It’s A Deterrent

By Amir Zia

Monthly Newsline

January 2015

Capital punishment must not be seen, or come into force, as a mere reaction and act of vengeance for the Peshawar tragedy. It should be part and parcel of a well thought out strategy to combat all heinous crimes and terrorism, towards which the two successive governments have so far shown criminal negligence. There is no doubt that the death penalty is not to be taken lightly, but the question comes down to whether the state is ready to stand by the victims and their families or is it skewed in favour of the criminals and terrorists. The choice could never be clearer

The December 16 massacre of schoolchildren at the Army Public School in Peshawar finally forced the government to partially lift the moratorium on the death penalty. Imposed by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government in 2008, the moratorium gave relief to convicts involved in heinous crimes such as terrorism, murder, child abuse, kidnapping for ransom and drug peddling.

The Sharif government’s decision to scrap the ban on the hanging of convicts involved in terrorism came more as a knee-jerk reaction to ward off the intense public grief and anger over the barbarity in Peshawar, rather than a well thought out strategy aimed at removing the dichotomy in the country’s legal system that allows courts to hand down death sentences on 27 different counts, but the executive arm of the state to block their implementation in an open breach of the Constitution.

Although this partial lifting of the ban on the death penalty remains a small welcome step in the right direction, it has failed to address the fundamental contradiction in which the executive still appears reluctant to uphold the Constitution and facilitate the dispensation of justice as required by the law of the land. By continuing with the moratorium on the death penalty – on cases other than terror convictions – the government has again benefited the criminals at the cost of the victims and their families.

We still see a small minority, comprising mainly so-called liberals and human rights activists, campaigning against the execution of terrorists and challenging the very concept of capital punishment, without taking into account the objective conditions of Pakistan where terrorism, crime and lawlessness remain endemic.

They cite examples of the European Union and scores of other countries which have abolished the capital punishment. However, they fail to mention that none of these countries have witnessed nearly 60,000 people, including thousands of soldiers and officers, martyred in relentless terror attacks since 2002, when the Pakistani security establishment abandoned its support for the Afghan Taliban and tried to clamp down on non-state actors using our country to foment violence and terrorism both here and abroad.

These campaigners also ignore religiously-motivated targeted killings,  and the soaring crime rate including murders, kidnapping for ransom and child-abuse cases in their zeal to take a ‘politically correct’ position favoured by their donors and the European Union, which is once again pressing Pakistan to halt the execution of terrorists.

They also discount the fact that those countries which have abolished the death penalty remain far ahead of Pakistan in terms of socio-economic development and education. None of them face the kind of internal existential security challenges, instability and turmoil that Pakistan is confronted with, where the writ of the state remains weak and its legitimacy is challenged by various militant extremist and nationalist groups.

Yet, this small section of anti-death penalty campaigners manage to confuse the issue – thanks to their dominance in the English-language press where a handful of writers, journalists and lawyers connected with various NGOs keep pushing an agenda that stands in stark contrast to Pakistan’s reality. In doing this, they are either demonstrating blatant intellectual dishonesty or their ignorance and lack of understanding. But despite their well-oiled propaganda machine both in the traditional and the new media, these rights groups form only a tiny part of the larger problem that stems mainly from the conduct, lack of vision and flawed policies of the two successive civilian governments regarding this vital issue.

If the former PPP and the present Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) governments were sincere in their intent to abolish the death penalty, they should have amended the Constitution. However, they could not take this path mainly because of three factors: fear of a backlash from the country’s religious forces which see any such step as violating the tenets of Islam; opposition from the country’s top judges in the high courts, Supreme Court and the security establishment; and the overwhelming public support for capital punishment in our society. Therefore, these two successive governments took the easy course of banning executions through an executive order that created legal and constitutional complications.

In Pakistan’s context, capital punishment can play a vital role in acting as a deterrent to crime and terrorism and send a strong message that the state stands committed to justice. This would be the first step in combating the twin ghosts of terrorism and extremism. Here, no sane mind is denying the importance and need of mid-to long-term policies aimed at socio-economic development, the creation of more employment opportunities and reforms in the education system, particularly seminaries. But the short-term measures of quickly bringing perpetrators of atrocious crimes and terrorism to justice remain as important as long-term policies.

Many critics of capital punishment point to flaws in the country’s policing, prosecution and judicial system which, in their view, can result in the hanging of an innocent. But this criticism holds little ground given the fact that our courts, especially the superior courts, remain extra-vigilant in handing down the death sentence. The main complaint of the law enforcement agencies is that our judicial system acquits many of the hardened criminals and terrorists rather than convicts them. Our legal system allows multiple appeals at every stage of the trial and when it comes to handing down the death sentence, our honourable judges have a tradition of showing restraint.

