Digital gold rush: A high-stakes gamble in a fragile economy

Pakistanis are turning to cryptocurrencies as both a lifeline and a gamble, betting on digital fortunes amid soaring market highs and devastating lows.

Fatima S Attarwala 

Published August 27, 2024 

“I used to walk an hour to work every day because I couldn’t afford any form of transportation,” said Ashraf*, who earns around minimum income while trading in cryptocurrencies on the side. Showing photos of his brand new Kia Sportage worth Rs9 million ($32,000), Ashraf proudly talks about his new three-story home and the state-of-the-art solar system he has installed, all courtesy of his investments in cryptocurrency. He started investing when Bitcoin was a mere $700 with a wallet of just $1.

Ashraf’s story is just one example of how many Pakistanis, driven by the need for wealth preservation in a volatile economy, are turning to cryptocurrencies. Given that crypto trading is not legal in Pakistan, most of the activity takes place on peer-to-peer exchanges, such as Binance, with information being shared in groups on less-widely used apps such as Telegram. With the uncertainty surrounding the recent arrest of Telegram’s co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov, the app Signal is being touted as a strongly encrypted alternative.

In Pakistan, as austerity measures continue pinching the pockets of the masses, crypto is looking like a good bet for many trying to hold onto their money, explains Chainalysis’s 2023 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report.

A 2020-21 report from the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimated that Pakistan held around $20 billion of cryptocurrencies, a rise of 711 per cent. To put it in context, the State Bank of Pakistan held $14.7bn in liquid foreign reserves as of August 16. Estimates of crypto holdings indicate its appetite for investors in Pakistan.

And it is not just Pakistan. Global developments also reflect the growing influence of crypto, with significant investments in political campaigns, particularly in the US. In late 2021, as expectations of rising interest rates in the US grew, investors began shifting funds from riskier assets like stocks and cryptocurrencies towards interest-earning investments. The decline in cryptocurrencies continued until 2022 when Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock —the world’s largest investment manager with around $10 trillion in assets under management — endorsed cryptocurrency.

Recently, Trump, who was previously dismissive of cryptocurrencies, has raised over $4 million in crypto assets. As the US elections approach, pro-crypto groups are lobbying intensively. According to Bloomberg, Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, has contributed another $25 million to the Fairshake SuperPAC, a political action committee focused on crypto. Meanwhile, another crypto firm Ripple has also donated $25 million to Fairshake. Lately, crypto has been see-sawing around the $60,000 mark, while gold surged to record highs and stocks stumbled amid global market turmoil before making a recovery.

The risk is real, too

Bitcoin’s recent plunge alongside the global equity market meltdown has made its correlation with stocks increasingly evident, challenging its reputation as a safe-haven asset. The volatility of cryptocurrencies has led to the destruction of wealth for many.

Take Ashraf, for example. “My four friends and I lost Rs10.5 million cumulatively when the market crashed,” he said. “But I have recovered over 80pc of it once the market started reviving; it was a wait-and-see game,” he added while surreptitiously checking his Binance account every minute.

Urging everyone to invest, he explained the secret to success, at least his so far: “Buy hundreds of thousands of crypto coins before they are launched when they are worth less than one-hundredth of a cent.” It’s a minuscule investment, and if the currency’s value rises close to a cent, it can deliver higher dividends than investing in the Pakistan Stock Exchange, which is trading at new highs, he asserted. Of course, it comes with risks attached.

The profile of an investor

Ashraf is among the many small traders in Pakistan, a country among the top 10 in Chainalysis’s Global Crypto Adoption Index in 2023.

“As Bitcoin recovers, cryptocurrency adoption in Pakistan is on the rise, driven by tech savvy youth and remittance inflows from overseas Pakistanis. Despite the Pakistan Stock Exchange reaching new heights, it hasn’t deterred crypto investment; instead, the positive market sentiment encourages diversified portfolios,” said Farrukh Kiani, Country Marketing Manager of KuCoin Exchange.

According to a KuCoin Pakistan report published in June 2023, 17pc of internet users aged 18-60 identified themselves as crypto investors. This group includes users who have owned or currently own crypto assets in the past six months.

However, crypto investors are not a homogenous bunch, said Zeeshan Ahmed, former country general manager at Rain Financial, a Gulf-based cryptocurrency trading platform. He explained that there are subsets of crypto investors. Those investing in the PSX, as well as crypto, are generally wealthy to begin with.

“The ones with excess wealth/cash are dividing it in a portfolio of investments to make more money or protect it from eroding in value. A large base in this subset has a substantial amount saved in USDT,” he said. Tether, commonly known as USDT, is a stablecoin used as a medium of exchange when purchasing cryptocurrencies. “They are not investors or traders but are saving in USDT,” he explained, given the dollar shortage in Pakistan.

