Pakistan blighted by Afghan drugs in transit

by Hasan Mansoor

Cheap Pakistani heroin is the curse of Rubina Naz’s life. Her marriage to a violent and abusive addict, during which she had to work to feed their four children, ended when he died of AIDS — but not before he infected her with the HIV virus.
“Such a huge punishment without doing anything wrong crushed me,” said 28-year-old Naz as she sat in a Karachi hospital.
She was 16 years old when her labourer father married her off to Ghulam Punjtan, then an apparently respectable driver for the Pakistani government.
“A few months after the marriage I discovered Ghulam was a heroin user. I tried to help him kick the habit but all I got were beatings and abuse,” she said.
Pakistan has more than four million drug addicts in its population of 170 million, according to figures compiled by the country’s Anti-Narcotics Force, which is responsible for investigating and prosecuting drug offences.
Opium poppy is grown on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, a region infamous as a hideout for Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists and branded the most dangerous place in the world for Americans by US President Barack Obama.
Pakistan shares a 2,500-kilometre (1,560-mile) porous border with Afghanistan, which supplies 90 percent of the opium used to make heroin worldwide.
As such, the largely lawless region is the key transit point for heroin, morphine and hashish heading west to Iran, Turkey, the Balkans and Europe, and east to China.
As it passes through what has become the central theatre of the “war on terror,” cheap supplies are left behind for the locals, with one gram costing as little as 80 rupees (one dollar) in Karachi, the southern port on the Arabian Sea and Pakistan’s commercial hub.
Here anyone can afford a hit. And many, like Rubina Naz’s husband, do.
Her life lurched from bad to worse as her husband’s addiction spun out of control. When he lost his job, she took factory work to ensure the family had an income.
“My husband fell seriously ill three years ago. His father took him to a hospital where tests confirmed him HIV positive,” she said.
But her in-laws didn’t tell Rubina about the disease, and she continued to have sex with her husband. Weeks after he died, she fell ill and was diagnosed HIV positive.
Pakistan’s chronically underfunded and crumbling health system offers little help for drug users to conquer addiction — let alone deal with its devastating consequences.
Because of the enormous quantities of drugs that pass through the country, abuse and addiction are on the rise, without the health services and anti-drugs squads needed to adequately combat the scourge.
Pakistan’s understaffed and under-equipped Anti-Narcotics Force has around 2,000 personnel policing the snaking mountainous border with Afghanistan and the 900 kilometres (563 miles) it shares with Iran, the main smuggling routes.
Border control duties are shared with paramilitary troops already struggling with a deadly counter-insurgency campaign in the tribal belt.
“Even though the challenges facing a transit country like Pakistan are increasing with every passing day, the resources available to counter the threat of narcotics continue to remain meager,” the Force said in a report.
The majority of drug users in Pakistan smoke hashish, experts say. Heroin, alcohol, tranquillisers and pain killers are the other most common drugs.
A joint study released last year by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Paris Pact Initiative, an international partnership to counter trafficking and consumption of Afghan opiates, found that trafficking of Afghan opiates through Pakistan towards lucrative markets abroad is on the rise.
Seizures are also on the rise, it said — but both figures just reflect an increase in the cultivate of poppy in Afghanistan.
“Trafficking of opiates into and through Pakistan increased dramatically during the period 2001-2006 corresponding roughly to the increase in opium production in Afghanistan from 185 metric tons in 2001 to 6,100 metric tons in 2006,” the report said.
In 2005, Pakistan seized 24 tonnes of heroin and morphine, accounting for 27 percent of total seizures worldwide, it said, adding that in 2006, that figure leapt to a record 35 tonnes.
UN experts have said that the easy availability of narcotics is compounded by general ignorance among Pakistanis about the consequences of taking them.
A report earlier this decade found that more than 80 percent of Pakistanis did not believe narcotics to be harmful, and that many addicts were introduced to drugs by friends and relatives.
One of those who learnt the hard way was 25-year-old Shabana.
Introduced to heroin by classmates, she thought it was fantastic, she said.
It quickly took over her life as she graduated from smoking to sniffing and, finally, injecting. She lost weight, dropped out of college, and her family abandoned her.
“I began to take drugs with my friends for fun, but as time passed it became a matter of life and death,” she said, refusing to give her full name.
A photograph of her a few years ago shows a tall girl with fair skin and striking features — barely recognisable as the girl now lying on a bed in a Karachi rehabilitation centre.
“I started smoking heroin-filled cigarettes and found myself in heaven,” she said.
Only an older brother saved her from the hell that addiction can leads to.
“My brother brought me here for rehabilitation. For me he is more than my father. I will not take drugs again, I will not let him down,” she said.

Filed October 2011

Imran: a ‘saint’ in the land of ‘sinners’!

