‘Fact-checking’ democracy
THE Indian government has announced a rule that should worry online platforms purveying news and views in particular about the country’s central government. The rule unveiled this week evidently targets online “intermediaries” such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. They could lose their “safe harbour” protection, should they fail to remove content that is determined as ‘fake news’ against the Indian government. The rub is that the fact-checking body is likely to be handpicked by the government.The move follows a recent spate of critical foreign-origin stories and avid discussions that ensued about the Indian government and about Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular. Leading the unflattering charge was a two-part BBC documentary on Mr Modi’s tenure as chief minister of Gujarat. The report showed Mr Modi as culpable in the anti-Muslim pogroms that took place under his watch. The documentary was forced off from YouTube but university campuses continued to share it widely in groups across India. Also, the global economic fallout of the so-called Adani affair became another instance of news that clearly didn’t go down well with the Indian government. With elections due by May 2024, the new rule may be aimed at plugging a significant resource on the internet from which bad news for the Modi government continues to seep through.
The Editors’ Guild of India has demanded the suspension of the government’s move, saying the new rules would have deeply adverse implications for press freedom in the country. As per the rules that have been notified, the ministry of electronics and information technology has given itself the power to constitute a fact-checking unit. “The ministry will have sweeping powers to determine what is fake or false or misleading, with respect to any business of the central government and with instructions to social media intermediaries, internet service providers and other service providers to not host such content,” the EGI cautioned.
Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2023
Grim outlook
WITH the economy struggling to survive one of the worst crises in the nation’s history, it is no surprise that most businesses in the country are facing multiple problems. Many factories across different sectors have closed down as raw material is scarce, thanks to the restrictions imposed on imports on the back of dollar shortages. Others are cutting down production owing to poor demand caused by soaring inflation. Still others are laying off workers to stay afloat as their profits shrink. Meanwhile, the government appears incapable of guiding the faltering economy as the political crisis in the country deepens. No wonder business owners in the country are less optimistic these days about their future and the direction in which the economy seems to be hurtling, than they were three months ago. Each time some semblance of normality seems to be in sight, national events take a new and dangerous turn.
Thus, the findings of the Gallup Business Confidence Index released on Friday are not unexpected. The survey is based on interviews with the management of 520 businesses across the country, and covers the three-month period from January to March. It shows how dire and untenable the current situation has become. “Last year’s political instability has carried over to combine with various economic crises and exacerbated business insecurity,” the survey says, reporting that the index values have dropped on a quarter-on-quarter basis to an all-time low in each of the three strands including the current business situation, the future business situation and the direction of the country. The biggest confidence loss is seen in future expectations of the business owners as the ‘Future Business Confidence Score’ worsened by 11 percentage points to -22pc. The number of businesses saying they would be worse off in the future increased 7pc over figures for the preceding quarter. About 61pc of the businesses said their future expectations were “negative”; only 38pc expected the situation to improve. This conforms to the perceptions of the business community about the deteriorating path the country has taken, with as many as 90pc of them saying that Pakistan was headed in the wrong direction. Improvements in business confidence levels depend on political and economic stability. But it will take us very long to recover the losses we have suffered in the last one year even if stability returns to the country soon.
Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2023
A tactical victory
Over the past decades, militancy in Pakistan has evolved into a hydra-headed monster. On Friday, a major achievement against one of these threats came to the fore when the ISPR announced the arrest of Baloch separatist commander Gulzar Imam who was “apprehended after an innovatively conceived, carefully planned, and meticulously executed operation”.
Imam is considered among the most influential leaders of the insurgency in Balochistan; he is also said to have been instrumental in forging an operational alliance of several separatist outfits. His arrest, therefore, has the potential of significantly weakening the insurgency which is already riven with factionalism; reportedly, some separatists themselves played a role in Imam’s capture.
But, howsoever important, this is but a tactical victory. The battle is far from over. Unless the state addresses the reasons why insurgencies have repeatedly arisen in Balochistan throughout Pakistan’s existence, one may be certain the separatist movement will continue to find ready recruits.
This year is the 75th anniversary of Kalat’s accession to Pakistan; while the move had its detractors, many also believed it would bring progress to what has long been a deprived part of the subcontinent. However, the intervening years have seen resource-rich Balochistan being treated with neocolonial disdain, useful only for extractive purposes to enrich the state and its functionaries.
According to the popular narrative, the tribal sardars have been a perennial obstacle to development in the province. That line of thought conveniently sidestepped the fact that a majority of the most regressive sardars have historically been aligned with the state — an alliance whereby elected Balochistan governments were dismissed and the people’s rights ruthlessly trampled on.
Over the years, various ‘development packages’ were introduced but, much like the province’s share in the NFC Award, achieved little of note. And why would it be otherwise? After all, the province has never been empowered in a manner commensurate with the 18th Amendment. The strings are still being pulled from Islamabad, not to mention Pindi.
Moreover, the security establishment’s short-sighted strategy of using violent extremists to counter Baloch insurgent groups fuelled an orgy of bloodletting. All these factors, coupled with the enforced disappearances of Baloch individuals suspected of nationalist sympathies — now centred among the province’s educated youth — created a fertile ground for foreign intelligence agencies to foment trouble.
The Baloch have legitimate grievances, and the groundswell of support for Maulana Hidayatur Rehman’s Haq Do Tehreek and the massive rallies he led in a well-secured town like Gwadar — the ‘jewel in the crown’ of CPEC — are evidence of the anger simmering in Baloch society. The state must change its approach. But judging by its arrest of the HDT leader, which has sparked huge protests, it appears to be doubling down on old, discredited tactics. That will only keep the flames of insurgency burning.
Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2023