Opportunities with caution

Crypto adoption can benefit the economy by attracting foreign investments and enhancing financial inclusion, especially in remittances. Establishing robust regulations and infrastructure development is crucial to ensure safe and sustainable growth of this sector while also protecting investors and the broader economy, said Kiani.

However, influencers and crypto experts like Waqar Zaka temper enthusiasm with caution. Sharing a screenshot of a partner transaction query of cryptocurrency exchange Bitget, Zaka showed the balance of $1.5bn in June that has been invested in cryptocurrencies through Bitget by his followers alone, most of whom hail from Pakistan. This does not include investments made by people on other popular exchanges such as Binance, he said, explaining the scale of investment in cryptocurrencies in Pakistan.

An average Pakistani crypto investor tends to engage in future leveraged trading rather than simply buying and holding assets, said Zaka. In the crypto world, leveraged trading involves using borrowed funds to increase potential profits, but it also carries high risks, as even small price movements can lead to significant losses against the borrowed amount. In India, on the other hand, more people are involved in decentralised finance, with a growing trend of holding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for the long term.

Crypto exchanges typically do not have a regulatory license to offer leverage services. In a hypothetical example, let’s imagine Ali is a crypto investor with $100. A crypto platform offers him 100x leverage, which means that it allows him to invest up to $10,000 using borrowed funds. If the market moves significantly against the position, Ali could lose more than his initial investment due to the borrowed funds. An unlicensed crypto exchange may not have mechanisms such as auto-liquidation to close positions before losses exceed the investor’s account balance to prevent negative balances. In the best-case scenario, he earns $10,000.

“About 90pc of the people lose money through leveraged trading because they don’t research enough. When meme coins crash, there is little chance that they will rise back up,” he said.

The need for research

Ahmed was wary about the inspirational value of success stories like Ashraf’s. “It’s a superhero story. Stories like these inspire 50,000 other guys, but will they be successful? Maybe, maybe not. It can’t be used as a benchmark. For every guy who has bought a Kia Sportage, 10,000 others have lost all their wealth.”

He advises a cautious approach to crypto investment: “The amount you spend on eating out in a month is how much you should spend on crypto in a month and keep it in a cold wallet somewhere safe. In 10 or 15 years, it might help pay for your kid’s college, or it might mean nothing; such is its volatility.”

Emphasising the need to do research, Zaka strongly discourages investment in meme coins, comparing it to traditional gambling. Demand for meme coins is driven by social media hype and speculation, and they witness extreme price volatility.

Explaining his method of investment, Zaka said to follow America’s consumer price index data (CPI). The best way to grasp the investment mechanics and volatility of the crypto market is by understanding the workings of global markets, including the effects of CPI and jobs report data. These indicators influence inflation and interest rates, which, in turn, have a significant impact on cryptocurrencies. “Ultimately, crypto profits need to be realised through tangible assets or consumption,” he advised.

The dark side

In Pakistan, much of the USDT being traded comes from the black market. If USDT purchased by a legitimate crypto investor was ever involved in terror financing, it could lead to serious trouble with the Federal Investigation Agency. Zaka strongly advises USDT buyers to always request the wallet address and verify it online to ensure it hasn’t been blacklisted, and to practice strict digital hygiene. In particular, USDT bought below market price is prone to suspicion.

Many Pakistanis turn to Telegram for information, but it’s a hotbed for scammers promising sky-high returns. “The Double Shah that once existed is now available everywhere online,” he said, referring to the con artist who achieved notoriety through Ponzi schemes.

As cryptocurrency continues gaining traction in Pakistan, it’s evident that the promise of wealth comes hand in hand with significant risks. For those looking to ride the crypto wave, informed decisions and a healthy dose of caution are your best allies.

*Name changed for anonymity

Header image: This image is taken from Shutterstock.

BALOCHISTAN

Dawn Investigations: Crooked path — the Turbat-Buleda road

Finance department documents suggest that so far, over Rs2.8 billion have been released for the construction of the Turbat-Buleda road.

Muhammad Akbar Notezai 

Published August 26, 2024 

DAWN

LONG READ

ON A misty night in February, the headlights of the blue pickup trucks — known as Zambad — could be seen laboriously making their way like ants along the dilapidated Turbat-Buleda road in the hilly north of district Kech, Balochistan. They are carrying smuggled oil from Iran to Pakistan.

