MOUNTAINEERING: NEVER LOOKING DOWN
Madeeha Syed

Published August 22, 2021

Naila Kiani with Ali Raza Sadpara and Sirbaz Khan at the summit of G2

In 2018, a video went viral on social media showing a woman in a wedding jorra in front of the mighty K2, deep in the mountains of Gilgit Baltistan, surrounded by porters singing wedding songs. That woman was Naila Kiani. And this was her first major trek.

Fast forward three years, and Naila is now the first Pakistani woman to summit an 8,000m peak in Pakistan — Gasherbrum II (8,035m). She did her summit along with Sirbaz Khan, for whom it was his eighth 8,000m peak, and Ali Raza Sadpara, a local legend who has now officially climbed 8,000m peaks a whopping 16 times — more than any Pakistani living or deceased.

“A year after that [K2 base camp trek], I started thinking seriously about climbing,” she says to me over the phone. Naila has been anxiously hoping to get a successful flight back to Dubai, where she is currently based.

Naila is an avid sportsperson — she is a trained boxer, rock climber and runs for fun. But her transition into a big mountain climber happened rather quickly and against all expectations.

“I researched for two years,” she says about her obsession with mountains and mountaineering. “I was training but … then I got pregnant. It was okay, it was the Covid-19 year. Nothing much happened. I rested for two months after my delivery and then trained for four months.” And then it was time to go. Just like that.

Naila Kiani has become the first Pakistani woman to summit an 8,000m mountain in Pakistan. Incredibly, this was the first big mountain she’s ever climbed. She shares her experience with Eos

Right after having a baby, I ask incredulously. “Yes,” laughs Naila. “My daughter was six months old when I left for base camp and 7.5 months old when I summited Gasherbrum II.”

But the shocks don’t end there. Most mountaineers spend their time conquering smaller peaks before attempting the biggest ones but, according to Naila, “This is the first mountain I ever climbed.”

What made her so confident she could summit an 8,000er in her first attempt at mountaineering? “I did the Gondogoro La Pass [en route the return from the K2 base camp trek] which was at an altitude of 5,850m. I can sense how my body is doing and my body worked well near 6,000m.”

So, understandably, she first decided to aim for a 7,000m peak. But the time it took to summit a 7,000m peak was the same as an 8,000m one — four to six weeks. Plus, it was only 1,000m more. But that’s a thousand metres into the death zone (when the air has such less oxygen your cells literally start dying) I remind her. “That’s the biggest challenge I can give myself!” she laughs.

Although she was training for an 8,000m peak, Naila didn’t really believe she would summit. “I was only thinking of pushing myself as far as I could go,” she says. “Mentally, I knew I wouldn’t give up quickly because in boxing I wouldn’t give up. I lost badly in one of the fights, but I didn’t give up and kept going until the last round. I knew that about myself. I would give it my all until the end. So, I knew I’m mentally strong from boxing. I was conditioning myself physically.”

Naila Kiani in front of K2 in 2018 | Instagram

HOW MANY MOUNTANEERS HAVE DANCED FOR K2; THE GODDESS

Normally, when trying to pick an ‘easy’ (still incredibly difficult to do) 8,000m peak in Pakistan, mountaineers opt for Broak Peak (8,047m). Why did she go for Gasherbrum II (G2)?

“[Because] Sirbaz [Khan] was doing G2,” she says. “I’m not a professional mountaineer, and I didn’t know what the other teams would be like. So, I decided to go with someone I knew. Sirbaz had a great team with him.”

Having the right team helped; Sirbaz would have more than his share of work cut out for him on Gasherbrum II. “The ropes hadn’t been fixed on G2,” relates Naila. “Normally Nepali Sherpas [along with local guides] fix the ropes on the mountains for expeditions. But we didn’t have any on G2. So, Sirbaz Khan and Ali Raza Sadpara were fixing the ropes as well.”

Smiling summit photos hide the insurmountable effort it takes just to reach the top and return safely. You’re pushed to your very limits — physically and emotionally — and on a hostile terrain, where you’re constantly at risk of dying. “The longest day was the summit day,” relates Naila. “[We climbed for] 17 hours.”

At very high altitudes, because of the thin air and low oxygen, it’s hard to eat and it’s even harder to sleep. When the time came for their summit push, Naila and the team hadn’t slept or eaten properly for three days.

“We only had three hours to sleep, but couldn’t,” she says. “We left at 2am and it took us 17 hours to go from Camp 3 to the summit and back. The next day, getting down from Camp 3 was also very exhausting. We were almost dead when we got to the base camp.”

As a first-time mountaineer, Naila observed first-hand how the altitude affected other climbers. “After around 8,000m, the death zone starts,” she says, “There wasn’t much distance [35m] left. But I saw the other climbers. Some were crawling. Others gave up 100m before the summit. I couldn’t understand that, they were so close.”

Their summit was also with added risk: there were no fixed ropes after approximately 7,536m. “It was my first summit, so I didn’t know this was not normal,” says Naila. “We had to use safety ropes strapped to each other, and we had to move very fast. This was very risky. If one fell, the others would too… it wasn’t easy.

