India’s Fake News Factory

By Amir Zia
Monthly Hilal Magazine
November 2021

If on the one hand, India’s Fake News Factory is targeting Pakistan, on the other it is gunning for the religious minorities, especially Muslims, living within the boundaries of this Hindu-majority state, as well as the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Fake news being produced and disseminated on a mass-scale is now a global challenge, but the infamy of running such a racket at the state level, and that too in the most-crude, blatant and into your face style goes to the much-touted world’s largest democracy – India.
One would have thought that after the exposure of ‘India’s Fake News Factory’ by the EU DisinfoLab in December 2020, there would at least be a brief halt in the production of bogus content by the extremist Hindu state or some change in tactics. However, the operation of India’s “Fake News Factory” continues uninterrupted and unhindered, fanning hate, inciting violence and terrorism, and attempting to advance Indian interests by hook or by crook as the global power centers look the other way.
The EU DisinfoLab exposé – dubbed as Indian Chronicles – had uncovered an enormous fake news operation being run by India from Brussels and Geneva that produced and circulated content mainly targeting Pakistan. It focused on international institutions to advance Indian objectives through a web of resurrected dead media, dead think-tanks and NGOs that spread false content against Pakistan, according to the EU DisinfoLab.
Now, almost one year down the road, if on the one hand, India’s Fake News Factory is targeting Pakistan, on the other it is gunning for the religious minorities, especially Muslims, living within the boundaries of this Hindu-majority state, as well as the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Indeed, the agenda of the extremist Hindu rulers is divisive, violent and hegemonic both within India, its occupied territories and the region.
Pakistani authorities have significant evidence of as to how Twitter and Facebook accounts operating from India created trends, which fomented sectarian, religious and ethnic hate with the sole aim to destabilize Pakistan. Fake news and other content was created and uploaded on shady websites specifically meant for Pakistan.