Despite the passage of almost three decades, the Turbat-Buleda road project remains incomplete. And yet, the same road has been ‘inaugurated’ several times, including by General Qamar Javed Bajwa as army chief. Indeed, last month, the Balochistan Assembly in its budget session again approved funds for the project’s construction and improvement: Rs39.19 million, to be exact. It is a saga that illustrates the rampant corruption in Balochistan’s development sector.

As do most visitors to the area, the Dawn correspondent travelled to Buleda in a GLI Corolla, locally known as ‘2D car’, which, like the vehicles of many Buleda residents, had been customised in a workshop to elevate the body to enable it to better withstand the rigours of driving on that road. A local guide informs him that although the distance between Buleda and Turbat is only 29km, it takes over an hour to reach Buleda. “If the road was complete, it would have taken just a half hour.” Another resident of Buleda caustically remarks that thanks to its atrocious condition, most of the vehicles arriving in Turbat garages for repairs are those coming from Buleda.

What is the signficance of this road?

Metalled only in certain parts — some of that too washed away by the recent torrential rains and floods — the rest of the track is kutcha. Bridges along the route have not been constructed, and pylons meant to support them stand forlornly. It is testament to the state’s myopic policies in Balochistan where appointments to positions of power are meant to serve the security agenda, not the people.






Buleda valley, close to the Iran border in southern Balochistan, predominantly comprises the Makran division (Kech, Gwadar, and Panjgur districts). Buleda town itself is comprised of seven villages, surrounded by date trees and cultivated agricultural lands. Aside from the Buleda-Turbat road, the town lacks even a shingle road in toto, let alone other basic facilities. For instance, there is not even one well-equipped hospital in Buleda valley.

Murad Bibi*, an elderly resident of Buleda, tells Dawn: “I tell my children not to take me to Turbat city or anywhere else in case I fall sick. I want to die peacefully in my hometown. Being transported on that ramshackle road leading out of Buleda will be enough to kill me.”

Behind this long incomplete road lies a story of corruption in broad daylight, and it leads straight to Balochistan’s finance department.

A black hole

During the first half of 2016, intelligence operatives began monitoring a particular house, number C-27, located in Quetta’s GOR (government officers’ residences) colony. Only senior officials were aware of the actual location being surveilled; sources tell Dawn that some FC intelligence personnel suspected there was a terrorist taking refuge in one of the residences in the colony. To their surprise, the target turned out to be Balochistan’s then serving secretary finance, Mushtaq Ahmad Raisani. One night in early May that year, a raid on the house resulted in the recovery of Rs730 million in local and foreign currency. It is said that NAB officials were exhausted after tabulating the massive amount of cash on currency counting machines. And that was not all. Cash continued to be unearthed by NAB personnel, including from a bakery shop, as well as water tanks of other residences in the city.


If security is the only issue hampering the development of roads, highways and other infrastructure projects in Balochistan, then why have such projects not been developed and completed in the northern parts of Balochistan, which are not affected by the insurgency

According to a source, the money was to be wired through the hawala system to Dubai, to be received by the then finance minister Khalid Longove’s men. Mr Longove was also subsequently arrested and disqualified for embezzling the public exchequer.

In 2016, another resident of GOR colony, a senior administration official who was serving in Chaghi during the elections, and who hails from Turbat district, nearly met Raisani’s fate while travelling from Gwadar to Karachi. Acting on a tip off, the coast guards at the Uthal crossing check post stopped him, and found huge amounts of cash hidden in his vehicle — according to some, over 100 million rupees.

The same individual was posted in Gwadar in 2015 when the CPEC project was announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Following the news that the coastal city would serve as its epicentre, prices of land in Gwadar skyrocketed. Credible sources tell Dawn that the official freely distributed plots to benefit himself and his friends. By one account, he invited some close friends to Gwadar for Eid holidays on the promise that he would give them plots in the city and serve them whisky — smuggled of course — if they would allay his boredom.

After the coastguard episode, this official moved to London on leave in the name of higher studies, and only returned home after the dust had settled down. He is now back in London, ironically doing his PhD on the Baloch insurgency.

When Dawn spoke to this official, he claimed the allegations were unfounded and baseless.

This, in a nutshell, is Balochistan’s finance department — a black hole where public money goes to disappear.

Documents obtained from the department suggest that so far over Rs2.8 billion have been released for the construction of the Turbat-Buleda road.

Dawn’s investigations reveal how the project has been used to extract funds from the public exchequer. For instance, its PC-1 was formulated in the 1990s, and the project was to have been completed in one phase. According to the National Party’s Senator Jan Buledi, during Zulfiqar Ali Magsi’s second term as the provincial chief minister Balochistan in the 90s, Rs4m was given to Ayub Buledi for the purpose. Instead, the financial allocation has been repeatedly revised by vested interests, specifically the Buleda notables who have been ruling the town for over 30 years.