“A lot of other climbers were shocked. This never happened in Nepal [where the ropes are fixed all the way to the summit]. Our team fixed most of the ropes. And the foreigners didn’t help much. Sirbaz said he felt this was harder than Everest. Because [in addition to climbing] he had to fix the ropes for everyone else.”

At the summit, Naila was faced with incredible views only a chosen few get to see — high above the clouds, in one of the 14 highest spots on Earth, being able to see both China and India. “I was very light-headed,” Naila says. “How did this happen? I’m the most inexperienced person here. I couldn’t believe that I could’ve reached the top. It felt like a dream.”

That high was not unadulterated, however. “I was so exhausted. I didn’t actually enjoy it. Plus, it was too windy. The team was very uncomfortable. We wanted to get down very quickly.”

While she was summiting G2, there were at least five other women from Pakistan attempting other 8,000m peaks at the same time. They were not successful. When Naila finally got to base camp, she found out that she’d set a record: she had become the first Pakistani woman to summit an 8,000m mountain in Pakistan.

“I never even thought of making a record or anything,” she says. “I don’t really care about that. I just wanted to test my body.”

And what does she have planned for the future? “When I left for this expedition, I thought I’d try to climb one 8,000m and then dekha jaey ga [we’ll see],” says Naila. “I definitely wasn’t thinking I would go for another peak, but now I am!”

Here’s wishing her luck in conquering more peaks and beyond.

The writer is a member of staff She tweets @madeehasyed

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 22nd, 2021

DAWN.COM PAKISTAN
Disappearing ecosystems
Editorial

Published August 28, 2021 - 

AFTER the UN sounded “code red for humanity” with the launch of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report earlier this month, research has emerged indicating more of the same and revealing further details of the shocking extent of damage caused to the delicate balance of nature. US-based scientists have published the findings of their research in the Nature Scientific Reports, declaring that if carbon emissions continued to be released into the atmosphere at the same rate, it would annihilate up to 95pc of the earth’s ocean surface by 2100. This means that over 70pc of the earth’s surface, which is covered with water, would undergo permanent damaging changes in less than 80 years. The surface climate of oceans would be destroyed with the absorption of a poisonous concentration of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. That would irreparably change the water acidity levels, surface water temperature and concentration of the mineral aragonite (used by many marine animals to form shells and bone). According to the article, the seas have already absorbed up to a third of the world’s carbon emissions since the Industrial Revolution. However, the accelerated pace with which CO2 was still being released into the atmosphere would mean a death sentence for most of the species that live on the surface of oceans. A living example of these alarming findings is Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, where rising sea temperatures have bleached and destroyed more than half the wondrous corals since 1995. The Great Barrier Reef stretches over 2,300 kilometres and has been a World Heritage Site since 1981 due to its scientific importance.

The UN’s IPCC report also contained similar dire warnings, and urged immediate collective action to arrest the accelerated pace of global warming and keep catastrophic climate events at bay. The unprecedented and large-scale forest fires that recently wreaked havoc in a number of European and Mediterranean regions are an example of what calamities lie ahead. The world needs to wake up and change its ruinous ways.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2021

PAKISTAN
Power sector blamed for challenges faced by LNG supply chain

The Newspaper's Staff Reporter
Published August 26, 2021 -

Senators expressed concern over mismanagement of LNG imports, particularly those from the spot market. — APP/File


ISLAMABAD: The petroleum division on Wednesday blamed the power sector for most of the challenges faced by the liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chain and said the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) had given monopoly through 10 fuel stations on the motorway to troubled Hascol as subsidiary.

Testifying before the Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources, Petroleum Secretary Dr Arshad Mahmood said there was a dry-out situation on M-2 (Lahore-Islamabad Motorway) on the eve of Eidul Azha and the petroleum division had been trying to ensure that these remained wet. He said there were 10 fuel stations on the motorway – five each on either side – that the FWO had given to Hascol as kind of a subsidiary.

Presided over by Abdul Qadir, who as an independent candidate had defeated a PTI nominee to become a senator from Balochistan, then joined the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and became chairman of Senate committee, said the petroleum division was not taking timely decisions. He said the government should take timely decisions on LNG imports to protect consumers from unnecessary burden. He said the government should facilitate the private sector instead of monopolising the LNG business.

The petroleum secretary said he had personally taken up the mater with the FWO management to have a strategy so that these fuel stations remain well served. He said it would be inappropriate to disclose details, but two major parties were in line for acquisition of Hascol at current depressed share price.

Senate panel criticises petroleum division for not taking timely decisions

One of the two parties was really sound and interested in taking over major shareholding after financial restructuring of the second largest private oil marketing company by market share. The company has 611 fuel stations across the country, besides other major strategic installations.

A senator pointed out that it appeared to be a well-planned move by the main shareholders of Hascol, accusing them of playing with fraudulent purchase orders. He cited recent disclosures by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan that the company kept on restating its financial results.