by Hasan Mansoor
   It took 15 years to Imran Khan to become an instant hero in the heart of Punjab — the slowest of his predecessors Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif — who conquered Lahore instantly — Bhutto with his inherent charisma and Sharif with sheer satellite credentials!
   Altaf Hussain — without commenting on the style of politics his party practices — historically joins the elite club of the country’s most popular political leaders along with Mujibur Rehman and Bhutto who proved instant hits on arrival.
   Why it took 15 years to tens of thousands of Lahoris to realise that Imran Khan is the messiah — the god-sent saviour.
   The ex-cricketer had stumbled upon a favourable pitch when he pinned all his hopes to the military dictator whom now he calls the greatest curse on Pakistan.
   Yet, he does not leave the ex-general alone in his list of devils and equates him with the ‘bloody civilian’ Asif Zardari whose credentials to be an elected president are just not enough for the Punjabi powerbase to include him in the ruling list of the pure.
   The day Imran Khan started to think himself the only saint in the land of sinners, he turned his back on civilian political leaders, called all of them corrupt and made hay while the sun shone.
   Pakistan’s inherent dementia sometimes make wonders. Like the top judge who took oath on Musharraf’s first PCO now declares a curse to be one, Imran was among the first polticians who affirmed his allegiance to the General and now declares anyone who supports his ‘first love’ as a curse.
   The numbers of people who attended his rallies were notwithstanding impressive, but, as independent observers say, on many occasions, a large number of attendants belonged to the organisations, which are officially banned in Pakistan.
   Besides, a predominantly millieu of a concert in the landmark Lahore rally of last year attracted even those who witnessed the so-called Sharif revolutionary in Bhaati Gate, to enjoy Pakistan’s rock stars thrilling to the pop tunes for free.
   Critics say it took a decade to the ex-cricketer to play on a friendly pitch as he had intended to do so when Musharraf was in charge but left in a hurry when he did not see him inside the Prime Minister’s House as he was expecting.
   During those days just before 2002 elections, insiders say, Khan had been invited to Musharraf’s cozy palace, which chuffed him into bits and he saw himself in his wild dreams inside the place which was offered to the Fatty Jamali, Chaudhry Ambiguously Naught Hussain and Shortcut Aziz instead.
   But to his wildest nightmares he was told by Mushy that he had invited Im-ran just to get him meeting an elderly in the Mush family who was happened to be a fan of the I-con cricketer.
   He had never been a favourite of the voters, albeit a great televangelist and blue-eyed boy for the members of the Taliban Union of Anchorpersons. He had to hold his nerves against his very nature to make a comeback when he sees a heavenly nod, which, it seems, has just happened.
   The ultimate game masters have changed their faces, but even friendly pitches do not always offer winning results until one got to have deadly combination. This time, it seems, he has got the umpires of his own choosing, although he has been championing for the neutral umpires in cricket!
   It seems the power consortium has divided – the dominant part is still aligned with the ones, whom Taliban anchors call the representatives of the ‘liberal fascists’; the rest patronise the right-wing angels.
   The “liberal fascists” at least know each other’s status in the power hierarchy so they have no wars for turf unlike the angels where the slot of senior partner is still undecided.
   The Sharifs and Khan are justified to hit their adversaries – PPP and the MQM – hard, but at the same time they are hitting each other as well. Both know Punjab rules Pakistan; so Sharifs’ bad governance brings an excellent opportunity for Imran. The game is on!
   Both classfellows have their own strengths and weaknesses. Imran’s following swells because of all known and clendestine factors; but he has no leadership except for himself. He needs time to consolidate his strengths and makes for a strategy for next elections.
   Sharifs have a situation which demands the inverse variables altogether. They want an immediate election to materialise the most before their dwindling support base is further eroded by Khan.
   The situation has certainly get the sychophants bewildered, who are weighing options to move forward without knowing what are opportune timelines.
   Imran’s acceptance of spent cartridges in politics, his religious nuances during most of his fiery speech and presence of large numbers of religious zealots clearly show his party will have more resemblence to Nawaz League and not the PPP or the MQM.
   PML-N still fears for an exodus of ‘powerful candidates’ towards Imran, which it certainly does not want to.
   Whatever the odds, the Taliban anchors, for sure, will be the ultimate beneficiary of the situation. It makes no odds to them who loses the battle. They’ll certainly find them on the side of the winner!

Seperate prisons for jihadis

by Hasan Mansoor
Experts involved in operations against Islamist militants and sectarian terrorists have suggested that the government should set up a separate jail for hardcore militants of banned outfits. They want to establish at least one prison in each of the four provinces where such elements could be kept under the watch of professional jailers.
“We need to make special arrangements to keep these elements separate from other inmates,” one of the few investigating officers in the Sindh Police, who has been attacked a number of times by militants of the banned organisations, told me.
He says jihadi and sectarian militants have long memories and carry out revenge killings whenever they find an opportunity and that “our normal jails offer such opportunities in abundance.”
There are many instances in the recent past in which these prisoners attacked jailers while their comrades outside the jail made numerous attempts to get their arrested colleagues released by attacking custody vans on the way to or from the courts.
“It is time to establish a high-security prison for such hardened elements,” ex-chief of the prisons in the Sindh province, Nisar Maher, had suggested during his tenure years ago.
Maher had said his department did not have sufficient funds to establish a detention centre exclusively for jihadi and sectarian militants but was of the opinion that the government should do something in this regard. “At least we should have some place where these inmates could be kept separate from other prisoners,” he had then told me in an interview.
Sources in the interior ministry in Islamabad say due to certain ‘disturbing facts’ the central government is seriously contemplating the matter. American FBI officials had also suggested separate detention centres for Islamist militants after its experiences in Pakistan.
During an operation to track down Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan when the War on Terror became a rage, FBI and CIA officials while monitoring and scanning air and satellite signals detected some unusual signals from a Pakistani city. After intercepting the message, the cell started tracking down the place from where the coded call had been made via a satellite phone. The Americans passed on the information to their Pakistani counterparts who found that the signals were emanating from a prison. The prison authorities discovered that some jihadis were using a phone in their barracks.
According to sources, using a mobile or satellite phone inside a Pakistani jail is not a big deal. “It is a routine matter. I have raided various jails in my province and each time we recovered mobile phones from one prisoner or the other,” a senior prison official says. However, he would not specify whether these prisoners included jihadi militants or not.
“We are living in an era of communication technology and it is easy to get hold of such devices inside the jail because of corrupt officials,” he says adding that his department has planned to introduce ‘public call offices’ inside every major prison in Sindh.
“It is a two-pronged project,” he says, “we will be providing our inmates an opportunity to remain in touch with their families and at the same time leaving those who claim that they keep phones secretly to stay in touch with friends and families outside with no excuse to do so.”
Experts in the investigation wing of the police department, however, are not satisfied with such plans. “Introducing public call offices sounds like a good idea and would certainly benefit ordinary prisoners but it is not going to tame the hardened elements or control their present activities,” a senior investigator says.
“It is not possible to restrict their activities inside the barracks and isolate such terrorists from their comrades until they are placed in special detention centres supervised by reasonably paid professionals whose chances of succumbing to bribery would be minimal,” he says.
Corruption is a major problem in jails. There have been various incidents in which imprisoned hardened criminals were caught with weapons and liquor in their possession. In one of the ugliest incidents that has come to light so far, imprisoned criminals were found with 50 juvenile prisoners in Hyderabed jail. The children had been provided to the inmates with the connivance of the prison caretakers.
According to sources, the presence of corrupt jailers does not preclude such incidents from being repeated. What is to prevent something similar to the Sialkot incident, in which four judges were kidnapped and killed by armed prisoners, from taking place again? “Those were ordinary criminals. If these rogue elements are treated like the ordinary prisoners, the result could be catastrophic,” another investigator says.
Sources say the investigators have found clues leading them to believe that sectarian killings were masterminded by hardcore terrorists in the custody of the authorities. Insiders say the jihadis and sectarian militants have arranged to be held in one barracks where they hold meetings that are out of bounds for jail officials. “In such a situation everything is possible because the jail supervisors are not professionals,” a source said.
I have also learnt that the government has ordered that jail officials be thoroughly checked to ensure that they do not have any past or present links with sectarian or religious outfits. These orders have been issued after it came to light that authorities busted some law enforcement officials with connections to jihadi organisations.
The provincial governments of the Punjab and Sindh are reluctant to take custody of many ‘blacklisted’ prisoners from Haripur jail despite reminders from the NWFP government. According to senior officials, they are wary of taking custody of these prisoners due to security concerns. “Such prisoners are fit to be confined in places where they have no access to corrupt officials or those who have links with religious outfits. We have proposed that the government establish such places,” an official said.