According to finance department sources, the more that schemes such as the Buleda road drag on, the more it benefits the local MPA.

Trucks creep along a kutcha part of the Turbat-Buleda road, which has been ‘under construction’ since the 1990s.—Photo by the writer

One of the documents available with Dawn indicates that by 2017, a total of Rs599m had been spent on the road, that, as per the record, is only 19km long. General elections were held a year later. Zahoor Buledi was elected from Buleda as MPA in 2018. Within a year, he was given the portfolio of finance minister under Jam Kamal Khan’s chief ministership. At the time, both belonged to the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), a king’s party formed overnight in Balochistan preceding the 2018 elections.

Like most other politicians, Zahoor changes parties whichever way the wind blows. Before the 2024 elections, he joined the PPP.

Zahoor remained finance minister for almost three years. Documents available with Dawn suggest that funds allocated for the Buleda road increased from Rs599m to around Rs2.8bn during his tenure. Yet there was no indication of any work being done on this 19km stretch between the beginning and end of 2023.

And that is not all. During his tenure as finance minister, supplementary funds — a special allocation that, as per Article 124 of the Constitution, can only be approved by the chief minister and his cabinet — were also issued from the finance department for the Buleda road. Thus, in 2019 and 2020, additional amounts of Rs280m and Rs298.16m respectively, were also allocated aside from the original budgeted amounts.

Talking to Dawn, Zahoor denies that the project has been ongoing for so long, contending that work on it commenced in 2009. He says the road is still incomplete because of the security situation and the attacks on the FC. “Despite that, 90 per cent of it is done.”

“The road is 32km long [although official documents record the distance as 19km], of which 16km is in hilly areas,” he said over the phone. “Due to this, there’s a lot of work required such as diversions, etc so the construction has taken some time.”

According to him, Baloch separatists have carried out 10 attacks on labourers engaged in constructing the road, resulting in 12 workers losing their lives.

“The security situation is beyond my control, even the FC has been targeted”, he tells Dawn.

He does not agree that the total cost of the Turbat-Buleda road has exceeded Rs2bn, claiming that it has so far cost Rs1.7bn. Documents available with Dawn say otherwise.

Interestingly, until he surrendered some years ago, one of Zahoor’s cousins, Iltaf, used to be a separatist leader in the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) — the militant group that Zahoor holds responsible for most of the attacks on Buleda road. When asked about Iltaf, Zahoor says that he never had and still has no sway over his cousin.

According to official records, work on the Buleda road had commenced in the mid-90s. However, locals recall the project being in the pipeline much earlier, after Ayub Buledi, from the same family, was elected MPA in 1988. That was the beginning of the Buledi family’s long and continuing association with Balochistan’s formal power structure.

“Ghost roads reflect the rampant corruption and plunder of Balochistan’s meagre financial resources,” contends Syed Fazl-e-Haider, development analyst and author of The Economic Development of Balochistan, while talking to Dawn.

He says the incompetence of financial managers is another reason for the lack of infrastructure, such as metalled roads, in the province and that there is a vast disconnect between the fiscal outlay and the outcome on the ground. “Funds are allocated and spent, but work on projects is delayed or halted for some reason or another and the prolonged delay raises project costs, [requiring another] budgetary allocation.”

This is why projects take years and are completed, if at all, at a cost many times more than originally budgeted.

The Buleda road saga more or less reflects the same pattern. Among other things, the documents available speak volumes about how justifications continue to be found for funds to be released ad nauseam in the name of the project, an exercise in which local bureaucrats and technocrats seem to be fully complicit.

For instance, consider the bureaucratically worded minutes of a meeting of a forum headed by Additional Chief Secretary Hafiz Abdul Basit, which was attended by representatives from the finance, C&W and P&D departments. At one point it states that the 19km Turbat-Buleda road’s “civic and economic importance cannot be overruled as the opening of this route will not only provide convenient access to the pretty large populations of Buleda and Zamuran area but will also help to improve law and order security situation and further connect the road up to Iran border and mineral-rich area of Chaghi.” This, despite the fact that travelling from Buleda to Chaghi is a journey of some 1,000km.

Up until 2009, there is no record of funds being released in the name of Buleda road, suggesting that Rs2.8bn has only been released since then.

Who are the Buledis?

Mir Naseer Khan Ahmedzai Kambrani Baloch in his book A History of the Baloch and Balochistan writes: “The descendants of Shah Beg lived in the Buleedi Valley of Makran. As such, they came to be known as the Buleedi tribe.”