He pointed out that even the new major shareholders — Vitol — with 40pc stake was planning to have a major initial public offering in the United Kingdom and wanted to dump Hascol and run away because it did not want its bad liabilities on Vitol balance sheet. The senators advised that they should not be allowed to escape, instead operations should normalise and share price improve so that local shareholders could at least have some recovery for the share whose value had crashed from Rs380 to just Rs8 in a short period.

In reply to a question, Chairman of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, Masroor Khan, said the Ogra’s concern was that shareholders’ interest remains protected, but more importantly the consumers should not suffer because of any dry-out situation. He said the regulator had engaged with the company to fulfill its licence responsibilities to not only keep its 611 fuel stations wet but also to ensure 20 days of product coverage.

The senators expressed concern over mismanagement of LNG imports, particularly those from the spot market, resulting in a burden on consumers of not only electricity but also the consumers of CNG as it had become more expensive than petrol.

Petroleum Secretary Dr Arshad Mahmood told the committee that the government could still have about 250 mmcfd of additional LNG processing capacity from existing terminal operators, but because of the fear of investigations, the executives of gas companies were reluctant to take contract additional capacity.

He informed the committee the petroleum division was also engaged with various institutions and would seek parliamentary support to address the challenge of ‘bureaucratic hesitation’ by raising the bar to higher forums, like cabinet bodies, for approval processes. He said there was nothing illegal in benefiting from additional capacity and that too when it has to bring down processing tariff, but one should be appreciative of those who may have spent time in jails earlier in similar situations.

He told the committee that while petroleum sector companies — PSO, PLL, SSGCL and SNGPL — were bound by international commercial contracts in LNG imports, their customers — the power sector companies — had not only payment problems but were also not ready to sign similar contracts with gas suppliers.

In the same vein, a senior executive of SNGPL, Jawad Naseem, told the committee that the power division or its entities changed their LNG requirements seven to eight times a year after approval of annual delivery plans prepared on the basis of the power division’s demand.

These changes, he said, had taken place invariably over the past three years on both sides i.e. power division refused to take LNG arranged on its orders or demanded up to 30pc higher intake instead of its earlier demand. While the power sector refused to take responsibility or foot the bill for variation, the SNGPL had to make diversions back and forth to other subsidised consumers or pay penalties

But that was not all, he explained, adding that various government committees or the cabinet take decisions to provide gas to the fertiliser sector on a 10-15 day notice, or on hourly notice to the power sector, because the government could not afford loadshedding in the domestic sector in case of a sudden drop in river flows.

The secretary told the committee that petroleum companies did not have the financial muscle to have spot LNG purchases 5-6 months in advance. He said the government was looking into building underground storage capacity near Badin for LNG to avoid short-term supply and price fluctuations. The project would cost about $1.5bn.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2021

PAKISTAN
Long-delayed refining policy

Khaleeq Kiani

Published August 23, 2021

The new refining policy advocates a vertically integrated oil refining and marketing infrastructure in the country to directly support domestic oil and gas exploration and production activities. — AFP/File


Although the oil refining industry in the country is completing a century now, four out of five local refineries are obsolete by international standards while the fifth one is also over two decades old. The refining capacity is about 20 million tonnes per annum. About 60 per cent of the country’s requirements of diesel and over 30pc of petrol are met by local refineries. The rest is imported as refined products.

Also, about 31pc of Pakistan’s energy requirements are met by oil. Despite these lucrative numbers, no new refinery could be set up for more than a decade, according to the petroleum division. Similarly, upgrades of the existing refineries have not kept pace with the latest technology. The announcements about major investments from friendly countries remained on paper.

Being capital intensive, refining requires long term investment based on the country’s policy-cum-political view that has generally been missing. The 1997 petroleum policy provided various incentives and pricing formulas for new refineries but the industry did not find it attractive. An incentive package, based on the consideration of mega refinery investment from Saudi Arabia and UAE, was approved in April 2018 that could not take off with the change in political government.

An upgraded policy was finalised in March this year that could not see the light of the day following the removal of then special assistant to the prime minister Nadeem Babar. The petroleum division has been trying to get formal approval to a new refining policy from the Cabinet Committee on Energy or Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet — a case of borderline jurisdiction. The deadlines for fiscal and policy incentives have been extended by one year and in some cases four years.

The new policy advocates a vertically integrated oil refining and marketing infrastructure to support domestic oil and gas exploration and production activities

The new refining policy advocates a vertically integrated oil refining and marketing infrastructure in the country to directly support domestic oil and gas exploration and production activities and value addition through the utilization of local natural resources.

Under the policy, expected to come up for approval this week, all new deep conversion oil refinery projects of a minimum of 100,000 barrels per day refining capacity, as well as infrastructure projects such as single point mooring, single buoy mooring, jetties, subsea and land oil pipelines, oil terminals, petrochemical plants and tank farms, shall be treated as separate projects and to be set up anywhere in the country and start the construction of the project before December 31, 2025, shall be eligible for a 20-year income tax holiday from profits and gains from the date of commissioning. The income tax holiday on this count will be for 10 years to existing projects upgrades to achieve equivalent standards.