Before the Afghan Taliban took over Kabul in August this year, Indians also used Afghanistan to wage Twitter and Facebook assaults on Pakistan. A handful of Pakistan’s liberals settled in Western countries and some fringe elements within the country echoed those trends originating from India and Afghanistan either by design or default.
For example, in October 2021, Indian-managed or sponsored accounts created a #SanctionPakistan trend on Twitter in which Pakistan was held responsible for the victory of the Afghan Taliban, with fabricated stories made against Pakistan Armed Forces and spy agencies. Even India’s mainstream media joined this chorus as its anchorpersons and bands of analysts and commentators echoed a similar line in angry and frenzied voices.
In September, barely a month after the Afghan Taliban’s march into Kabul, one of India’s far-right and warmonger anchorpersons working for the pro-government news channel, Republic TV, claimed that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was operating from the fifth floor of Serena Hotel in Kabul. His concocted story claimed that the ISI officers were helping Taliban in capturing the Panjshir Valley. But, much to the dismay and embarrassment of the anchorperson, Kabul’s Serena Hotel turned out to only have two floors.
The same channel, along with a UK-based Afghan channel, Hasti TV, came out with a bizarre story that Pakistan Air Force (PAF) pounded Panjshir Valley to help Taliban seize it. Soon afterwards, other mainstream Indian channels, including Zee TV and Time Now, also started showing footage of the alleged airstrike which was in fact obtained from a video game.
India Today, considered a serious media outlet, aired a clip of an American F-15 calling it the "first visuals of a fighter jet, allegedly belonging to Pakistan, hovering over Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan." The same channel also showed a photograph claiming that it was a Pakistani F-16, which was shot down. But a U.S. website, military.com, busted this claim by sharing factual information that the photo was actually from an accident of a U.S. F-16 that crash-landed during a training flight near the Arizona-California border on April 24, 2018.
The abrupt cancellation of New Zealand’s cricket team’s recent Pakistan tour was also because of fake information being disseminated from India. 
One can quote example after example of such fake stories churned out by mainstream and new media outlets operating from India and their fronts and shells in various parts of the world. The production and sharing of fake content aimed at Pakistan is a sustained and organised effort rather than an occasional exercise.
Pakistani officials have already raised a red flag over the way social media accounts from India tried to spark sectarian tension and violence ahead and during the Islamic months of Muharram and Ramadan. These conspiracies were foiled by the Pakistani authorities before they could fully unroll and inflict harm to the country.
Similarly, it is not just the sectarian and religious card which the Indians try to use in an attempt to destabilize Pakistan, but they also remain focused on triggering provincial and ethnic discord through fake news and content. On this front, Pakistan’s biggest city and financial hub, Karachi as well as the erstwhile tribal areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan province remain the key targets.
Indeed, disinformation has emerged as the latest form of state-sponsored violence from India. 
Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, mainly ignore the avalanche of fake news generated from India because of their business interests. A recent research report based on the classified documents called the Facebook Papers, obtained by several U.S. publications, shows that this social media platform remains unable to control fake news, hate speech and inflammatory content, including celebration of violence coming out of India – its biggest market. 
The most worrying aspect is that both Twitter and Facebook managements know that their algorithms encourage users to watch violent videos, hate speeches and conspiracy theories aimed at inciting violence both within India and abroad. And all this is being done because of monetary considerations. 
The international community, especially the Western capitals, must connect the dots to find how fake news/content breeds terrorism and violence both within India and the region, particularly Pakistan. In many ways, the Fake News Factory of India and its operations remain as lethal, if not more, as that of terror financing.
The Hindutva ideology of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remains the main force behind India's fake content operations, which are being carried out with two objectives. The first is to establish Indian hegemony in the region, for which Pakistan is the main target. The second objective is to promote Hinduism within India by squeezing the space for religious minorities, particularly Indian Muslims.
Here again, propaganda is the first weapon of choice of the chauvinistic arm-chair Hindu warriors belonging to BJP or its allied extremists, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), that target Muslims and incite the masses against them by disseminating half-truths or outright lies. These Indian state-sponsored extremists use technologies to generate fake content and manage to ensure centralized control in order to spread disinformation. This disinformation emitting from the social media platforms and shadowy news websites is then legitimized by India’s mainstream media and the BJP and RSS leaders. 
Love jihad is one such theme – propagated both by the mainstream Indian press and social media – in which Muslim men are being accused of marrying Hindu women in a bid to expand their population. This propaganda has resulted in the victimization and even killings of countless Muslim men. 
Then, slaughtering of cows by Muslims is another storyline which sells like hotcakes among many Hindus. This has resulted in public lynching and murder of dozens of Muslims and manhandling and beatings of countless others.
The crackdown against Muslims, particularly in Bengal, in the name of curbing illegal immigration is yet another example in which India’s mainstream and social media has been operating as a vanguard to advance the extremist Hindutva agenda. Poverty-stricken Muslim families are being harassed, rounded-up, forced to leave their shanty homes, beaten and even killed in the name of operations against illegal immigrants.
The Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir is another heart-wrenching story where India’s Fake News Factory is working 24/7 not just to cover up the crimes of Indian security forces against Kashmiri Muslims, but also to cheer them on for all the atrocities and human rights abuses. As the extremist Modi-led government is trying to orchestrate demographic changes in this Muslim-majority state, the hostile Indian media are distorting facts and working overtime to paint the victims as troublemakers and terrorists.
While most of the world capitals have turned a blind eye towards these monstrous acts by India, some international non-governmental organisations working on media and human rights have been trying to expose the world’s biggest Fake News Factory and its human rights abuses. However, they have yet to give context that this whole state-sponsored and promoted fake news operation is responsible for fanning violence and terrorism within and outside India as well as threatening the regional peace and stability.
This is also intensifying polarization within India and sharpening as well as widening its fissures which remain detrimental even for this Hindu-majority state itself.
Pakistani authorities and state institutions, as well as its private media outlets, must work in tandem to expose India’s Fake News Factory at the international level and continue its efforts on a war footing to counter the propaganda and false content generated from its eastern border. 
In the 21^st Century, fighting the enemy on the media front also falls in the ambit of national security. Yes, before the fighter aircraft, warships, tanks, missiles and soldiers move, the words would go to the battlefield first and may decide the outcome of a conflict even before the first shot gets fired.