Nevertheless, reforms in the judicial system remain the need of the hour. Currently, most cases drag on from grandfather to grandson. This delay in the dispensation of justice is the greatest injustice. The government needs to provide more resources to increase the number of judges at every level. It should also take steps to provide security to judges, prosecutors and witnesses, especially in terrorism-related cases.

There also remains a need for necessary changes in the laws to set up special courts for the speedy trial of terrorists. The government, opposition parties, religious scholars and clerics, as well as the leaders of public opinion, must not allow the European Union to dictate terms or criminal rights campaigners to dilute or confuse the issue. Pakistan is at war. Steps need to be taken on a war-footing to defeat the  enemy within. There is no room for wavering. The terrorists must be confronted with the resolute might of the state and the law.

Additionally, the government must review the Qisas and Diyat laws which are grossly misused by the rich and powerful to extract pardons from the families of the victims in routine murder cases and even in the so-called honour killings. To begin with, the state should be the aggrieved party in all the honour killing cases and must ensure that any man, who ordered the killing of his daughter, wife, mother or sister, is not allowed to pardon any blood relation who executed the murder.

Capital punishment must not be seen, or come into force, as a mere reaction and act of vengeance for the Peshawar tragedy. It should be part and parcel of a well thought out strategy to combat all heinous crimes and terrorism, towards which the two successive governments have so far shown criminal negligence. There is no doubt that the death penalty is not to be taken lightly, but the question comes down to whether the state is ready to stand by the victims and their families or is it skewed in favour of the criminals and terrorists. The choice could never be clearer.

Defending Our Schools

Amir Zia

The News

Monday, January 12, 2014

The state, its institutions and the people have every right to defend the future of Pakistan. No political system, no international convention, no foreign pressure and no bleating dissenting voices are worth more than the country.

When many of the schools in Pakistan will reopen after the winter vacations – on January 12 or after – the foremost concern for students, their parents, teachers and many Pakistanis will be safety at the campuses. 

Many school managements are raising the boundary walls of their premises, putting up barbed wires, hiring more guards and struggling with the implementation of security plans in post-December 16 Pakistan in which even schoolchildren are seen as a ‘legitimate target’ by a tiny minority of extremists that believes the game having no rules.

For many of the primary level schoolchildren perhaps it is even difficult to comprehend that they too are in the line of fire. How can children as young as six or seven or 10 or 12 even realise that there are men, claiming to be ‘holy warriors’, waiting for an opportunity to strike them with bullets and bombs. Even when writing these words or the mere thought that such a barbarity remains in the realm of possibility in our Islamic Republic makes a normal and sane human being shudder with sheer horror.

A large number of secondary-level teenage boys and girls too perhaps cannot fathom the enormity of the lurking danger. Those who understand the gravity have muted questions in their eyes. And their elders – like you and me, or the high and mighty government officials, or the intellectuals and the analysts – have no sensible answers to calm their nerves. We cannot lie to our children that their fears are misplaced or exaggerated. We cannot assure them that they will be safe in their schools. We cannot promise them that matters will be back to normal soon. Yes, many of us can take a bullet ourselves for our children, but cannot provide them a safe, secure and carefree environment to study and play – as we once did in this very country not very long ago. We are so helpless.

January 2015 has dawned with a scary realisation that Pakistan has transformed into a more dangerous, more cruel and treacherous country than it was say even a year ago. In January 2014, we had perhaps reconciled and learnt to live with the fact that school buildings being blown up remains a norm in some volatile parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Fata.

We all knew that Al-Qaeda-inspired extremists damaged or destroyed hundreds of schools in KP and Fata. According to various conflict monitoring groups and official figures, more than 1,000 schools have been partially damaged or destroyed from 2007 to date.
However, children specifically were not the target, barring a few incidents including the October 9, 2012 attack, in which Malala Yousafzai and her two friends were wounded in Swat or the January 6, 2014 attempted suicide attack at a government school in Hangu which was foiled by 17-year-old Aitzaz Hassan at the cost of his live. 

Such attacks jolted Pakistan. Many of us shared the pain and anguish of these atrocities. In our words and silent prayers we stood by the victims. Yet for the majority of us all this tragic action had been unfolding ‘somewhere else’ – not close to our own homes and schools where our children go.

We had all learned to live, stay partially concerned or stand totally indifferent to the string of suicide attacks on our places of worship, markets, hotels and sensitive defence and government installations that have claimed more than 60,000 lives since early 2002. The routine religiously and politically motivated targeted killings do shock us, but perhaps nothing more.

However, the December 16 attack at the Peshawar Army Public School has changed all that. The extremists have drastically lowered the bar and the rules of engagement. Even by government reports, the danger and threat perception have increased manifold. 

Schools are no heavily guarded cantonment areas or the homes and workplaces of our ruling elite, who travel with gunmen and long security convoys. Schools are soft, easy targets – available in every major city and town. Some of the private or army-run schools and colleges can be in more danger than others. Providing fool-proof security to every educational institution is next to impossible, despite walls being raised and barbed wires, barricades and guards being placed all around.

