorities, too, should have exercised restraint. With the power of the law behind them, there was no need to create such high drama.
While tensions over Mr Khan’s arrest were still fresh, Pemra took the opportunity to reprise its role as the handmaiden of political censorship. For the third time in nearly seven months, it prohibited Mr Khan’s speeches and press talks from being aired on TV channels.
A similar restriction had previously been set aside by the Islamabad High Court on Sept 6, 2022, for violating fundamental rights. Another was quickly withdrawn by the PDM government in November for ‘being against democratic norms’.
The latest ban has been challenged in the Lahore High Court, and it is hoped it will be dealt with quickly. Pemra has a history of silencing political leaders. Similar bans were placed on Nawaz Sharif and Altaf Hussain after they were declared persona non grata by the establishment. It seems plans are now afoot to push Mr Khan away from the public eye using similar tactics.
As cases continued to be registered against Mr Khan on Monday and NAB was also activated to start proceedings on a corruption allegation, it was difficult to ignore the impression that the establishment and the government do not know how to ‘deal’ with Mr Khan without resorting to crude tactics. But the state would be wise not to overreact under pressure to cut the PTI chief to size.
With an election around the corner, targeting a major leader will only spark more instability and friction within the citizenry, something the country can ill afford at this juncture.
Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2023
Bolan bombing
EVEN in relatively better times, violence has never been far from the surface in Balochistan. Now, as political chaos prevails nationally and terrorism resurges, Pakistan’s geographically largest province appears particularly exposed to insecurity, as the deadly suicide bombing in Bolan on Monday showed. At least nine personnel of the Balochistan Constabulary were martyred in the blast, which authorities suspect was caused by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle who rammed the bike into a vehicle carrying the law enforcers. The little-known Tehreek-i-Jihad Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack. The past few weeks have witnessed regular militant violence across Balochistan. A soldier was martyred in an IED blast in Gwadar on Sunday, while incidents have also occurred in Barkhan and Kech. In fact, as per data gathered by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies and published in this paper, the highest number of militant attacks were reported from Balochistan in February; at least 25 people were killed in 22 attacks.
The security situation in Balochistan is complex. Apart from separatist militants, parts of the province that border the tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well as Afghanistan may be affected by TTP activity. In the past, sectarian militants have staged attacks causing massive casualties. The Bolan blast indicates the increasing ability of religious militants to strike the province. It is also true that the military maintains a massive footprint in Balochistan. Therefore, more than the provincial government, that is only nominally in charge and more often than not is paralysed by infighting and ineptitude, it is the security establishment that must explain why Balochistan remains so insecure. Whether it is Baloch separatists or religiously inspired extremists, the state’s writ must be established and law enforcers as well as civilians in Balochistan must be protected from violence. While all militant activity needs to be monitored and neutralised, the security establishment needs to keep a particular eye on newly emerging threats such as the group reportedly involved in the Bolan terrorist attack. As mentioned, religiously motivated militants already have a presence in the province, in the shape of TTP sympathisers as well as sectarian actors, while certain Baloch separatists have reportedly teamed up with TTP factions. In the presence of such multifaceted threats, the state needs to pay special attention to the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Balochistan.
Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2023
Land irregularities
THE Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment has sought the land acquisition records of several housing schemes launched, managed and maintained by the Lahore Development Authority in order to probe allegations of widespread fraud and corruption during the last five years. The anti-corruption agency wants to look into various aspects of the land business pertaining to these projects — from acquisition of land to sale and allotment of developed plots to the plot exchange policy to changes in the original layout of schemes, etc. An internal LDA inquiry has revealed that at least 100 residential plots in Johar Town, one of the largest housing schemes in Punjab’s capital, which are still owned by the authority on paper, have been allotted and sold, probably multiple times, through forged documents and duplicate files. It is suspected that some LDA officials connived with external elements to prepare bogus files for these plots to make a quick buck.
It isn’t for the first time that LDA officials have been suspected of scheming with property mafias to commit fraud through forged documents and facilitate land grabs by powerful persons with significant clout in almost every major political party. There have been numerous occasions previously, too, when LDA employees and land grabbers illegally sold the same plot to scores of people, leading to long litigations by buyers and the loss of their life savings. That is not all. The ‘plot exchange policy’ is also frequently misused, and the rules of ‘land use’ are often changed to benefit wealthy private developers and realtors and allow them to convert residential plots into commercial ones for their schemes. Under the Buzdar administration in Punjab, LDA by-laws were changed drastically, apparently to help private developers make truckloads of easy money. The anti-corruption agency should not limit its probe to just LDA schemes or the authority’s employees; it must also expand its task to investigate how the LDA has benefited private developers to the disadvantage of the common people.
Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2023