The writer is an eminent journalist who regularly contributes for print and electronic media. E-mail: amir.zia@gmail.com, Twitter: @AmirZia1

 

Little By Little

Amir Zia

May 12, 2014

The News

We see confusion, polarisation and conflict escalating in the society, but the state appears unable to resolve these contradictions... Perhaps for the ruling elite of Pakistan, the party is not yet over

Slowly but surely the violent non-state actors are pushing Pakistan towards the brink. Little by little we are witnessing the state’s writ being eroded. Gradually Pakistani society’s descend into lawlessness is gaining momentum. And step by step Pakistan’s status as an internationally pariah state is being paved and cemented.

Our rulers may not agree with this cheerless account of today’s Pakistan. They may still think that they hold all the cards. They may still believe that they remain firmly in control. But living in self-denial and a make-believe world – no matter how grand – can’t stop Pakistan’s one-way backward march.

The reality is grim and the signs of the times ominous, underlining the weakening of the state authority. Yet, our lords and masters do not seem to see the writing on the wall.

The latest drag for the state has come in the form of the spurt in cases of the polio virus – thanks to our so-called holy warriors who declare the vaccination drive against this crippling disease a ‘western conspiracy’ to make our future generations infertile.

As a result, the goal of a polio-free Pakistan – which once appeared within reach in 1999-00 – now seems unattainable. Fourteen years down the road, as Sharif completes the first year of his third term in power, Pakistan is one of the only three countries – along with Syria and Cameroon – that threaten the world by exporting this virus to other countries.

UN efforts to eradicate polio globally by 2018 are being torpedoed mainly because of our Islamic republic’s inability to carry out effective vaccination drives in many parts of its territory – especially in the troubled tribal region. The outcome of this failure is manifested through 59 new polio cases so far this year in Pakistan out of the total 74 in all the 10 polio-affected countries. 

Out of the 59 local polio cases, 46 have been reported in the tribal belt where despite frequent appeals by both government and non-government quarters, the militants do not allow health workers to administer polio drops to children age five years and below. The Afghan Taliban militants are better in a sense as they facilitate the anti-polio campaign by holding temporary ceasefires. 

No wonder the WHO has now recommended polio vaccination a must for all Pakistanis travelling abroad. What does that mean for the country? It is not just simply a new obstacle for Pakistani travellers, but another triumph for the pro-Al-Qaeda local militants against the backdrop of the civil and military leadership’s near policy-paralysis on how to deal with the twin scourge of terrorism and extremism. It is another symbolic blow to this struggling state, which faces the greatest internal threat in its recent history.

The best our rulers have offered so far against this internal challenge remains half-hearted, incomplete reactive operations against militants and the self-defeating exercise of holding talks with them. There appears to be no roadmap for victory despite the immense sacrifices of Pakistani soldiers. There seems to be no urgency to end the prolonged conflict, which should have been the top item on the government’s agenda.

For all the different shades and colours of extremists, including the Al-Qaeda inspired militants, the triumph on the poliovirus front is not the first one against the Pakistani state. They have been expanding their influence and stifling the state called Pakistan in a gradual manner. For any country, this endless state of conflict is the worst case scenario as it results in fatigue and draining out of its resources. Our rulers seem oblivious to this age-old code of war and peace in politics.

The extremists, who have kept the initiative in this protracted conflict, have scored one symbolic psychological victory after the other as successive governments continued to debate and discuss whether to fight or not to fight.

The militants successfully banished international sports from Pakistan with the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team as our decision-makers tried to make a distinction between the ‘good and bad’ militants. The precarious state of security forced many western diplomatic missions to scale down operations and declare Pakistan a hardship posting but our successive rulers gloated over their ‘success’ of bringing in foreign aid, grants and loans – as they are doing now. 

Security concerns forced most foreign investors and businesspeople to stop visiting Pakistan, but our decision-makers claimed they had been reviving the economy. Footprints of almost every major incident of global terrorism led to Pakistan, but our politicians and decision-makers saw ‘a foreign hand’ behind many of our ills. Pakistan’s worst era of lawlessness and bloodletting at the hands of terrorists and extremists consumed thousands of lives, but our political parties kept arguing over whose war Pakistan has been fighting.

After sacrificing more than 4,000 soldiers in the northern tribal belt alone, Pakistani leaders still do not know the real enemy and remain undecided whether to fight or to talk.

While a segment of violent non-state actors and their foreign militant allies have taken on the state, creating their terrorist safe havens on Pakistani soil, many other extremists groups are waging their unholy wars against members of ‘rival’ sects or dissident voices within society.