All the above projects would also be entitled to exemption from customs duties, surcharges, withholding taxes, any other levies, general sales tax, or any other ad valorem tax on import of any equipment to be installed, or material to be used in the projects without any precondition for certification by the Engineering Development Board. The federal government shall facilitate a similar exemption of provincial and local taxes.

Construction, operations and engineering services performed in Pakistan, whether by local or foreign firms operating in Pakistan, as well as procurement of any local materials, shall remain subject to applicable local taxes, whether provincial or federal. These projects shall be exempt from the application of the Companies Profits (Workers’ Participation) Act 1968 and the Workers’ Welfare Fund Ordinance 1971. The Federal Government shall facilitate a similar exemption of provincial statutes if any.

Temporary imports by contractors/sub-contractors of all machinery, vehicles, plant and equipment, other materials and spares in connection with setting-up, operation, maintenance and repair, which are to be repatriated after completion of the works, shall be exempted from all customs duties, taxes, surcharges and levies on import, and shall be released by the customs authority on the provision of a bond by the importer, for a defined time period of use.

The government will not guarantee product off-take and the refineries would be free to market their products through their own or other marketing companies or export after meeting local needs. However, import of finished products by oil marketing companies (OMCs) shall be limited to only the deficit projected by the government, ensuring the uplifting of locally refined products first.

Locally produced crude shall be allocated to the closest refinery that can handle crude with such specifications. Once allocated, it would not be cancelled if a new refinery comes up closer to the crude source, unless mutually agreed amongst the existing user and new proposed user and the petroleum division. After uplifting of local crude, the refineries shall be free to import crude oil from any source except prohibited countries, with no obligation or guarantee on the part of the Government of Pakistan.

Refineries will be allowed export of surplus petroleum products or products with specifications that do not have local demand under the intimation to the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority and Petroleum Division. No refinery shall be allowed to market, in Pakistan, petroleum products of inferior quality than those notified by the Petroleum Division from time to time, unless it has a waiver from the government. If it produces products of inferior quality and does not have a waiver to sell them locally, it shall be free to export.

The Product Pricing Formula of refineries shall be based on “True Import Parity Price” to be derived from Arab Gulf Mean Freight Onboard (FOB) spot price, or if not published shall be derived from Singapore Mean FOB price. All other elements including premium, freight, port charges, incidentals, import duties, exchange rate, provincial taxes as applicable and other price adjustments shall be added, as per Pakistan State Oil’s (PSO) actual imports, in the above FOB price to arrive at “True Import Parity Price”.

Additionally, prevalent inland freight of imported crude oil to refineries and provincial duties, levies, cess and taxes (with import duty on crude oil, if any) at the import of crude oil shall be added for refineries. There shall be no import duties and sales tax on import of petroleum crude oil with effect from July 1, 2022, being the main raw material, by refineries themselves. The finished products, however, shall be subject to import duties and sales tax notified by the government from time to time.

There will be no guarantee of the rate of return for existing, or new, refineries provided by the regulator or the Government of Pakistan. The refineries shall be allowed to open and maintain foreign currency accounts and retain a certain portion of export proceeds in foreign currency to meet operational requirements.

There shall be tariff protection in the form of a 10pc import duty on motor gasoline and diesel of all grades as well as imports of any other white product used for fuel for any kind of motor or engine, effective from the date of commission for six years, provided that refinery starts construction of the project before December 31, 2025, ie the protection would now stay until December 31, 2031, instead of June 30, 2026, envisioned by Nadeem Babar.

The policy envisages a shift to complete deregulation of the oil sector, including products and pricing by December 31, 2027, instead of June 30, 2026, targeted in March this year. The principle to be followed for that deregulation will be that all OMCs will be free to set the prices themselves, based on the quality of fuels, the location and other services being provided like High Octane Ron 97 at present. However, the government would set the price for PSO pumps to give protection to consumers.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, August 23rd, 2021

KEEP IT MOTHBALLED
Criteria for Pakistan Steel revival approved

The Newspaper's Reporter

Published August 28, 2021 -
In this Feb 8, 2016 picture, a man walks past machines at the hot strip mill department of the Pakistan Steel Mills. — Reuters/File

ISLAMABAD: The Board of Privatisation Commission (PC) on Friday approved documents pertaining to the pre-qualification criteria of investors for the revival of Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation (PSMC).

The board meeting, chaired by Minister for Privatisation Mohammadmian Soomro, approved the Request for Statement of Qualification (RSOQ) and Expression of Interest (EOI) documents. In light of the federal cabinet’s decision, PC will invite EOI after filing of scheme arrangement (SOA) by Pakistan Steel Mills with the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan.

Mr Soomro said the PC has come a long way, with a focused objective to revive the largest industrial unit of Pakistan, which could run in its best capacity and contribute to the national economy.

In view of the decision of the cabinet committee, EOI for investors would be invited for the purpose the pre-qualification of investors. The draft document containing eligibility criteria along with basis of disqualification for the potential investors was placed before the PC Board for deliberation and approval.