 

Sindh’s secularism fights for survival!

by Hasan Mansoor

   Sindh is rich in minerals, energy resources, forests, desert and sea, having a few high altitude places offering chilling temperatures. All these treasures merit a greedy stare from the suppressing centre, yet they are merely appendages – there re
mains a prized asset!

Holi celebrations in Sindh

   Unlike other assets this one is something that the right-wing establishment religiously despises and reckons as Sindh’s greatest sin and calls its inhabitants infidels and Indian agents.
   Sindh has seen little calm and rare self-rule on its soil since time immemorial, but it has been resilient enough so far to protect its most enviable treasure trove – something widely defined as secularism, the art of peaceful co-existence.
   Unlike the most of Pakistan, Sindh is still largely a pluralistic, secular and liberal society. People here too kill others on trivial reasons but at least politically aware Sindhis are not yet convinced to kill each other on religious grounds.
   That tradition goes on; but will it continue hopping like it did in the past centuries? There are serious doubts and concerns as well-laid grand plans are there to create smaller Taliban havens in parts of this land of Sufis – if not possible to fully convert it.
   The planners – well entrenched in the country’s ruling machine and their spare parts in apparently non-state junk – have particularly targeted Sindh’s upper districts, infested with tribal customs largely forced by the migrants from neighbouring provinces, the victims of blatant corruption and negligence by the parties they vote for and abject poverty which is increasingly reaching the tipping point.
   Past events show a disturbing increase in the migration of Sindh’s Hindus to India and elsewhere because of their systematic kidnapping for ransom and abductions and forced conversions of their girls by influential mullahs and feudal lords who blatantly preside over hordes of gangs of robbers in the region.
   Rights activists say hundreds of cases of kidnappings and forced conversions of Hindus and their girls have been committed in the past four years in the northern districts of Sindh, most of which have gone unreported and attracted little attention from the so-called national media, which itself boasted to be centre-right and custodian of the country’s ambiguous ideological borders.
   The events have forced Hindus to migrate in flocks from their soil, a further dent in Sindh’s pluralistic society, which had already suffered a great deal because of migration of its entire middle class – happened to be Hindus – to India in 1947 after the partition of the Subcontinent.
   The dilemma of Sindhi Hindus is that they are often ignored by the world in the times of distress. Pakistani Christians suffer religious indiscrimination and persecution as well, but fortunately the Mighty West follows the same faith and often raises voice for their rights. Our Hindus are already labeled by the patriots in the establishment and media as the Indian agents, thus find no brotherly support from anywhere except for sporadic faint voices from rights organisations and individuals having little influence in bigger arena to change their fate.
   The killing of three Hindu men in the town of Chak in Shikarpur district is considered as the worst incident in decades. Media reports splash several contradictory facts, ranging from personal enmity to the possibility of a victim’s affair with a girl of an influential tribe, but the fact remains that it is bound to accelerate Hindus’ migration. The fact is that this migration will further erode Sindh’s claim to be the country’s only hope for minorities; the land which has always soft spot for minority faiths.
   Whatever the reasons are claimed to have caused the tragedy; the ultimate beneficiaries will remain right-wing mullahs and feudal hypocrites – in terms of their influence and the booty they would ultimately own and share as they did during the mass migration of Hindus 64 years ago.
   These killings should be taken in line with several attacks on NATO trucks in the same district – Shikarpur – as was a suicide blast on Ashura at a Shiite mosque there last year, which fortunately killed just the attacker.
   Being optimistic helps lessening the intensity but pain remains until it is fully cured. The reaction against the Shikarpur killings shows a distinct majority still sides with Sindh’s pluralistic history with intentions to safeguard it. Several demonstrations in scores of towns against the killings are because people don’t want the land to be deprived of its habit to remain peaceful.
   But fear still remains inward as being liberal is something that deep state has little desire to let it go. Pakistan is the land where designs often mirror opposite to the desire of majority; where a tiny minority decides about the national interests and everyone has to follow the suit to remain a patriot – thus alive!

Karachi musical makes song and dance of gang wars

by Hasan Mansoor
A hit musical about gangland violence in Pakistan’s largest metropolis is bidding to revive Karachi’s once-rich stage culture while shedding light on its grim addiction to violence.
Fierce sectarian and ethnic conflicts have been responsible for the deaths of more than 1,000 people this year alone and are an all-too-familiar tale to Karachi’s 18 million residents.
But the gritty realism portrayed in “Karachi — The Musical” has nevertheless provoked a huge response, playing to large audiences since it began in October for a month-long run due to finish on November 13.
It tells the story of a rookie boxer from the eastern city of Multan who comes to train at a boxing club in Karachi’s notorious Lyari neighbourhood — better known for its mafias than its sporting talent.
The ambitions of the protagonist, Saif Salaam, spark tensions between his coach and Daud Islam, a mafia don who controls the local gambling, drugs and prostitution rings and wants to thwart the boxer’s success.
With many twists and turns in the story set to a dozen songs, Daud attempts to kill Salaam, just as he had murdered another rising star 20 years earlier.
Mirroring grim realities on Karachi’s streets, the mafioso Daud is only stopped from killing the boy thanks to the intervention of another bad man — a more powerful don whose influence reaches higher into the corridors of power.
“It depicts the situation which we are facing nowadays,” said one theatre-goer, Aleem Akhtar.
“We are infested with mafias and gangs of killers and every mafia is well protected, so we can survive only with the blessings of some good bad men.”
The director of the first original musical to grace the city said that the show represented a defence against the very harshness it was based on.
“Today, art needs more support than ever in Pakistan because it is not only a reflection of the times we live in, but also of a brighter future we can create,” said Nida Butt.
“Theatre is not for the faint-hearted — it’s a labour of love, long hours and hard work that often results in more (money) spent than earned,” she added.
The once-thriving stage scene in Karachi, which was known for its opera before the partition of British India to create Pakistan in 1947, was lost largely due to the growing Islamisation of the country, say artists.
They particularly point the finger at military dictator General Zia-ul Haq, blaming him for worsening the gun and drug culture, encouraging sectarian and ethnic parties and crushing liberal forces during his 1977-1988 rule.
Art began losing its way under Zia’s predecessor Ayub Khan, they say, but it crumbled as culture became an early casualty of Zia’s regime, which nurtured religious fanaticism.
Syed Ahmed Shah, who heads the Karachi Arts Council and whose theatre is staging the production, says his organisation is the only one with a dedicated auditorium for plays and theatrical performances in Pakistan’s biggest city.
“Our resolve is to fully revive the city’s old cultural status so that it is here to stay,” he said.
“Particularly in a situation where fear and anxiety are the order of the day. Culture is the only remedy to rely on,” he said.
Hamza Jafri, who composed the original scores, said that “Karachi – The Musical” drew on the various strands of the city’s musical culture — a mix of rock opera, indigenous beats and big band jazz.
“The music is edgy, contemporary and completely inspired by our research into Lyari and the boxing gangs there. The songs talk about us, about Karachi and our lives in this city today,” he said.
But those living among the conditions depicted on stage complain they cannot see it because they are priced out of the market, with tickets costing 1,500 rupees (18 dollars) each — five times as much as a first-class cinema seat.
“I would love to watch such plays but it is getting too tough to enjoy theatre and cinema nowadays,” said Maula Bakhsh, 35, a fruit vendor in Lyari.
“We hardly feed our families because of price hikes. How can we spare money to spend on that luxury?” said Bakhsh — adding that he had to abandon his own boxing career to support his family.