Later in the book, he says that the Buledi Ameers, who were Zikris, took over the governance of Makran on 28 March 1623 CE, which led to the Zikri faith spreading in Makran. In more recent times, especially in the wake of the Islamisation during General Zia’s rule (1977-88), most Buledis today are ‘namazis’, a colloquial term to denote any non-Zikri. While their religious beliefs may have changed, they continue to call themselves Meer — meaning leader — as they remained the rulers in Makran where, unlike the rest of Balochistan, society is divided along divisions in status. There is no sardari system here.

“Traditionally speaking, there have been three social classes (status groups) here — the ruling class (hakum), the middle class (Baloch), and the menial labouring class (hizmatgar),” said Baloch anthropologist Dr Hafeez Jamali. For many common Baloch in Makran, social mobility can be achieved by engaging in corruption and marrying upwards.






Mehnaz village in Buleda is the family’s ancestral town. Back in the 1990s, Zahoor, the public face of the Buledi family today, used to have a parchoon store just off the shabby Shaheed Ayub Buledi square here — a fact he does not deny during his interview with Dawn. His father, Manzoor Buledi, would usually park his Alto Mehran outside the shop. The store has long since closed, as has the clinic that later took its place, but this bit of history illustrates Zahoor’s humble background. The Buledi family was also involved in a deadly feud with the Shambezai tribe. This became yet more fierce when the Munshi group, who were the Buledis’ political rivals, joined hands with the Shambezais.

As mentioned earlier, the work on the Turbat-Buleda road had begun when Ayub Buledi — who espoused a nationalistic ideology — was elected to the provincial assembly for the second time, deepening the family’s association with electoral politics in Balochistan. Not long after, on Nov 22, 1995, Ayub was attacked in the Jahan-i-Aab area and murdered in an attack orchestrated by the Shambezais and the Munshi group. Law and order in Buleda has spiralled since then; many people even began roaming around with guns and Kalashnikovs.

After Ayub’s death, his brother-in-law Aslam Buledi was appointed minister, the second member of the Buledi family to reach such a position, but unfortunately, Ayub’s nationalism was buried along with him.

By 2002, Jan Buledi, a senator from the Dr Malik Baloch-led National Party (NP), was known as the political teacher of Buledi family, as most of its senior male members had lost their lives in the tribal feud. Also, before the general elections, the then military dictator General Pervez Musharraf had introduced the condition of graduation or equivalent qualification in order to contest election.

Meanwhile, the Turbat-Buleda road project lingered on. During Musharraf’s time, the finance department started digitising the budget. In 2008, when Zahoor joined the NP and became minister, funds for the road began to be released.

In 2013, Ayub’s son Azeem was elected MPA, but soon after he committed suicide at Zahoor’s house on Airport Road in Turbat. In 2018, Zahoor was once again elected to the provincial assembly.

The closer the Buledi family grew to the state, the more they found themselves in the crosshairs of the Baloch separatists.

As MPA, Zahoor posted on Facebook a prayer for the construction of the Turbat-Buleda Road to be safe from the separatists: “Allah isay nazr-i-badh se bachaey!” He was referring to Dr Allah Nazar Baloch, the leader of BLF, an insurgent group particularly active in the Makran belt.

The insurgency

Born in 1927 in Harnai district into a farmer family, Saadat Marri — popularly known as Saddo Marri — was the oldest commander of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).






Saddo, like the other Marri Baloch commanders, was dispatched to organise the Baloch insurgency in the Makran belt in 2004, after the BLA had declared war against the state of Pakistan.

Amongst the Baloch in other parts of the province, there prevails a belief that the Makrani Baloch, as compared to them, fear conflict. But contrary to expectations, Makran is the now the epicentre of the Baloch insurgency. And within Makran, the Buleda and Mand-Tump areas are the most adversely affected.

This appears to have provided an excuse for the powers that be and their handpicked politicians to extravagantly use public funds, even more so than in the rest of Balochistan. The Turbat-Buleda road is a case in point.

Consider the comments of the former DIG Frontier Corps (South) in a document obtained by Dawn. According to him, the Buleda-Turbat road “is a very important road keeping in mind the demands of the people of that area as well its strategic position in the prevailing law and order situation.”

The documents quote him saying that the road may be treated as a matter of national interest and the issue of the revised PC-1 settled at the earliest so that the work could be completed soon.

“If security is the only issue hampering the development of roads, highways and other infrastructure projects in Balochistan, then why have such projects not been developed and completed in northern part of Balochistan which is not affected by the insurgency?” argues Mr Fazl-e-Haider, the development analyst quoted earlier. “Certainly, security is a key issue, but corruption and mismanagement of funds by the ruling elite in Quetta cannot be discounted.”