Country’s largest industrial unit lying non-functional since 2015

According to the approved transaction features approved by the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP), the identified core operating assets would be transferred to the new subsidiary owned by PSMC named Steel Corp (Pvt) Ltd, and then the divestment of equity stakes of the subsidiary will be 51 to 74 per cent through bidding process.

The revival of PSM is one of the important objectives of privatisation plan. The mill is not working since 2015 while the government has planned to bring foreign and domestic investors for the revival of the largest industrial corporation of Pakistan. There have been consecutive meetings with the stakeholders and ministries to resolve the issues, a press release issued by the PC following the board meeting said.

The PC Board also recommended the highest bidder – Faisal Town Pvt Ltd – for Service International Hotel (SIH) along with the offered bid which is higher than the reserved price. The letter of acceptance to the successful bidder will be issued after seeking approval of the CCoP and the federal cabinet.

The board was informed that great efforts were made by the financial advisers who reached out maximum potential investors but due to resource mobilisation, liquidity constraints and overall macro-economic outlook in the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic, the response of the potential bidders appears lacklustre.

The Ministry of Privatisation widely publicised open auction of SIH transactions in all the leading newspapers. Social and electronic media were also used for the wider circulation to make the process open and transparent.

In pursuance of the approval of PC Board, twelve pre-qualified parties for Jinnah Convention Centre have been notified for participating in the future steps of bidding, the commission added.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2021

PAKISTAN POSTFORDISM

Local mobile phone production exceeds imports

Kalbe Ali

Published August 27, 2021 -

Out of the 12.27m mobile phones locally manufactured between January and July, only 4.87m were 4G compatible smartphones. — AP/File

ISLAMABAD: The country manufactured 12.27 million mobile phones compared to the imports of 8.29m sets during the first seven months of 2021, data released by the Pakistan Telecomm­unic­ation Authority (PTA) showed on Thursday.

However, 2G compatible sets continue to dominate local manufacturing compared to smartphones production in the country.

Out of the 12.27m mobile phones locally manufactured between January and July, only 4.87m were 4G compatible smartphones, whereas the bulk of 7.4m mobile phones sets were 2G technology.

Responding to a query, a manufacturer said the trend was changing and the ratio between the smartphones and old 2G technology-based sets will narrow in the coming months. “In the year 2020, only 2.06m smartphones were manufactured in Pakistan against 10.98m 2G sets. This year, almost 5m smart phones have already been rolled out and the gap with 2G sets is not too wide,” said Amir Allahwala, the CEO of Tecno.

PTA hails conducive policies for growing production in Pakistan

While the PTA has said that the successful implementation of Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) and conducive government policies including the mobile manufacturing policy has created a favourable environment for mobile device manufacturing in Pakistan.

The PTA said a mobile ecosystem has been implemented in Pakistan by eliminating counterfeit device market providing a level playing field for commercial entities. This has created trust amongst consumers due to the formulation of standardised legal channels for all sorts of device imports, it added.

The authority said the Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Regulations of January 2021 encouraged manufacturers to establish their units in Pakistan.

Till now, 26 companies have been issued MDM authorisation enabling them to manufacture mobile devices in Pakistan. These include renowned brands such as Samsung, Nokia, Oppo, Tecno, Infinix, Vgotel, Q-mobile etc.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2021

Two Afghan women resign themselves to future under Taliban

Reuters

Published August 28, 2021 - 

This file photo shows a woman carrying a child as passengers board a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. — Reuters/File

TEACHER Shirin Tabriq spent five days and nights outside Kabul airport trying to get on a flight from Afghanistan. Humiliated and enraged by her ordeal, she has given up and plans to return to her village to start a new life under the Taliban.

Midwife Shagufta Dastaqgir also tried, and failed, to flee. She, too, says she has lost faith in the West’s commitment to help Afghanistan and is heading back home.

Their stories reflect the stark reality for many Afghans who want to leave the country now that the Taliban are back in power. Thousands have been evacuated, but they are far outnumbered by those who could not get out.

Tabriq, the second wife of a former Afghan government official who fled to Pakistan in February, is furious with what she sees as the United States’ failure to do more to evacuate people since the Taliban seized Kabul on Aug. 15.

Some Afghans fear Taliban reprisals against those associated with the ousted, Western-backed administration. Women feel exposed: the last time the group was in power, it banned them from work and girls from school and brutally enforced its version of Islamic law.

In recent days the group has vowed to respect people’s rights and allow women to work within the framework of sharia, but what that means in practice is still not clear.

Scenes of chaos outside the airport have dominated news bulletins around the world. On Thursday, at least 85 people died in a suicide attack by militant Islamic State (IS) group that Western countries had warned about. Others have been killed in gunfire and stampedes.

“I would rather live under the new regime than be treated like garbage by foreigners,” the 43-year-old told Reuters, after nearly a week of living in squalor and fear with her husband’s first wife and their three children.