In Karachi alone, there are more than 6,000 private and 400-plus government schools. No master security plan can offer them a perfect cover against an elusive enemy, who picks his own timing and target for an attack. It is a nightmarish challenge for any country that can place some select institutions higher on its sensitive list as potential targets. 

However, that does not mean that whatever security arrangements are possible should not be made with public mobilisation and support. But the key to success remains more in taking on the extremists aggressively rather than such defensive arrangements. For this, the ongoing military operation, Zarb-e-Azb, is the solution. The military leadership appears determined that there will be no letup in taking on the extremists. That is the only solution the state has when dealing with hardened extremists and terrorists in the near to mid-term.

As long-term measures, the importance of neutralising and reforming the breeding grounds of the extremist mindset, especially reforming seminaries and squeezing political, financial and social space for extremist operatives should remain high on the priority list.

This is where the role of civilian leaders is of paramount importance. Their vision in defeating the extremist ideology and resolve to back the armed forces will decide the outcome of this conflict.

The civilian leadership has taken a step in the right direction by amending the constitution, paving the way for the establishment of the military courts. When they have failed all these years to overhaul the country’s dysfunctional judicial system, which allowed the majority of terrorists to go scot-free then there was no alternative other than to take extraordinary measures for these extraordinary times.

The way our judges of the anti-terrorist and other courts were being threatened, witnesses silenced and prosecutors targeted, military courts remain the only answer to dispense justice to those waging war against the state. The low conviction rate of terrorists, and their acquittals, should not be a secret to those senators and lawmakers who were seen shedding crocodile’s tears for the future of democracy while voting for the 21st constitutional amendment. They seem also to be unaware of the fact that more than 70 percent of the acquitted terrorists rejoin their respective groups and resume their anti-state activities. And even anti-terrorists courts, which are required to decide the cases within seven days, fail to do so for months and even years because each judge is burdened with hundreds of cases as well as administrative workload.

The theatrics of one of the PPP senators on the issue of military courts can give him two minutes of proverbial fame on 24/7 news channels, but will fail to address the existentialist challenge faced by today’s Pakistan. This senator should have resigned rather than voting ‘yes’ for the amendment to keep his conscience at peace.

Similarly, the hue and cry raised by human rights and other vested interest groups against the partial resumption of death penalty for terror convicts after a criminal gap of six years only appears to be aimed at benefiting killers at the cost of victims and their families and winning laurels from the European Union and their foreign donors. These so-called liberals are out of sync from Pakistan’s objective realities.

An internal war has been imposed on Pakistan by an enemy that is even targeting our children. 

The state, its institutions and the people have every right to defend the future of Pakistan. No political system, no international convention, no foreign pressure and no bleating dissenting voices are worth more than the country. We have no choice but to fight and win this war.

Fight Or Perish

Amir Zia

The News 

Monday, December 29, 2014

Pakistani armed forces and its people have all the capacity and ability to root out terrorism and extremism from its soil, but all that requires long-term, unwavering commitment. Let’s prepare ourselves for a prolonged mid- to low-intensity conflict. The only choice we have is to fight or perish

The December 16 Peshawar tragedy seems to have finally stirred the country’s top civilian leaders from their long, deep slumber. All of a sudden, it has dawned on them that religious extremism and terrorism pose the biggest existentialist internal threat to Pakistan. 

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his top aides finally seem to have corrected their course. From being passionate proponents of ‘peace talks’ with the local Taliban not so long ago, they are now saying that Pakistan won’t survive if terrorists are not wiped out. Many committed Taliban apologists, from Imran Khan and his PTI to the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl Group), have been quick to state that they stand united to defeat the scourge of terrorism, which has claimed nearly 60,000 lives of both civilians and armed forces personnel since early 2002.

This newfound national consensus among the mainstream political players, including the PPP, the MQM and the ANP, is indeed a big step forward in Pakistan’s protracted war against terrorism. Our ever-bickering, squabbling politicians finally managed to put their act together against the backdrop of a swift and resolute response to the Peshawar massacre from the military leadership. 

Army Chief General Raheel Sharif cut short his Kabul visit and returned home to spearhead and intensify the anti-terror campaign following the Peshawar massacre. As the armed forces started hitting back at local and foreign militants both through ground and air strikes within hours of the Peshawar incident, the civilian leaders were also nudged into action – albeit in a reactive mood.

They partially lifted the controversial and unconstitutional moratorium on the death penalty, at least for terror convicts, after a gap of six long years. The revival of the death penalty has long been a pending demand of the security forces. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that the first two terror convicts sent to the gallows were the ones condemned by a military tribunal.