Renowned economist Dr Kaiser Bengali, who has authored a book on Balochistan’s economic injustice titled A Cry for Justice, pointed out in a conversation with Dawn that the roads in Balochistan have been constructed for military and strategic purposes, not to serve economic need, which is why there is not a single dual carriageway in the province.

“Islamabad constructed the Makran coastal highway after discovering Gwadar in 2000, and that too was built on account of its military needs,” he said. “If the objective of a road is linked with security, then transparency becomes secondary.”

Along the decrepit road to Buleda, there are heavily manned FC pickets at every kilometre. When the situation in Buleda was particularly grim following the 2008 elections, FC personnel would frisk passengers, including the locals, at both the entrance and exit points of the Turbat-Buleda road.

“In Balochistan, the state’s policies are security centric and it wants access and infrastructure in the least developed parts of the province,” says Islamabad-based author, security analyst and director of Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies Muhammad Amir Rana. “If policies are security centric, then transparency is compromised, which is otherwise known as corruption.”

With a smile he says: “Everyone benefits from the conflict economy. In the long term, even the Baloch insurgents, who have always preached that the state is unjust, benefit because the prevailing situation can only intensify the people’s mistrust in the state and its politicians.”

The Baloch middle class

In Makran division, where there is no ‘sardari’ culture, the upwardly mobile middle-class Baloch is a class distinct in and of itself because it functions as a replacement of the sardari system. Take the example of three university teachers from a particular tehsil in Buleda who have been appointed pro-vice chancellors of different varsities in Makran and elsewhere in the province not on merit, but with a political objective. “Everywhere in Balochistan, pro-vice chancellors are appointed on some minister’s say-so,” said Kaleem Ullah Barech, the former president of the Academic Staff Association. That has led to varsities becoming cesspools of irregularities and corruption.

Sources close to Zahoor tell Dawn that he appointed two of the three aforementioned university teachers as pro-VC, while the third was appointed by another minister with Zahoor’s approval: the posts were not advertised. All three belong to the minister’s constituency; thus, through these appointments, Zahoor — who was minister Higher Education Commission as well as finance at the time — built up a vote bank in this tehsil. These appointees have also increased Zahoor’s ingress into the workings of varsities in Makran, and elsewhere, with one of them being appointed pro-VC in Lasbela.


Zambad pick-up trucks carrying Iranian oil move along a kutcha portion of the Buleda-Turbat road.—Photo by the writer



Ironically enough, considering they were appointed by Zahoor, a pro-establishment figure and they themselves are close to the government, the PhD theses of most of these appointees are on Baloch nationalism and the separatist movement. One of them even thanked Zahoor — twice — in the acknowledgement section of his thesis.

Like many deputy commissioner offices elsewhere in the country, the DC office in Turbat too has a reputation for corruption. And because it is such a lucrative post, being appointed to it does not come cheap. Sources say an aspirant must shell out more than Rs100m to be appointed there.

But, given that no one is trying to clamp down on the corruption, the initial outlay is recouped within a few months. Following separatist attacks on FC camps in Panjgur and Nushki, it is rumoured that the then Corps Commander Quetta Lt Gen Sarfraz Ali, on the army chief Qamar Bajwa’s initiative, took the ‘management’ of smuggled Iranian oil from the FC and handed it to the local administration, so that the Baloch may be dissuaded from joining separatist outfits. The DC office would allegedly earn over Rs200m to 250m monthly in bribes from the token system (which involves a token issued by the district commissioner against a modest payment). The smuggling of oil, though illegal, is legitimised in this manner, which is more or less the case in five border towns of Balochistan.

Let alone oil, when bureaucrat Hussain Jan Baloch (DC Turbat until recently) was DC Chaghi, he was accused of being involved in the smuggling of sugar to Afghanistan, or at least turning a blind eye to it; the Customs Department wrote a letter against him — a copy of which is available with Dawn — for failing to stop the practice. There also seems to have been a substantial increase in the assets owned by the DC’s extended family in and around Turbat.

DC Hussain did not respond when Dawn contacted him multiple times for his comments.

Incidentally, Commissioner Makran is also the project director of Buleda-Turbat Road. It is well known that most appointments of commissioners and DCs are politically motivated. “The DCs are our ATMs,” said a former provincial minister in Quetta.

The Baloch — politically speaking — can be divided into three categories: those who work within the constitutional framework; the hardliners who do not see any point in talking with the state; and finally, the confused bunch — who are neither here nor there. They are what we could refer to as the middle class. They swing like a pendulum whichever side their interests lie.