The state and its institutions seem powerless as extremists commit one atrocity after another. It is the terrorists who are on the charge, while the ones who should be upholding the law remain on the defensive. 

Killing anyone by exploiting the sacred name of Islam is now easy. The government is surely to turn a blind eye towards the organised gangs of militants rather than provide justice to the victims and their families. It is an abject surrender by the state and its institutions.

The recent assassination of human rights activist Rashid Rehman in Multan is one more addition to the ever-growing list of victims killed because of their views. He was apparently killed for pleading the case of a man accused of blasphemy. His murder failed to create ripples in the society, barring a small vocal section of civil society members – many of whom themselves remain in the line of fire.

In the same long list of victims, we also have governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer, who was killed by his own police guard because he too spoke about a controversial blasphemy case. The Pakistani state remains unable to prosecute his assassin in what is an open-and-shut case because of the fear of an organised minority. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

We see confusion, polarisation and conflict escalating in the society, but the state appears unable to resolve these contradictions, which is vital for its own survival.

Perhaps for the ruling elite of Pakistan, the party is not yet over. There is still some opportunity to perpetuate rule and make money, but the state called Pakistan is being hollowed out bit by bit, little by little. 

There appears to be no political force in the ring that can turn the tide as gangs and bands of militants, terrorists and criminals hold sway. Tough times never seem to be over in the land called Pakistan.

 

Battle Of Narratives

By Amir Zia
Monday, November 18, 2013
The News

Today, the choice for the Jamaat-e-Islami and all the other mainstream religious parties is either to stick to their old paradigm of constitutional politics or tread the path on which the more radicalised, pan-Islamist militant groups are trying to pull the overall movement for Islamic renaissance and revival. 