AFP

NATO attacks fuel American flag business in Pakistan

by Hasan Mansoor
   In Pakistan a row about American attack on the country’s vague and much-trumpeted sovereighnty means booming demand for replica American, Indian and Israeli flags to go up in flames at protest rallies.
   That means one thing for 31-year-old Mamoon ur Rasheed — business — and he is working long into the night to churn out the paraphernalia beloved of Islamic activists taking to the streets.
   “I have nothing to do with any political party, but it is really enjoyable when you see your work on TV screens,” a laughing Rasheed said.
   “I’m busy every day making banners and placards for different religious and political parties, but work gets a boost — especially when international controversy concerning Muslims breaks out,” he said.
   Two years ago, when a Facebook user decided to organise an “Everyone Draw Mohammed Day” competition to promote “freedom of expression”, it sparked a major backlash among Islamic activists in the South Asian country of 170 million.
   Islam strictly prohibits the depiction of any prophet as blasphemous and the row sparked comparison with protests across the Muslim world over the publication of satirical cartoons of Mohammed in European newspapers in 2006.
   Several hundreds Pakistanis have taken to the streets at the behest of right-wing religious groups, who turn to Rasheed when they need flags to burn and banners to write.
   “Generally, we receive orders for banners for a couple of demonstrations a day, but due to the NATO attacks on Pakistani soldiers and blasphemous drawings issue, which causes spark time to time, the number of orders for flags and banners increases manifold a day,” said Rasheed.
   “Flags are made for burning. They symbolise what our clients want to express and we are paid for it, so I’m happy to see our work go up in flames.”
   Rasheed owns a workshop where he employs four craftsmen to paint flags and write calligraphy, and a small printing press.
   “We have received continuous orders for American and Israeli flags. Normally we paint them but when demand surges into the hundreds we print these flags to get them to our clients in time,” he said.
In the wake of the controversy caused by the NATO attack inside Pakistan, have blocked supplies for NATO forces to Afghanistan through its territory and mulls over to expel Americans from its Shamsi airbase.
   Although none of the protests has mobilised the masses, sporadic demonstrators have continued to vent anger in Karachi and other cities.
   Rasheed runs his business on times of stress. Different periods mean demand for the flags of India — Pakistan’s deepest rival with whom the country has fought three wars — Norway and Sweden, and former colonial ruler Britain.
   Five years ago, widespread protests broke out in the conservative Muslim nation over satirical cartoons of Mohammed that were published by a Danish newspaper and then reprinted in other European countries.
   Then in 2008, thousands of Pakistani Islamists rallied against an anti-Koran film made by a far-right Dutch lawmaker. Another focal point for anger has been Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who etched a blasphemous caricature.
   Whenever elections approach or protests start, wholesalers stock huge quantities of cheap cloth and reap handsome rewards.
   “We are getting bigger orders from scores of painters and printers nowadays,” cloth merchant Mohammad Siddique said.
   “Pakistan is the country of protests and for this Karachi is undoubtedly its capital and our business gets a boost in such circumstances,” Siddique said.
   Waqar Ahmed, owner of a printing press in Karachi’s southern neighbourhood Pakistan Chowk, says orders are flooding in for posters, pamphlets and placards, temporarily overtaking his main business in books and wedding cards.
   “I get orders for pamphlets and posters in the event of controversies or elections,” Waqar says.
   “I have got some orders to print flags of United States – in hundreds – during the ongoing rallies. We have also sold many American and Swedish flags during the protests against Facebook,” Ahmed said.

Ends

They dance in Sindh to capture Punjab!

By Hasan Mansoor

(Written in November 2011)

Shah Mehmood Qureshi can conveniently be regarded as the greatest of all hypocrites and power-hungry individuals who are jumping on Imran Khan’s bandwagon.
   His hypocrisy is evident from the religious allegories he had associated in his speech in Ghotki, where he finally ended his role as the fence-sitter and joined Imran’s Tehrik-e-Insaaf.
   A show in Ghotki can never be applied on the whole Sindh. Ghotki is the smallest of Sindh’s border districts, taken hostage by the influential tribes, whose chiefs are as opportunist and corrupt as elsewhere. They boast on honour killing of women and harbour and nurture criminals to keep people in distress and manipulate election results to their own advantage.
   Local people confirm that majority of the participants of Qureshi’s rally were unknown to them. They had been transported in trucks and lorries from the bordering southern Punjab’s towns.
   “Some of the participants were provided by the influential Mahers of the district, while the rest might form the total supporters of Qureshi who revere him because of his being a gaddi-nasheen of a shrine,” a local political observer told me.
   This rally cannot be regarded as something, which reflects a change in the mood of Sindhis. Both Qureshi and Imran Khan stick to their guns against the government. They spoke of the so-called corrupt practices being committed by Zardari’s government, bragged about their being the clean entities and hit hard against the Sharifs.
   Actually, they discussed Punjab’s politics in Sindh. Both the PTI leaders have stakes in Punjab and they see little prospects in Sindh, the question remains why they chose a place elsewhere to fight for Punjab? Qureshi wanted to show his popularity on trans-provincial scale while Imran was keen to see his bag gets fully stuffed.
   But, none of them spoke about the worst miseries of Sindh caused by the floods the second year running. They talked about the ambiguous NRO controversy, war on terror, United States, Pakistan’s vague sovereignty and Afghanistan and Iraq but deemed it inappropriate to talk on the real problems of Sindh.
   Qureshi, on the occasion, went on to the religious allegories in his speech, which hardly impress Sindhis’ secular minds. Spectacular of all was when he put himself in the shoes of Central Asian warrior Mehmood Ghaznavi by saying he would attack on Somnaath’s temple. He said his rally’s day coincided with the advent of the holy Islamic month of Muharram which, according to him, was a good omen to the country’s secured fate.
   Qureshi received an immediate bashing from across the southern province’s intelligentsia who condemn him for his desire to attack a temple no matter that was a clichéd symbolic notion.
   “Sindhis have always respected the worship places of all faiths and cannot tolerate or appreciate such clichés, which have been created and safeguarded by the powerful establishment,” said one of several statements published in the Sindhi newspapers.
   Sindhis have the history not to support the religious bigots. They still keep their religion and routine life separate despite the deep state’s repeated attempts to corrupt it through the kidnapping and persecution of minority Hindus and their girls’ forced conversion by the mullahs whose sanctuaries are being expanded systematically.
   Imran might take time to keep his finger on the pulse of Sindh, but why Qureshi went so aggressive in his panegyric to his brand-new leader, though he is well accustomed to the Sindhi environs. He is in the process of changing his posture that suits his new party’s right-wing propensities. He wants the people to forget his popular images with Secretary Hillary Clinton showing him sharing broad smiles with his then counterpart whom now he strategically despises.