When the Dawn correspondent approached people mentioned in this report to get their side of the story, they would astutely play the Baloch victim card. “We’re Baloch,” most of them say. “Why do you write against your own people?”

In Turbat, in the presence of several NP workers, Dr Abdul Malik Baloch welcomed Dawn at his house. He had just returned from the Tump-Mand area, where he had gone after 20 years to address a party gathering.

Dr Baloch was appointed chief minister in the name of the middle-class Baloch so as to counter rising Baloch nationalism. In reply to a question about their interests not being aligned with their people, he quoted Karl Marx’s scathing line on the middle class, that it is a dishonest class whose interests are with the bourgeois.

While he spoke highly of Ayub Buledi, he said little about Zahoor who had left his party before the 2018 elections to join the BAP. “Zahoor and his family left the NP because they did not want to stay in the party, even though we know the family quite well,” he maintained. “The Buledi family may have differences within, but they are one before the elections.”

As the Dawn correspondent was taking his leave, the former chief minister handed him a promotional book by Abdul Manan on his two-and-a-half-year performance as chief minister. In a low voice he said that unlike Baloch writers, many, especially non-Baloch, have written in his favour. Mr Manan, currently additional deputy commissioner Mastung said to be close to former chief minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, was Dr Malik’s press secretary when he was chief minister. Dr Malik had promoted him from grade-16 to grade-17 at the time, which is now equivalent to grade-19.

Back in Turbat, the Dawn correspondent accompanied some local residents to a wedding, which turned out to be Zahoor’s nephew’s nuptials. Later that evening, as cartons of party favours were brought into the spacious living room, it meant the time had come for us to leave the gathering.

Header image: Blue Zambad pick-up trucks carrying Iranian oil move along a kutcha portion of the Buleda-Turbat road, while pylons meant to support unbuilt bridges along this route loom in the background.—Photo by the writer

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2024

UPRISING BALOCHISTAN

Gunmen kill 37 in Balochistan: 21 terrorists shot dead by Pakistan security forces

According to government and security officials, on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, militants belonging to outlawed separatist groups carried out four attacks in which 37 people were killed

PTI Karachi 

Published 27.08.24


Heavily armed Baloch gunmen killed at least 37 people in separate attacks in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province on Monday as insurgent attacks spiked in the region bordering Afghanistan.

According to government and security officials, on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, militants belonging to outlawed separatist groups carried out four attacks in which 37 people were killed.

The Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said in a statement that 21 terrorists were also killed in cleanup operations launched after the attacks.

Earlier, Baloch gunmen killed at least 37 people in two separate attacks in Balochistan province on Monday.

In the first incident, at least 23 people from Pakistan’s Punjab province were killed in a targeted attack in Balochistan’s Musakhel district after gunmen offloaded them from buses and checked their identities.

According to Musakhail assistant commissioner Najeeb Kakar, around 10 heavily armed men blocked the inter-provincial highway in Rarasham and offloaded passengers from several buses.

“The dead are reportedly from Punjab,” he said. Some of the vehicles were also set on fire.

Musakhel is approximately 450km northeast of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan.

The rebels regularly target people from the Punjab province by alleging that Punjabis are dominant in the armed forces, which have been fighting the militants in the province.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Ayub Khoso said: “The passengers were told to get off the buses and shot dead after being identified from their national ID cards,” Khoso said.

“Most of those killed belonged to southern Punjab and some are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa suggesting they were killed because of their ethnic background,” he added.

In another incident, officials said 11 people were killed in Kalat, also in Balochistan. The deceased include five civilians and six security personnel, authorities said.

Kalat is 150km to the south of Quetta and is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Baloch tribes.

The banned militant organisation, Baloch Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for these attacks, which coincided with the 18th death anniversary of ethnic Baloch tribal leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti who was killed in a military operation.

The militant groups co-named its violence "Operation Heroof" and simultaneously launched a slew of attacks in various districts of the province.

“They carried out the attack early in the morning and then escaped into the nearby mountains,” SSP Kalat, Dostain Dashti, said on telephone.

Four of the security personnel were killed in another attack in Kolpur area of Bolan district while in the Kadkucha area in Mastung district, militants also attacked a Levies post compound and left a body behind.

The militants also blew up a bridge on a main railway track in Bolan.

Balochistan province has been the centre of clashes between separatist groups and security personnel for a while now and militants have frequently carried out attacks targeting workers, labourers or pilgrims passing through or working in Balochistan.

These groups have also frequently targeted security and government personnel and installations in different parts of the province.