Decisions such as setting up special military-led courts to try hardened terrorists, strengthening the National Counter-Terrorism Authority, banning hate literature and many other steps to counter the challenge of extremism and terrorism – as announced by Prime Minister Sharif on December 24 following a marathon meeting with the representatives of political parties and the military leadership – have also been long overdue. 

But the civilian leaders agreed to take these necessary and unavoidable steps only after prodding from the military establishment and amidst the unprecedented national grief and anger over the Peshawar barbarity. The government had been dragging its feet on these vital issues in exactly the same manner as it did in taking ownership of Operation Zarb-e-Azb – at least on paper – until it was coaxed in doing so by the military leadership.

At that time, it was the atrocious attack at the old Karachi Airport which finally led to the launch of Operation Zarb-e-Azb on June 15. Prior to that, the civilian leaders had been wasting precious time by holding so-called ‘peace talks’ with the TTP.

This wavering and lack of initiative by the civilian leadership raise serious doubts about its commitment, will and vision in taking on and defeating the challenge posed by all sorts of violent local and foreign non-state actors. So far, it has come up only with a timid response to every brutality and crime committed against the people of Pakistan by the various bands of terrorists rather than taking the ideological leadership of this conflict.

This tragedy of delay has cost the nation dearly. On the one hand, it provided political space to militants to operate relatively freely and on the other created an unnecessary wedge and lack of trust between the civil and military institutions. Whole-hearted support, which should have come long ago from the two successive civilian governments, was wanting all these years.

The newfound aggression in the tone of Prime Minister Sharif against extremists and terrorists is indeed a welcome development. But in the past too, the civilian leaders have made big promises and tall claims, but failed to match their words with actions.

The real challenge is not the announcement of new policies and planned steps, but their implementation and sustainability. And on both counts, Pakistani governments have a dismal record. We have seen so many times in the past that in the heat of the moment announcements are made, but they are abandoned once the emotional state is over and politicians realise its subsequent cost – which in this case means that they too would become a legitimate target of the militants as that of the armed forces and civilians.

As a result, successive governments have remained more in a fire-fighting mood and going for insignificant relief measures rather than opting for hard choices which requires bold, but painful short-term measures as well as long-term structural reforms.

To begin with, while the security forces are taking on the militants from the rugged mountains in the north to our densely populated cities and towns, producing a counter ideological narrative to defeat the extremist mindset remains the responsibility of the civilian leadership. In the short-term, it entails forcefully countering the propaganda of the religious extremists, who distort the message of Islam for their narrow political ends. In the mid- to long-term it requires reforms in the education system, especially seminaries, rehabilitation initiatives for second and third tier militants and socio-economic uplift measures, particularly in conflict areas.

Secondly, setting up of special military courts for a two-year period through a constitutional amendment may be the short-term answer to the existing dysfunctional prosecution and judicial system, which allows militants to escape justice through many of its loopholes, but the long-term solution is still sweeping reforms and capacity building of our existing judicial system. That means increasing the number of judges at every level as well as modernising the investigation and prosecution systems. It also requires providing protection to witnesses, prosecutors and judges.

Thirdly, cracking down on extremist clerics is definitely a must-do-task in the immediate context, but in the mid- to long-term there is a need for a comprehensive strategy to free our mosques of hard-line, sectarian clerics to ensure that they emerge as centres of harmony, inter-sect and inter-faith tolerance and peace in our society.

Fourthly, the role of military and paramilitary troops in countering the internal challenge remains of paramount importance, but the long-term solution to fight crime and militancy requires an efficient police force. For this, our civilian rulers must ensure police reforms, which give the force operational and organisational autonomy and free it from political interference.

Fifthly, our political parties need to break their nexus with crime mafias and terror groups. This has been a bane in our urban centres – particularly Karachi.

Since Pakistan abandoned its support to the Afghan Taliban in 2002, the establishment has gradually moved away from its policy of supporting various militants groups, which has resulted in blowback and relentless terrorist attacks in the country. However, the armed forces have scored major victories against these terror groups which were bent upon using Pakistani territory to foment violence both here and abroad. The indiscriminate operation against all the militants targeting Pakistani security forces, sensitive defence installations and civilians is the key to rooting out terrorism from our soil. Operation Zarb-e-Azb articulates this paradigm shift in Pakistan’s security policy, which started shaping up since the days of the last military-led government.

The most important aspect of defeating the twin ghost of extremism and terrorism is that the military and civil leadership work together and keep the nation united for this cause. Today, the nation stands united in its support to the armed forces in confronting this challenge, but going forward there will be a greater need to keep this unanimity intact. Pakistani armed forces and its people have all the capacity and ability to root out terrorism and extremism from its soil, but all that requires long-term, unwavering commitment. Let’s prepare ourselves for a prolonged mid- to low-intensity conflict. The only choice we have is to fight or perish.