   One should admire Zardari for his prudent decision in 2008 not to select Qureshi as party’s nominee for the country’s next prime minister. Zardari must have foreseen Qureshi’s hypocoristic leanings that many critics did not.
   But, haven’t Imran started sipping hypocrisy when he gives a clean chit as the foreign minister to Qureshi in Ghotki, an individual whom he had criticised him in his book “Pakistan A Personal History”.
   He writes: “These loans, along with US and European aid money, are like bribes to the Pakistani political elite to keep fighting America’s war for them. This was painfully evident when in October 2010 Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the European parliament: ‘If you want to help us fight extremism and terrorism, one way of doing that is making Pakistan economically stable.’ Pakistan’s ruling elite threatens the West with fears about Islamic militancy to extract more money out of them.”
   We should still admire Imran Khan, after all, he is the saviour we the poor souls have been waiting for the salvation!
Ends

Illegal lives: Karachi’s two million immigrants face a government crackdown

by Hasan Mansoor
My 2002 report for Himal South Asian Magazine
When Pakistan launched its National Alien Registration Authority (NARA) in January 2002 to address the perceived problem of illegal immigration, an estimated 3.3 million non-citizens were residing unlawfully in the country, close to two million in the southern city of Karachi alone. NARA received a mandate of three years to document illegal residents in Pakistan, specifically those in Karachi, and to issue work permits to non-citizens “who will get themselves registered”. But, perhaps not surprisingly, 18 months into its mission and halfway to its deadline of December 2004, NARA has registered only 35,000 people, just one percent of the estimated total.
The reasons for NARA’s poor performance to date are numerous, though many relate to difficulties inherent in differentiating ‘real’ Pakistanis from non-citizen ‘impostors’. Immigrants and their children have blended into Karachi’s bustling urban life, and many have secured government-issued National Identity Cards (NICs), often with the help of other non-citizens elected (illegally) to local administrative bodies. More broadly, they have created their own patronage networks and ensconced themselves into Karachi’s existing ones, gaining access to jobs, political connections and social services that make them as much residents of the city as any native-born citizen.
Owing to the scale and diversity of the immigrant population, estimates of its size and composition remain rough. In Karachi, the largest segment – about 1.3 million – hails from Bangladesh, while totals from Africa, Burma and India reach into the hundreds of thousands. Most Bangladeshi migrants travel overland to Pakistan via India, where they are sometimes able to make arrangements in advance for work in Karachi, where supposedly pays are higher than anywhere else in South Asia. Karachi is also home to 80,000 Afghans, who are counted as refugees rather than as aliens on the assumption that they will return to their native country once conditions improve.
In a sprawling city of 12 million-plus people, Karachi’s non-citizen residents represent about 15 percent of the total population, and because many of them have secured voting rights, they constitute a significant electoral block. A report prepared by NARA’s Karachi office states that at least 80 unnaturalised immigrants have been elected to a cluster of 20 union councils in the city, six of which are led by non-citizens, though local government officials put the number of elected immigrants at closer to 130. Another three dozen such candidates are believed to have gained office in
the interior of Sindh. And while about half of the non-citizen population in Karachi is concentrated in the city’s western district, it has spread effectively throughout the entire metropolis, often in small squatter settlements, making identification of ‘illegals’ all the more difficult.
On the whole, NARA officials’ efforts to register immigrants appear thwarted at nearly every turn, sometimes violently. Non-citizen residents in the Karachi localities of Machchar colony, Ibrahim Hyderi and Mauripur recently turned back visiting NARA officials with force, and NARA’s efforts outside of the metropolis enjoy no greater success. Attempts to register international migrants in the southern cities of Nooriabad and Thatta, in Sindh, and Hub, in Balochistan, have failed, casualties of patronage networks and organised resistance to the campaign. “The problem is that aliens have got powers to resist and help their other fellows to become Pakistanis”, an officer explains, noting that he and his colleagues are ill-equipped to overcome such tactics. NARA also suffers from more banal organisational woes, in particular cash shortage that prevents it from acquiring a fleet of vehicles or expanding its staff beyond its present four-dozen employees.
Patronage politics
Owing to its size and uncertain legal status, Karachi’s non-citizen community has enmeshed itself in the patronage networks of politicians and political parties, trading votes for political protection. The millions of non-citizen residents living in Karachi have proven to be a valuable vote bank for political parties, particularly for those with weak roots in the metropolis.
Mazhar Shaikh, an additional director general of NARA, expresses dismay at the nearly impossible task of registering non-citizen residents, the fault for which he says rests in large measure with their political connections. “A number of them have become elected nazims [mayors] and councillors, who stop their community members from getting registered”. He says that once elected, these officials push through NIC applications for other non-citizens to help them evade detection by NARA. Shaikh says that he has notified the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA), which issues NICs, about the difficulties NARA faces with identity card evasion tactics. A solution is yet to be found. “A joint line of action is under consideration”, says Shaikh, adding that the powers of some councillors to attest NIC applications may be suspended while discreet investigations are carried out. For its part, NADRA says that it is reviewing candidate filings in an attempt to root out politicians who lack citizenship.
Ejaz Shafi, a former MP who lost an election last year standing from Karachi as a candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), has championed the cause of Bangladeshi migrants for more than a decade. In return he has received support from the thousands of immigrants for whom he has helped secure NICs and space on voter rolls. Though he lost last year’s race to a candidate of the religious parties alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, Shafi received strong support from the estimated 20,000 Bangla-speakers in his constituency. As a strong supporter of the community, he refuses to use to the term ‘alien’ to designate persons of Bangladeshi origin living in Pakistan. “They are Pakistanis in all respects, by all conditions universally accepted for citizenship”, he says.
Other parties, such as cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, Allama Tahir-ul-Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehrik, and former president Farooq Leghari’s Millat Party, have made concerted attempts to
cultivate Bangla speaking voters. Many political aspirants seek support from residents of Machchar colony, a squatter settlement inhabited by 50,000 Bangla-speakers on land owned by the Karachi Port Trust (KPT). The KPT has made several attempts to evict residents, but each time influential politicians come to the aid of the slum-dwellers. “When I was an MP from this area, I did not allow the KPT to evacuate them”, Shafi says, adding that he suggested instead that the port reclaim land from the upscale Clifton locality.
However, not all political parties cultivate the foreign-born vote – indeed, some doubt the calculations on immigrant electoral strength, and others have tapped into local resentment of the large Bengali community to mobilise support. A leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), an offshoot of a partition-era north Indian organisation of Urdu-speakers, argues that patronage networks have not worked to the advantage of immigrants, as despite being included on voter rolls, the government “cautiously sliced them out of Karachi’s population” when it came to distributing resources.
However, this has not stopped parties from pandering to non-citizens at election time, he says, and he accuses several of illegally registering non-citizens as voters. “Even rightwing Jamaat-i-Islami activists have put many Afghan voters on rolls in the city’s central district to harm the MQM”, he says. Another political mobiliser, this one from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), perhaps the most powerful political force in Sindh, says that his group does not register non-citizens, as doing so would harm the interests of Pakistanis.
Controversy surrounding immigrants extends to the job market, where local resentment is perhaps more acute than in the field of politics. For non-citizens who find work, it is typically as domestic servants, as low-wage employees in the garment or fishing industries, or in jobs such as sugarcane pressing. Because they are usually willing to work for less pay
than native-born Pakistanis, they attract the ire of locals as well as muffled praise from employers, who tend to be exploitative.
Many ethnic and nationalist political organisations, as well as labor groups, regularly carry out campaigns against immigrant employment on the ground that recent arrivals damage the economic prospects of the native-born. Along with the MQM, the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) opposes the growing presence of non-citizen workers in Sindh’s economy. The parties’ election manifestoes accuse immigrants of depressing local wages, and promise improved job prospects for native-born (Urdu-speaking) Pakistanis once they are able to prevent migrants from participating in the economy. “These aliens are a burden on Sindh”, JSQM chairman Bashir Qureshi says, adding that it is the government’s responsibility to solve the problem.
Searching for ‘solutions’
The MQM’s Kunwar Khalid Younus argues that the government should settle the illegal immigration problem once and for all. “What we need is just the political will to do that”, he says. As far back as 1993, intelligence agencies considered competing proposals to ‘solve’ the problem, one being a massive repatriation scheme, primarily of Bangladeshis. This was deemed impractical, however, as for its part, Pakistan refuses to take in the ‘Biharis’ – the nearly 300,000 Urdu-speakers who have languished in 66 Bangladeshi urban refugee camps since the early 1970s. In any event, the ‘exporting’ countries are unlikely to cooperate with Islamabad’s repatriation schemes; in August 1996, Dhaka refused to accept 70 Bangladeshis deported from Karachi because they carried Pakistani NICs and passports.