“The Americans have insulted each Afghan. I come from a respectable family ... but to live on streets for 5 nights made me feel like I am begging people who have no respect for women and children.” She was speaking hours before the bomb attack. The prospect of an ultra-radical offshoot of IS disrupting the Taliban’s attempts to rule has only heightened the sense of foreboding in Afghanistan.

Washington has agreed with the Taliban that it will withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by Aug 31. President Joe Biden has come under fierce criticism from Afghans and in the West for not doing more to put a better evacuation plan in place.

American officials at Kabul airport say they have worked around the clock to airlift people, adding that evacuating thousands of Afghan staff along with foreigners has been a complex task.

A total of 105,000 people have been evacuated from Kabul since Aug 15, the White House has said.

The US military will now prioritise the removal of US troops and military equipment on the final days before the deadline, an American security official stationed at Kabul airport told Reuters. At least 13 U.S. troops were among those killed in Thursday’s attack.

Bank to home village

Since seizing the country, the Taliban have sought to reassure Afghans and the West that they would respect human rights and not seek revenge. Reports of abuses and threats by members of the movement have undermined confidence.

Tabriq, who is 43, said she had all the documents she required to travel to Pakistan, but there appeared to be one rule for foreigners trying to fly out of Kabul and another for Afghans.

“Not a single person tried to stop any foreigner ... I have all the legal documents to travel out, and why is America stopping me from getting out? Who are they to stop anyone?” Although some Afghan dual nationals appear to have been held up, there has been little sign of Westerners being prevented from reaching the airport. Many Afghans who were airlifted expressed gratitude to foreign troops for helping them.

Taliban officials have urged Afghans not to leave, saying they are needed to help them run the country and make it prosper in the future. Some employees of the outgoing government have returned to work, though others are in hiding.

The insurgents swept across Afghanistan in recent weeks with surprising ease, but are struggling to form a government in a country that has for years been propped up by Western aid and military spending.

Having lost hope of leaving Afghanistan by the end of August, Tabriq has made up her mind to stay. Others are waiting for a better opportunity to leave the country if the chaos subsides.

“I have decided to ... relocate to our village home in Faryab,” she said, referring to the northern province.

“I think we will live a better life there. We have some farmland; we grow wheat there and some fruits. We have a well. We don’t need anything more ... The Americans can all leave, and I hope never to see them again in my country.”

Dastaqgir, the midwife, is from Mazar-i-Sharif in the north of Afghanistan. She is a trained midwife and speaks fluent English and German, and worked for a German non-governmental organisation that she declined to name.

As long ago as 2020, she said German embassy officials had given reassurances to more than 20 Afghan staff that they would be relocated to Germany if the security situation deteriorated.

Then the Covid-19 pandemic struck and the NGO’s offices were closed, and, as Dastaqgir continued to work on a small number of projects she went on receiving her salary.

Taliban attacks in and around Mazar-i-Sharif intensified last month as the group swept aside Afghan forces.

Since July 23, she said she had called and emailed the German embassy and NGO she worked for dozens of times seeking clarity on her situation.

When she did not hear back, the 29-year-old’s father and cousin drove her from Mazar-i-Sharif to Kabul where she hoped to board a flight out of the country.

The road trip was fraught with risk, with Taliban roadblocks stopping her vehicle every few miles and the security situation across the north in a state of flux.

“They (the Taliban) stopped us and we told them we were going to see family in Kabul,” she said. “Some of them even laughed at us and called us stupid to be leaving our home.”

Like Tabriq, Dastaqgir ended up in the tumult outside Kabul airport where she spent four days and three nights.

“Soon I will head back to Mazar,” she told Reuters, speaking the day before the suicide attack. “I am not angry right now because I am tired. You know, I always admired the Germans ... but now I see an indifferent side of these foreign powers.” The German foreign office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on complaints that they did not make good on promises to evacuate local staff if the security situation deteriorated and that the embassy did not react to messages.

Germany ended evacuation flights late on Thursday. Its military, a major part of Nato’s forces fighting the Taliban, evacuated 5,347 people including more than 4,100 Afghans.

Germany previously said it had identified 10,000 people who needed to be evacuated, including Afghan local staff, journalists and human rights activists.

“After seeing all the desperation at the airport, I feel like we have been an abandoned, and Allah knows Afghan civilians did no wrong to any foreign nation.”

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2021

Pakistan needs contraception

Zafar Mirza

Published August 27, 2021 - 

The writer is a former SAPM on health and currently serving as a WHO adviser on Universal Health Coverage.


SOME may find the title of this article provocative and others may find it amusing. But this is a very serious issue: Pakistan needs contraception and contraceptives are not available.

In a special report in Dawn on Aug 14, 2021, Javed Jabbar wrote a brilliant article counting the things to be proud of in contemporary Pakistan. Despite giving a marvelously optimistic perspective he couldn’t help saying that “the failure to substantially reduce the rate of population growth has become an albatross which stalls our speed and erodes gains…”. Absolutely!

In Pakistan today, the biggest development challenge, both social and economic, is unhindered population growth. National development visions and plans would not be able to beat the rising population tide. High population growth, an unstable economy, depleting resources and climate change challenges coupled with high poverty and poor human development indices are all ingredients to land and live in a classic Malthusian trap. And the biggest issue is that it is not being perceived as an issue. We have an eyes-wide-shut policy attitude when it comes to the population elephant in the room.