 
When Syed Munawar Hasan, the Jamaat-e-Islami ameer, declared one of Pakistan’s most wanted terrorist kingpin a martyr and raised doubts about the sacrifices of our soldiers fighting such elements, he articulated what many radical Islamists had wanted to hear from a mainstream religious party leader for a long, long time.
The statement should be seen in the context of the centuries-old debate among Islamic scholars on whether fighting seemingly unjust and tyrannical Muslim rulers is justified. These theological differences are confined not just between Sunni-Shia scholars, but also among various Sunni schools of thought.
The bitter division over this issue, indeed, defines today’s conflict within many Muslim societies. In fact, these differences have become more explosive in Pakistan due to its proximity with war-ravaged Afghanistan, and the state’s past policy of arming and patronising various shades of Islamic militants as its proxies in the region. This policy backfired as many militants began to follow the Al-Qaeda-inspired pan-Islamist agenda and turned the guns on their former handlers when the state tried to set a new policy direction following the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist strikes on the United States. 
Pakistan’s efforts to stop the use of its territory for fomenting terrorism around the world resulted in a civil-war like situation, which has consumed thousands of lives since early 2002 and transformed this nuclear-armed Muslim nation as one of the most dangerous and unstable countries of the world. 
With successive governments giving confused signals in this conflict – sometimes trying to wage a selective fight and at others to strike deals with militants – it should not come as a surprise that the extremists and militants have acquired an upper hand in dictating the narrative and setting the rules of engagement.
There are passionate arguments based on Islamic theology to justify jihad (holy war) by individuals or groups of individuals (read non-state actors) if rulers fail to act when Muslim territories or population get attacked by ‘infidel forces’. The entire narrative of Al-Qaeda and other Islamic militant groups is based on this hypothesis. 
The proponents of this stance believe that those Muslim rulers – in our case they allege it’s the Pakistani state – who facilitate the invading forces remain a just target. 
This narrative also calls for fighting those Muslim rulers who do not adhere to Islamic teachings, and justifies the use of force for enforcement of Shariah. The other set of Islamic scholars advocate moderation and oppose any action that brings anarchy and civil war in a Muslim state. They advocate tolerating even a tyrannical ruler to prevent discord among Muslims and aim to Islamise society through painstaking preaching and reforms. They consider it the government’s prerogative to declare holy war in a Muslim state like Pakistan. These scholars forbid attacking Pakistani security forces and killing civilians – be they Muslim or non-Muslim. They also consider acts of terrorism, including suicide bombings, against the spirit of jihad.
Against this backdrop, it is no wonder that the Jamaat-e-Islami ameer’s statement triggered such a heated debate and sharpened polarisation on the issue of religiously-motivated militancy in the country. And it is not just liberal parties, the government and the country’s mighty military establishment that have slammed the Jamaat leader. Many major religious groups also see Hasan’s statement, supporting the Al-Qaeda-linked militants, as highly offensive and against Islamic teachings.
But Hasan has many supporters as well. Foremost among them are the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and similar militant and hard-line groups, which appear more effective in dictating narrative because of their single-minded efforts and uncompromising attitude. The Jamaat-e-Islami also appears to stand solidly behind its leader, underlining the fact that the ameer’s statement should neither be considered a slip of tongue nor mere rhetoric. It is a well thought-out position, though made public in such a blunt manner for the first time only now. 
However, the Jamaat-e-Islami and its rank and file have been practically committed to this stance since Pakistan officially abandoned support to the Afghan Taliban in late 2001 and joined the US-led war against terrorism. 
If the Jamaat-e-Islami leaders consistently opposed Pakistani security forces’ efforts against Al-Qaeda and its inspired local militants all these years, many members of this religio-political party sheltered foreign militants in their individual capacity. Several disgruntled former members of the Jamaat-e-Islami and its affiliate students’ wing, Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, even indulged in high-profile terrorist attacks.
From the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – one of the masterminds of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the US – at the house of a leading Jamaat-e-Islami’s women-wing member in March 2003 in Rawalpindi to those Al-Qaeda members apprehended in Karachi hiding at the residences of two other women members of this party, there is a long list of senior JI workers who facilitated and protected foreign militants across Pakistan.
Similarly, several former Jamaat-e-Islami members joined various extremist groups or formed their own for terrorism. One of the most prominent among them was Jandullah, which attacked the motorcade of Corps Commander Karachi in 2004. Its founder Atta-ur Rehman was a former member of the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, while two other prominent members – Dr Arshad Wahed and Dr Akmal Waheed – were leading figures of the Jamaat-e-Islami’s affiliated doctors’ association. 
On acquittal in this case, Arshad shifted to Wana where he was killed in a US drone attack in March 2008. His brother Akmal, who also was acquitted, was rearrested, but this time in Abu Dhabi for his alleged Al-Qaeda connections.
All these cases and many others like them have been widely reported in the press and documented in several books focusing on Al-Qaeda-linked militancy in Pakistan.
The radicalisation of many of its young members and their drift towards unbridled militancy pose a big ideological challenge for the Jamaat-e-Islami leadership, which despite opposing successive governments on the issue of their support to the US-led war on terror, has worked within the framework of the Pakistan constitution and by-and-large opted for a democratic course to advance its political agenda.
However, for a party that remained the ideological bulwark of Islamic forces in the region and served as a fighting arm of the military establishment for decades – be it in the former East Pakistan, Indian-occupied Kashmir or Afghanistan – keeping such internal strains, contradictions and ideological questions in check is easier said than done. 
The Jamaat-e-Islami’s continued history of poor performance in electoral politics and the emergence of more radicalised, aggressive and militant Islamic groups on the scene have created an internal dilemma for the party, which considers itself the original face of modern-day political Islam and jihad. 
Today, the choice for the Jamaat-e-Islami and all the other mainstream religious parties is either to stick to their old paradigm of constitutional politics or tread the path on which the more radicalised, pan-Islamist militant groups are trying to pull the overall movement for Islamic renaissance and revival. 
This internal contradiction is a fundamental one within Islamists. How will the leadership of the mainstream religious parties, including the Jamaat, handle this question? Will the main body of constitutionalist Islamists drift toward militancy or succeed in pacifying the hothead radicals by finding a middle path? Will they be able to keep themselves relevant in the coming days if they continue to stick to the legal and constitutional methods of politics or become irrelevant, with hard-liners taking the charge of the movement?
These are grave and make-or-break choices for the Jamaat leadership. Syed Munawar Hasan has succeeded in igniting an intense debate, but will he be able to take it to his desired end?
It is also a moment of reckoning for the Pakistani establishment. How will it deal with its former allies and estranged friends? How will it resolve the internal contradictions of the state and restore normality and rule of law in a country caught in the vortex of lawlessness and religiously-motivated violence and terrorism. At the moment, all the major players appear devoid of solutions to these mega challenges.