What ‘solutions’, if any, can be found to the non-citizen resident question is a matter of pressing concern in Islamabad. In addition to launching NARA and debating the repatriation scheme, Islamabad has investigated other methods of regulating immigrants’ existence and bringing them within the scope of the law. There is a process by which non-citizens can secure legal residence and work status, but its costs are prohibitively expensive for most immigrants: until recently, PKR 10,000 (USD 180) and PKR 1000, respectively, for registration and work permit cards. Even after reductions to PKR 2500 and PKR 500, most non-citizens lack the finances to take advantage of these options, particularly when becoming ‘legal’ is not viewed as a pressing concern. “We often spend much less than this to get [forged] Pakistani documents”, a Bangladeshi migrant living in Federal B Area explains. For citizens of Bangladesh and Burma, there is also the option of formally applying for Pakistani citizenship under Rule 13/A of the Citizenship Act, though Islamabad has approved less than 1000 of such naturalisation applications till now.
Another idea is to provide migrants with transit back to their countries of origin on non-citizen Pakistani passports. A committee convened by the federal government, which included two Bangla speakers as ex-officio members, recommended the issuing of so-called ‘white passports’ to migrants from Bangladesh and Burma so that they may visit their countries of origin and migrate back, if so inclined. But to receive a white passport, migrants would first have to register with NARA and fill out Form E-I under the Citizenship Act, a step most non-citizen residents are hesitant to take. However, this plan possesses the advantage of offering an avenue for migrants to return to their birth countries, if they so desire, and some NGOs have expressed interest in facilitating such a process and providing financial support to
returnees.
While many Bangla speakers in Pakistan arrived relatively recently, there is also the challenge of adjudicating the citizenship claims of Bengalis whose residence dates to the 24 years between the 1947 partition and Bangladeshi
independence. The same federal committee that issued the recommendation about white passports also proposed granting Pakistani citizenship to Bengalis – not Bangladeshis – living in (West) Pakistan before the Bengali nationalist capture of Dhaka on 16 December 1971. After Bangladesh’s war of independence, fewer than 25,000 Bengalis opted to remain in Pakistan, according to NARA director general Shaikh, while most of the rest migrated to the former eastern wing. A 1978 amendment to the Citizenship Act nullified the Pakistani citizenship of those domiciled in erstwhile East
Pakistan. Bengalis remaining in Pakistan were required to submit a Form E-I to the home department of their province of residence and apply for citizenship, although according to the Sindh home department, no Bengalis submitted such forms in that province after the war. Many of these people have led a precarious legal existence for the past three decades.
The government committee also held meetings with Bengali community representatives and, in response to concerns that they lack documentary proof of residence, proposed that local police officials be empowered to recommend the granting of citizenship after verification. Critics, however, say that this proposal would only lead to massive corruption among police officers. Another widely shared concern among non-citizen residents is the suspicion that the entire government registration process is merely a plot to launch deportation proceedings once particulars are known to authorities. Interior ministry officials dismiss this claim, and note that none of the 35,000 migrants registered to date have been deported. “On the contrary, we are trying to resolve their civic and social problems, including extending
them educational, health and other facilities”, says one official. He also discloses that the government committee has been asked to review other countries’ immigration and citizenship policies in order to suggest improvements in Pakistan’s system.
13 kg of bad publicity
Debates about the role of ethnic-minority non-citizens in Pakistani society and politics, and the proposed methods of dealing with the concerns of and about them, are also coloured by anxieties about the supposedly dangerous and illegal practices of some elements of the immigrant population. Statements from Pakistan’s interior ministry indicate that there is increased official concern about non-citizen residents’ involvement with religious schools accused of fueling sectarian hatred, and with criminal activities ranging from burglaries and murder to international drug trafficking. A recent interior ministry socio-economic survey showed that non-citizens are concentrated in 22 localities of Karachi, many in ‘sensitive’ places near sea, oil and power installations and army cantonments, prompting the police to recommend mass evictions in these areas.
Concerns about links to religious violence are heightened given Karachi’s experience with sectarian violence. NARA research shows that the migrant community is making concentrated use of 29 government schools and nine hospitals, and operates 44 madrasas, about five percent of the city’s 869 Islamic schools. Regarding those schools, authorities say that, despite it being a small proportion of the city’s total, they are nevertheless worried about an influx of students into these largely unregulated institutions.
Today, most foreign students in the madrasas come from Afghan, Burmese or Bangladeshi backgrounds, although until two years ago there were also large numbers of African and Southeast Asian students. With the opening of the US military campaign in Afghanistan in October 2001, however, overseas enrolment in Karachi’s madrasas plummeted, and now foreign-born students represent only four percent of the 264,169 madrasa student total for Sindh, 85 percent of which is concentrated in Karachi, according to a recent police report.
The already precarious position of foreign-born residents in Karachi vis-à-vis the police is further complicated by military and law enforcement efforts associated with the US ‘war on terror’. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with the help of Pakistani authorities, is closely monitoring mobile phone conversations in Pakistan, and has arrested hundreds of foreigners suspected of links to Al Qaeda and other militant outfits. The FBI conducts operations in the country with the blessings and assistance of Pakistani officials, who have toed the US line since September 2001. Among the several thousand people arrested to date in these operations, officials say that about 700 are non-Pakistanis, mostly Afghans and Arabs, but there are also some Africans, Bangladeshis and Burmese.
The police also highlight migrants’ participation in local crime, in particular their connections to robbery, kidnapping, narcotics smuggling, human trafficking and murder. “We have evidence of their involvement in serious offences, and we have recommended that the government take the issue seriously”, the inspector general of Sindh police, Syed Kamal Shah, alleges. According to a police report, non-citizens are implicated in a widespread network of trafficking girls from Bangladesh and Pakistan to the United Arab Emirates. Police also suspect that immigrants have worked as hired killers
in Karachi’s recent spate of high-profile murders.
These concerns came to the surface in late spring with the high-profile arrests of three Bengali drug smugglers. On 21 May, Bangladeshi airport authorities arrested three women traveling on Pakistani passports for possession of 13 kilograms of heroin valued at USD 2.25 million, one of the largest drug hauls ever in Dhaka. Pakistani authorities had tipped off their Bangladeshi counterparts, who discovered the contraband in paste tubes hidden in the women’s luggage. A preliminary investigation into the case by Pakistani officials uncovered that the traffickers were Karachi-based
Bengalis who had bribed officials to receive documents attesting Pakistani citizenship. According to Pakistani authorities, travel on forged or falsely issued Pakistani documents is quite common, though it is ‘real’ Pakistani citizens who receive a bad reputation for such practices. Several Afghans have also been caught committing similar crimes, though Bengalis are believed to be more frequent offenders.
The Dhaka drug bust, extensively covered in the Pakistani media, led to hand wringing and accusation-leveling in Karachi. An official of the PPP cites the heroin arrests as evidence of the negative consequences of migrants participating in the political process. Others point to the implications of the incident for the entire bureaucracy. A thorough investigation into the Dhaka case, if and when it occurs, could raise troubling questions about the efficiency and integrity of NARA, which issues NICs and prepares voting registers, as well as other departments in the internal affairs ministry, such as the passport-issuing authority. Precisely how long corrupt practices have been occurring, and the extent to which bribery permeates the system, are difficult to assess, although anecdotal evidence paints a worrying
picture.
The heroin arrests prompted great interest at least in part because they touched on another widely held concern about non-citizen residents – their alleged widespread drug use. According to a United Nations Development Programme report, drug abuse among immigrants in Pakistan is rampant, and because of needle-sharing authorities suspect that HIV is on the rise in the community. Even so, such drug use is both a cause of concern and a symptom of their perilous condition, as many take up the expensive indulgence to alleviate the psychological stress and general frustration of leading a quasi-legal existence.
Yet, whether it concerns illegal activities or dangerous habits, official and popular scrutiny of Bangla speakers is greater than that of native-born, Urdu-speaking Pakistanis, and there are concerns that allegations of criminal activity are being exaggerated to malign the community. An October 2001 report in the Dawn of Karachi on immigrants in Pakistan states, quoting police sources, that “the over-all involvement of Bengalis in crime is negligible”, and that “contrary to a general perception”, at most 200 Bengalis are involved in crime in Karachi. This appears to contradict some of NARA’s positions, such as the claim that non-citizen residents are “adding to the crime rate”. Given that persons who lack clear legal status will likely seek to avoid activities provoking the interest of law enforcement officials, there appear to be grounds for doubting some of NARA’ s more sweeping charges of mass criminality in the migrant community.