Read: Why does Pakistan have low contraception and high abortion rates?


At the time of independence, the then West Pakistan had a population of around 36 million, today we are over 220m, more than a six-fold increase. We have become the fifth largest country in the world, only after China, India, the US and Indonesia. With an annual population growth rate of 2.4 per cent (the Asian average is 0.92pc), Pakistan adds 5.2m people every year to its headcount which is close to adding one Norway annually! At this rate of growth, we are going to be 350m by the year 2050. Last year, an average woman in Saudi Arabia bore 2.34 children whereas a Pakistani mother bore 3.5 children. In the backdrop of these depressing stats, the most disturbing is our contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR).

Couples don’t have timely access to and actionable information about contraceptives.

CPR is defined as the proportion of women of reproductive age who are using or whose partners are using a contraceptive method at a given point in time.

Pakistan’s CPR is extremely low at 34.5pc. To put this in perspective, Iran has a CPR of 77.4pc, Turkey’s is 73.5pc and even Bangladesh’s CPR has climbed to 62.4pc. Pakistan’s CPR of 34.5pc means that 65.5pc of women of reproductive age or their husbands are not using any contraceptive method. And this is why Pakistan needs contraception.

The Population Council estimates that there are around 9m pregnancies in Pakistan annually. Half of these are unintentional. And around 2.25m end up in abortion — which is mostly unsafe. Had these couples had access to contraceptive methods and the appropriate information about their use, these unwanted pregnancies would not have occurred in the first place.

With such grave numbers, let us now look at the contraceptive situation.

A range of contraceptives, implants, condoms and intrauterine devices (IUD) continue to remain in short supply in government as well as private facilities in Pakistan. There are continued and unattended stockouts which reflect the federal and provincial governments’ neglect of this mega development issue. According to reliable data available from the Pakistan Logistics Management Information System, between January and March this year, 50pc of districts in Pakistan didn’t have a government supply of condoms, a situation which only worsened between April and June when 68pc of districts were out of condom stocks. Likewise, combined oral contraceptive pills were out of stock in 41pc and 47pc of districts during the same months, copper IUDs were not available in 59pc and 65pc districts and injectable contraceptives were out of stock in 38pc and 49pc of districts during the first and second quarters of this year. This dismal picture is not only of the first six months in the current year, rather it is a trend seen year after year.

Whatever the causes, the consequences are clear: a burgeoning population increase. Couples don’t have timely access to and actionable information about contraceptives even when they want to control the size of their families. No wonder, out of 9m pregnancies each year in Pakistan, 4m are unwanted.

Why are there continued stockouts of contraceptives? Drilling into the causes would reveal supply chain issues, fragmented and discordant procurement cycles, unappealing business volumes to producers, overwhelming reliance on imports with no indigenous production and so on. This situation has only worsened in the last 10 years or so since the 18th Amendment has made it extremely difficult to have nationally coordinated procurement and supply of contraceptive commodities.

There is also no policy to guide and facilitate the local manufacturing of contraceptives. Out of around 650 licensed pharmaceutical manufacturers in Pakistan there are less than 10 companies involved in oral and injectable contraceptives production. Despite having put up expensive dedicated injectable hormonal production plants, some of these companies have more than 90pc unutilised production capacity. No company in Pakistan produces condoms and there is no local production of simple IUDs in the country. There have been two failed attempts at condom production in the past but because of lack of facilitation by the government these initiatives couldn’t see the light of day.

The non-availability of contraceptives and chronic stockouts, however, are indicative of a much bigger problem. The hard reality is that population control has not been a major priority for successive governments in Pakistan. Instead of taking the population bull by the horns, sadly, the only trend we see is that government interest has gone down further over the years in this area. Population ministries and departments are chronically underfunded and badly governed, and have been pushed to the public policy junkyard. Staff working in population ministries/ departments is least motivated. One way of mainstreaming population issues is by merging population departments with health departments. In some provinces it has happened and in others such efforts are politically stalled due to power and trough issues.

Unless Pakistan undertakes a complete paradigm shift on the population issue, we will only be compounding the problem.

The writer is a former SAPM on health and currently serving as a WHO adviser on Universal Health Coverage.

zedefar@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2021

American hubris

A.G. Noorani

Published August 28, 2021 - 

The writer is an author and lawyer based in Mumbai.


“THE reality, secretly guarded until now, is [that] … it was July 3, 1979, that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion the aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.” This was said by Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinsky in the Paris weekly Le Nouvel Observateur in January 1998.

The over 40 years that have elapsed since have exacted a heavy toll on lives; mostly Afghan. President Joe Biden is welcome to distinguish, however disingenuously, between the US flight from its embassy in Saigon in 1975 and the one from Kabul in 2021. Historians are certain to view the record differently. American business, especially Big Business, did not do too badly when it comes to the Afghan war.