Defining Two Drops

By Amir Zia
Monday, October 14, 2013
The News

Narratives – undermining science, developments in medical research and rational thinking – from the pulpit and some prominent Islamic seminaries resonate deeply in the hearts and minds of many believers, who refuse to give the polio vaccine to their children, thinking that abstaining to do so is in conformity with Islamic teachings.

 

Since December 2012, Pakistani authorities have stopped announcing dates for the national anti-polio vaccination drives. Instead, these regular exercises are now being carried in a hush-hush manner at the district level to prevent any attacks -- on volunteers administrating polio drops to children aged five years and below – by al-Qaeda-inspired local Taliban militants and other extremist groups.

The government’s concerns are understandable. Since mid-July 2012 to date, 17 health workers and five policemen involved in anti-polio campaigns have been killed and 14 others wounded by militants in 25 attacks in various parts of Pakistan. This list of victims doesn’t include those seven NGO workers who were killed in Swabi on January 2 or the two victims killed in a roadside bomb explosion outside the Basic Health Unit in Peshawar’s suburbs on October 7 as it is still being investigated whether these attacks were also targeted at the polio campaign.

Nonetheless the string of killings has transformed the anti-polio efforts into a high-stakes game in the Islamic Republic. Now all polio vaccination teams have to be accompanied by police or paramilitary troops underlining the ever-deepening divide and conflict among moderates and hardliners in society and the eroding writ of the state. The simple and innocent exercise of administrating polio drops to children becoming a deadly affair is also a sign of the deep ideological confusion and intellectual bankruptcy of hard-line Islamists.

Many of the clerics sympathetic to al-Qaeda and local militant groups simply see the two drops of anti-polio vaccine as a western conspiracy against Muslims to make their future generations ‘infertile’ and ‘sexually impotent’ rather than an effort to keep them healthy and free from the lifelong crippling effects of this virus.

Even some of those clerics who keep away from militancy and unlawful activities have become part of propaganda against polio vaccination – from the rugged mountains in the north to Pakistan’s biggest city of Karachi. A case in point is of the monthly Haq Nawa-e-Ihtasham, Karachi, which in its March 2013 issue carried an article saying that the anti-polio drive being run by Unicef “is basically a conspiracy to make the nation infertile.” The five-page article titled ‘Polio vaccine drive’s secret agenda’ discusses the so-called investigations conducted by a Nigerian scientist claiming that the polio vaccine is damaging for health and causes impotency among its users.

Nawa-e-Ihtasham is published by Maulana Tanveer-ul Haq Thanvi in memory of his father, the late-Maulana Ihtasham-ul Thanvi – considered one of the most highly respected and leading Islamic clerics belonging to the Deobandi school of thought. Both Maulana Ihtasham and Maulana Tanveer are known for their moderate views not just by their followers but by experts and clerics of other Islamic sects as well.

Such narratives – undermining science, developments in medical research and rational thinking – from the pulpit and some prominent Islamic seminaries resonate deeply in the hearts and minds of many believers, who refuse to give the polio vaccine to their children, thinking that abstaining to do so is in conformity with Islamic teachings.

No wonder Pakistan remains among the only three countries of the world – along with Afghanistan and Nigeria – which have failed to eradicate this virus. According to Unicef figures, so far 43 polio cases have been reported in Pakistan in 2013 – against six in the war-wrecked Afghanistan. In Nigeria, 49 such cases have been reported this year.

All our other South Asian neighbours – India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal and Maldives – have now become part of the polio-free world. But in Pakistan, a small minority of hard-line clerics and pro al-Qaeda local militants successfully managed to scuttle all efforts to make the country polio free.

In most parts of the conflict-ridden Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (Fata), authorities have not been able to run polio vaccination campaigns for the last two years in a row. The polio teams are being attacked not just in Fata, but various parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and even Karachi. Unicef data shows that nine out of 25 attacks targeting anti-polio teams have occurred in Karachi – one of Pakistan’s most developed cities.