Ends

Calls for army grow as Karachi week toll hits 101

   by Hasan Mansoor   
Pakistani politicians, industrialists and citizens stepped up calls Tuesday for the army to intervene to quell violence destabilising Karachi, where more than 100 have been killed in a week.    "We demand the armed forces take over the city, restore law and order and ensure safety to innocent people's lives," Khalid Tawab, vice president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), told AFP.    "Business activity has been disrupted because of incessant killing. People don't want to go to market because of risks to life," he said.    Ethnic and criminal violence blamed on gangs has killed 101 people in the last week, the latest bout in the worst criminal and ethnic violence to hit Pakistan's largest city and financial capital for 16 years.    "At least nine people were killed since Monday evening, so far 101 people have been killed since Wednesday morning," a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media.    Security officials said they had found the bodies of victims who had been kidnapped and tortured, stuffed into sacks and thrown on the streets with notes warning of more violence.    A government official working in the health department confirmed the casualties.    The violence has been linked to ethnic tensions between the Mohajirs, the Urdu-speaking majority represented by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), and Pashtun migrants affiliated to the Awami National Party (ANP).    On Tuesday, markets were closed, streets deserted and attendance at offices thin after the MQM called for a "day of mourning" against the killings.    Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday flew to Karachi and asked the provincial government to restore peace as quickly as possible.    Sharjeel Memon, Sindh provincial information minister, said a "surgical operation" was planned to end the violence.    The main ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which was elected in 2008 after nine years of military rule, insists that civilian authorities are capable of controlling the situation.    But members of other political parties are increasingly calling for army intervention, a sensitive issue in a country that has been ruled for more than half its existence by the military.    "We want to see law and order in Karachi improve. Anyone, including the army, who can get results and improve the situation should take control," Wasay Jaleel, a spokesman for MQM, told AFP.    "We demand the army across the board to restore peace here," ANP's provincial chief Shahi Syed told AFP on Tuesday.    People on the streets also expressed dissatisfaction with the ability of the police and the paramilitaries, technically answerable to the interior ministry, to control the situation.    "The armed forces should be deployed in Karachi, because police and paramilitaries have failed to save our lives," said Khalid Ali, 45, a shopkeeper in the main downtown market area that has seen some violence.    "We feel no enthusiasm for the coming Eid (religious festival). Please, soldiers take the city in their hands and return smiles to our children," Noshaba Hameed, 37, a schoolteacher, told AFP by telephone from the east.    Independent analysts said army's deployment would affect Pakistan's war on Taliban in its northwest and aggravate the situation further.    "Army is already engaged in the war on militants in the northwest and its involvement in Karachi will weaken the war," Tauseef Ahmed Khan, a columnist, who teaches mass media in Urdu University, told AFP.    "Only the police could restore law. The government should give a free hand to operate. That could make wonders," he said.