Since World War II, America’s foreign policy has been marked by militarism, unilateralism and a disdain for diplomacy. This was amply reflected in the talks with the Afghan Taliban. Why did the US not involve Nato from the very outset in the talks with the insurgent group?

No responsible leader will frame foreign policy without consulting the leaders of his country’s armed forces. But in militarism it is the armed forces that lead the political leadership by the nose. It is well said: “Militarism is the domination of the military in society, an undue deference to military demands, and an emphasis on military considerations, spirit, ideals, and scales of value, in the lives of states. It has meant also the imposition of heavy burdens on a people for military purposes, to the neglect of welfare and culture, and the waste of a nation’s best manpower in unproductive army service.” In this mad pursuit, presidents have sometimes acted against the professional advice of the leaders of the armed forces, to the harm of the nation.

US diplomacy has been marked by militarism and unilateralism.

Drunk with power, the United States developed a taste for unilateralism and a contempt for its allies. They were not treated as allies but as members of the ‘coalition of the willing’, ie subordinates. For this, the allies themselves are to blame. Nato was set up in 1949 to face an impotent and weak Soviet Union. It was in no shape to invade Western Europe. Its pleas for summits had fallen on deaf ears. An upstart like president Harry Truman brazenly rejected the advice of a man of experience like Winston Churchill to hold a summit with Stalin. He died a sad man. Letters exchanged among Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt during World War II show Roosevelt agreeing to a summit with Stalin without the presence of Churchill. In 1945, Roosevelt cheated Britain on the atom bomb and access to Saudi oil.

With all this goes a disdain for diplomacy. Saddam Hussein was very much prepared for a good deal to avert America’s invasion. So were the Taliban. They were furiously knocking at the doors of the US State Department, specifically on the doors of Karl F. Inderfurth. The documents were published by the US National Security Archive at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

The US Institute of Peace was set up by a congressional statute as an independent think tank. It published in 1991 an excellent monograph by Raymond Cohen titled Negotiating Across Cultures. It quotes one authority as saying that culture “consists in patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reaction, acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (ie, historically deri­ved and selected) ideas and especially their attached values”.

The history of diplomacy is strewn with ins­tances of misunderstandings because of differences of culture. In 1918, the Germans thought that they had Russia by their throats, driving Trotsky to wire Lenin for permission to attend a meeting in formal attire. Lenin’s response was crisp. “Go in a petticoat if necessary.”

Closer home, a fateful misunderstanding was recorded by the distinguished Pakistani diplomat, the late S. Iftikhar Murshed in his very informative book Afghanistan: Taliban Years. He records a meeting between the Taliban chief Mullah Omar and the visiting Saudi envoy Prince Turki in 1998 at which Murshed was present. After pleasantries, Turki asked that Osama bin Laden be handed over in fulfilment of an earlier promise. Omar’s denial of such a promise drove Turki to be rude. Omar’s response was a wild retort and “he went out into the courtyard in front of us and … poured a bucket of cold water over his head”. Mutual charges of lying led to a collapse of the talks. Turki should have known better.

The writer is an author and lawyer based in Mumbai.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2021

PAKISTAN
Case registered against Mehran Town factory owner, officials after blaze kills 16
Dawn.com Published August 28, 2021 

A team of firefighters extinguish the fire at the chemical factory on Friday. — APP

Karachi police on Friday registered a case against the owner and several officials of a factory in Mehran Town following a devastating fire that killed 16 workers.

"Proper investigation has been initiated in this case and justice will be ensured," Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab said on Twitter on Saturday.



The FIR, also shared by Wahab, has been registered under Sections 322 (punishment for murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The case has been registered against building and factory owner Ali Mehta, manager Imran Zaidi, supervisors Zafar and Rehan, and guard Syed Zareen.

The FIR stated that the building did not have an emergency exit or an emergency alarm in case an untoward incident were to take place. "The building is constructed in such a way that no one can exit if there is an emergency situation," it said.

Meanwhile, Wahab also said that the families of those killed in the incident will receive Rs1 million as compensation by the the provincial government.

In a statement, the Karachi administrator said that the provincial government stands with the heirs of the deceased during this difficult time. He added that those injured in the fire were being provided the best possible medical treatment.

Factory fire

All the workers suffocated to death in the fire that was apparently caused due to a short circuit.

According to officials and witnesses, the blaze erupted under the stairs of the ground-plus-two-storey factory, situated in Mehran Town of Korangi Industrial Area, and spread rapidly to other places due to some "adhesive chemicals" kept there.

Initial investigation identified short circuit as the cause of fire, while a post-mortem examination revealed cardio-respiratory failure, secondary to asphyxia, caused by inhalation of smoke and soot from the fire led to suffocation and subsequent death.

Five members of an extended family, including three brothers, were among the victims.

A senior officer who wished not to be named said the factory manufactured trolley bags and had stored adhesive chemicals.

When the fire broke out, it spread rapidly because of presence of chemicals and more deaths occurred. The factory was located in a congested area and it was obvious that safety measures were not in place, the officer said.

Additional input by Imtiaz Ali