The situation is in stark contrast to Afghanistan where Afghan Taliban and Nato troops even halt fighting to allow polio vaccination campaigns. This explains the low number of polio victims in Afghanistan compared to Pakistan. However, militants in Pakistan have no such love or care for children. They have no rules of engagement. For these ‘brave-hearts’ and ‘virtuous souls’ every target is kosher – be it worshippers, medical teams, unsuspecting women, men and children in markets and bazaars. They are the same local Taliban and allies with whom our elected government and the entire civilian leadership – from Imran Khan to Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Munawar Hasan – are willing and desperate to talk for what they call peace.

The elected ones do not care about the consequences of appeasing extremists. They can’t see all the blood on the hands of these false champions of Islam. They do not want to define the ambit of their talks with militants. In fact, they hardly seem to understand the agenda and ideology of these forces bent upon destroying Pakistan. But yet they want to talk. Should this sleep walk towards disaster give any hope to Pakistanis that our tomorrow will be better than today?

The obstacles created in the way of the anti-polio drive demonstrate that how an organised minority is exploiting the sacred name of Islam and holding the entire country hostage on gun-point and suicide bombs. They have managed to do this despite the fact that most leading clerics have issued edicts that polio vaccination is not forbidden in Islam.

The government, Unicef and the World Health Organisation have jointly printed a booklet carrying 20 edicts from leading Islamic scholars and seminaries from Pakistan, Egypt, Malaysia, India, China and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference underlying that the polio vaccine remains safe to use and is permissible in Islam. Opposing polio vaccination is not Islam, but it is extremism.

However, hardliners are in no mood to listen and misguide a section of population through their flawed interpretation of Islam or the outright use of force. The authorities, despite all the awareness campaigns, have failed to contain these elements simply because of the state’s inability to launch a decisive crackdown against them.

Pakistan’s failure to eradicate polio has resulted in the enactment of discriminatory regulations specific to Pakistani travellers by many countries. The reason: our country has, along with terrorism, also become a net exporter of the polio virus. Even Saudi Arabia has made it mandatory for Pakistani Hajj and Umra pilgrims to take polio drops on arrival on its territory.

Polio in Pakistan is now a legitimate international concern. For we are one of the few countries left in the world where the curse of this virus still exists and can be transported to other far-flung countries. This has already happened a few times in recent years and has made the world wary of Pakistani visitors. Eradicating the polio virus in Pakistan remains within grasp, but the goal cannot be achieved until the small mindset opposed to its vaccination gets defeated first. Even one new case of polio or one percent of the population refusing to take the vaccine won’t let us achieve the goal of a polio-free Pakistan.

Therefore, the narrative that every Pakistani child should get vaccinated must win. But are the elected ones prepared to take the bull by its horns? Right now, they appear to be in the mood to just talk.

Misplaced Priorities

By Amir Zia

Monday, July 1, 2013

The News

A Pandora’s box is bound to open if a former army chief is tried for treason. If it is for the good of the country and so vital for its existence – then let it be. If it is to satisfy the ego of some, then we are treading a dangerous course and the new government has opened an unnecessary front that could have been avoided.

For any government or state institution setting the right priorities is the key to success and the basic yardstick of performance. This becomes all the more important if a country is passing through troubled times as today’s Pakistan where the twin challenges of religious extremism and terrorism, coupled with the fast-receding writ of the state and a collapsing economy threaten its very existence. But unfortunately the lords and masters of Pakistan appear to be unable to distinguish the important from the unimportant, the primary from the secondary or the necessary from the unnecessary.

A day after Pakistan hit headlines in the world media for the slaying of 10 foreign climbers by terrorists at their camp in Nanga Parbat, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appeared in the National Assembly to announce plans for former military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s trial on treason charges.

This is what one calls flogging a dead-horse and ignoring those vital challenges that are draining and sapping the country on a fast-track basis.

Sharif has already had a taste of what Al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban-inspired local terrorists, various sectarian organisations and fringe nationalist groups in Balochistan are capable of doing in less than a month of his rule. There have been more than a dozen major cases of terrorism since Sharif took oath as prime minister on June 5 as lawlessness and ethnic, religious and politically-motivated violence rages from the restive city of Karachi to the lawless mountains of North Waziristan.

Sadly, the new government’s response to all this bloodletting and incidents of terrorism that consumed more than 180 lives and left scores of others wounded, including a senior Sindh High Court Judge Justice Maqbool Baqar in Karachi on June 26, has been nothing more than a whimper. The government seems rudderless and confused in confronting this grave challenge that has pushed the country to the brink of all-out anarchy and collapse.