TV accused of fanning Pakistan political instability

by Hasan Mansoor
Pakistan's television networks are heaping political pressure on an increasingly unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari with critical and influential programming that pretend to offer a voice to the poor. In the decade since military ruler Pervez Musharraf issued licences and softened state control on media after seizing power, more than 50 channels have mushroomed in the country, with around half dedicated to news broadcasts. The channels have become campaigners against the leadership, have whipped up fervour for and against the Taliban, have embarrassed the security services and sown fear with 24-seven coverage of attacks beamed into living rooms. "The government is under constant pressure from the media," Mutahir Sheikh, head of international relations at Karachi University, says. A Gallup survey claimed that more than half of Pakistanis -- 57 percent of those polled -- blame the media for stirring up political instability in the country, which has known regular periods of military rule.    There are dozens of private satellite channels based in Pakistan and abroad that present every possible political opinion, pumping out news and debate in Urdu, English and provincial languages to the country's 170 million people. Owned by newspaper groups, wealthy businessmen and private individuals, critics accuse them of sensationalism and peddling conspiracy theories, particularly about perceived interference from India and the United States. Renowned author Ahmed Rashid accused talk show hosts of "demonising the elected government, trying to convince viewers of global conspiracies against Pakistan led by India and the United States or insisting that the recent campaign of suicide bomb blasts... is being orchestrated by foreigners. "The campaign waged by some politicians and parts of the media -- with underlying pressure from the army -- is all about trying to build public opinion to make Mr Zardari's tenure untenable," he had written on the BBC website. authorities banned a Dubai-based show presented by an outspoken critic of the government on Pakistan's most influential private channel, Geo. "The government is unnerved and uneasy over the independent criticism it faces in our unbiased programmes. But instead of countering argument with argument it goes for tactics which bring more embarrassment," said Azhar Abbas, Geo's managing director. In 2009, the authorities cut live footage broadcast by some TV channels of a deeply embarrassing 20-hour siege on the Pakistani army's headquarters. Television channels were seen as having influenced a government decision to publish a list of officials, including Zardari, who have benefited from an amnesty on graft accusations. Now, they extensively propagate every case in the Supreme Court, which could embarrass the authorities. Many say the media play a vital role in shaping public opinion in a country where nearly half the population are illiterate. "Independent media has empowered the underprivileged people to express themselves, which is itself a revolutionary change," said Fateh Muhammad Burfat, a sociology professor at Karachi University. "But, at the same time, it carries along its own agenda and influence people to buy it." The channels supported a movement to restore ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in 2009, siding with opposition leader Nawaz Sharif until Zardari's government caved in, reinstating him to avert violence in the capital. Television executives believe their news helps inculcate democracy and gives a voice to the disenfranchised, who get little assistance from the state. "We adopt very democratic methods. Here you find people from both sides," said Talat Hussain, a top official and anchorperson at Dawn News. "The impression that we create chaos in society is not true," said Hussain. "In Pakistan people have utmost faith in two institutions -- judiciary and media. Our people pin their hopes on us and we do whatever we can to make ours a better society," said Hussain.

Pakistan's leader returns home amid scandal

   by Hasan Mansoor

   KARACHI, Dec 19, 2011 (AFP) - Pakistan's beleaguered President Asif Ali Zardari returned suddenly on Monday from two weeks of medical treatment abroad, seeking to dispel rumours that scandal and illness could force him from office.

   He returned, under the cover of darkness on a chartered plane, as the Supreme Court decided whether to order an inquiry into allegations that one of his aides sought American help in limiting the power of the military.
   The head of the army, General Ashfaq Kayani, last week called for an investigation into a memo allegedly written because Zardari feared he could be ousted in a coup after a covert US raid killed Osama bin Laden on May 2.
   Kayani said the memo had impacted national security. The scandal has inflamed tensions between Zardari's weak government and the military, which has staged four coups in Pakistan and remains the chief arbiter of power.
   But aides denied Monday that Zardari's return had anything to do with the Supreme Court, saying he would meet leaders from his Pakistan People's Party in Karachi for business as usual before returning to the capital Islamabad.
   "The doctors told him he was fit to travel... and he left for Pakistan. There is no other reason for this," a senior member of the party told AFP.
   "The speculation and controversies are over. He is here and will face all controversies," added Qamar Zaman Kaira, a leader in Pakistan's main ruling party.
   Zardari will attend the fourth anniversary commemorations for the assassination of his wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, on December 27 and then return to the capital, spokesman Aijaz Durrani said.
   The 56-year-old president flew to Dubai on December 6 and was kept in the American Hospital until December 14 for an illness that has not been officially disclosed, but which aides have likened to a "mini stroke".
   His sudden departure, at a time of the developing scandal and a major crisis in relations with Washington over NATO's killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26, fanned frenzied speculation that he may resign.
   On Monday, the Supreme Court met to examine a petition from the political opposition demanding to know who was responsible for the May 10 memo sent to then US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.
   American businessman Mansoor Ijaz has claimed that Zardari feared the military might overthrow his government and accused Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, of crafting the memo with Zardari's support.
   Haqqani, who was forced to resign last month, denied any involvement but he has already been restricted from leaving Pakistan.
   Retired general Talat Masood said that by returning, Zardari sent a message that he was unconcerned by the court proceedings, but that it was clear the military was expanding its influence at the expense of the government.
   "But this does not mean that the military does not understand its own limitations. It knows it cannot possibly dislocate or displace a civilian, constitutionally elected government and replace it," Masood told AFP.