But the priority for our wise men in Islamabad is to try an individual, who is now an easy punchbag. His trials and tribulations are nothing but a sideshow in the unfurling tragedy of Pakistan. Unfortunately, in our world of mediocrity and intellectual barrenness, it is the sideshow that is grabbing the attention of popular discourse and media hype. Life and death issues remain on the backburner or at best get the usual shallow lip service, which tends to confuse issues rather than help with acknowledging facts and taking difficult decisions.

One example of this is the way we have reduced and linked the issue of terrorism to the US drone attacks, deliberately burying the fact that they are the result of the presence of foreign and local militants on Pakistan’s soil rather than the other way around – the myth of drone attacks triggering terrorism. This state of self-denial is either complete intellectual dishonesty or bankruptcy. In either case, we are hurtling toward our doom as erroneous analysis and self-defeating solutions are being thrust as popular narrative. Our national priorities could not be more misjudged.

And the obsession of some of the high and mighty with Musharraf’s treason case is an example of Pakistani Neros trying to amuse themselves with a farce that long lost its sheen and lustre.

Agreed that the Sharif government has been acting on the insistence of the Supreme Court, which wants the former military ruler tried under Article 6 of the constitution for imposing emergency rule on November 3, 2007, but it is in situations like these where the vision and political acumen of a leadership is judged and tested.

More bizarre is the government’s plan to focus only on an individual in the treason trial rather than taking to task all those who remained part and parcel of the collective decision. One can smell a dead rat just at the start of the opening lines of chorus of the play. The first act has not even started.

Applying only one section of Article 6 is selective justice. Clause 2 of this act clearly says; “Any person aiding or abetting [or collaborating] the acts mentioned in clause (1) shall likewise be guilty of high treason.”

How can other individuals holding top positions in the civilian and military hierarchy at that time be absolved of the November 3 emergency? Is it because many of these individuals – please read abettors – hold important positions even now? They are still in the assemblies; some of them are part of the ruling party, while others still at top positions in the civil and military bureaucracy.

Many opposition stalwarts, from Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Syed Khursheed Shah in the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed of his own faction of the pro-Imran Khan League and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, rightly appear concerned at the way the government wants to pursue this case.

If Musharraf’s treason trial is as vital as some want us to believe, the opposition stands justified in questioning why the clock should start from Nov 3, 2007. Why not from October 12, 1999 when the original sin was committed? Why not former military dictators and their cronies of the past? What about General Mohammed Ziaul Haq and his political heirs among whom Sharif’s name once topped the list? Why can’t they be held accountable?

Why is the act of treason punishable on one particular day and why does it remain individual-specific? What about other such days and individuals?

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, whose words and actions now begin to look more and more similar to those of his predecessor Rehman Malik, appears too naïve when he says that the ‘army will not be maligned’ in the Musharraf trial. Either he does not know the way the army operates or is being intellectually dishonest in public statements. It is the institution and the collective leadership that give power to an individual in the army and not the individual who takes all for a ride. The Pakistan Army is too organised and well-knit an institution to fall in the second scenario. 

A Pandora’s box is bound to open if a former army chief is tried for treason. If it is for the good of the country and so vital for its existence – then let it be. If it is to satisfy the ego of some, then we are treading a dangerous course and the new government has opened an unnecessary front that could have been avoided.

The best course for the present rulers would have been to focus on the issues at hand rather than getting themselves engaged in ghosts of the past. Pakistan needs a healing touch rather than new divisions and fresh wounds. 

The whole exercise appears more futile especially when many analysts predict a safe exit in the end for Musharraf, who to-date reportedly remains adamant to face the courts and stay in Pakistan. But the pressure from within and abroad is likely to force him to change his stance – whether he likes it or not. 

Tailpiece: If the government is serious about strengthening democracy and preventing future military adventurers from making unconstitutional moves, the best guarantee would be to provide clean government, which delivers on the key fronts of defeating terrorism, fixing the economy and fighting corruption. Last but not the least, the civilian leadership must help build consensus within institutions rather than taking them on in an attempt to establish control. Who should know this better than Sharif, who suffered the brunt of confrontation during his first two stints in power?