Balochistan attacks

Editorial 

DAWN

Published August 27, 2024 

BAD news keeps coming from Balochistan. Since Sunday night, in a series of coordinated militant attacks across the province, over 70 people, including security personnel, the assailants and ordinary citizens, have lost their lives.

Starting with the execution-style killing of 23 travellers in Musakhail, the terrorists blew up a railway bridge in Bolan, set several vehicles on fire at a Levies station in Mastung, and gunned down 11 people in Kalat before raiding an FC camp in Bela. This has been the most widespread assault in years. The separatist terrorist outfit BLA has claimed responsibility, maintaining that it had seized control of a big portion of the FC camp and most highways.

ISPR asserted that the security forces and law-enforcement agencies responded immediately to these criminal attacks, especially in Musakhail, Kalat and Lasbela, and killed 21 terrorists in ensuing clearance operations. However, it also said that 10 security forces soldiers and four LEAs personnel were martyred during the operation.

These horrific attacks suggest that Baloch militants have intensified their violent campaign against the state and security forces. The army has vowed to bring the “instigators, perpetrators, facilitators and abettors of these heinous and cowardly acts to justice”.

Balochistan has been in turmoil for many decades. The last two decades, especially following the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti in an army operation, have seen the emergence of several armed secessionist groups. Strong evidence is said to link some of them to India and other neighbouring countries, who are opposed to the idea of a secure Pakistan.

These groups have targeted security forces, public installations, Chinese interests, unarmed Punjabi workers in Balochistan, and politicians who, as opposed to the militants, believe in a democratic struggle for the political and economic rights of the Baloch. Their violent acts and the killing of innocent people must be strongly condemned. The intensity of these attacks should put the whole country, especially its military and political guardians, on alert.

That said, although kinetic action against those who target the province so mercilessly is necessary, the civil and security leadership must look deeper into the Balochistan question and identify the factors that have intensified the tension between the Baloch and the state. The reasons behind this wave of disaffection that have led young middle-class men and women to protest are well-known; they pertain to human rights violations, poor socioeconomic conditions, and the denial of political rights. These factors provide a fertile recruiting ground for terrorist groups on the lookout for angry, frustrated elements to join their ranks.

The centre cannot ignore Baloch voices anymore, especially those who condemn violence and want peace and genuine efforts for change. It is only by listening to and cooperating with the people of Balochistan that the terrorists can be eliminated.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2024

Balochistan plunges deeper into militancy vortex

Saleem Shahid 

Published August 27, 2024

  DAWN

A MAN mourns the death of his father, who lost his life in one of the attacks, at a hospital in Quetta, on Monday.—AFP

• 23 identified as passengers from Punjab executed in Musakhail; 6 bodies found in Bolan; 7 killed in Kalat

• 14 soldiers, police martyred while responding to terrorist attacks

• Dozens of vehicles torched; railway bridge, tracks blown up; BLA claims responsibility

• Militants storm paramilitary camp in Bela; ISPR says ‘21 terrorists’ killed in operations

• CM Bugti rules out talks, vows to crush militancy; Naqvi promises ‘tit-for-tat response’, political solution

QUETTA: At least 50 people, including 14 security men, lost their lives in different parts of restive Balochistan as dozens of militants affiliated with the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) — a separatist outfit — went on a rampage across the province, storming police stations, blowing up railway tracks, and setting fire to almost three dozen vehicles.

In subsequent operations, the armed forces’ media wing said 21 militants were neutralised by the security forces as Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi vowed to crush terrorism in the province.

In the latest flare of violence, the militants launched numerous attacks on Sunday midnight, targeting security personnel as well as civilians, particularly those hailing from Punjab.

They attacked police stations, a paramilitary camp in Bela, Levies stations, and blo­cked key roads, including Coastal Highway.

In Musakhail, a district on the border with Punjab, the militants shot dead 23 people after checking their identity documents.

“We found 23 bullet-riddled bodies lying by a roadside,” Ayub Achakzai, Musakhail SSP told Dawn. He added that among the dead bodies, a person who was shot in the legs was rescued.

Besides passengers, the victims included truck drivers who were on their way to Punjab via the Loralai-Dera Ghazi Khan Highway.

The trucks loaded with coal and fruits were set on fire by the militants.

“As many as 35 trucks, passenger vehicles, pick-ups and other vehicles were set on fire on the highway near Rara Sham,” SSP Achakzai said.

Musakhail Assistant Commissioner Mujeeb Kakar said about 35 to 40 assailants armed with automatic weapons intercepted dozens of vehicles and pulled 23 travellers from buses before shooting them dead on the basis of their ethnic identity.

In Khadkocha, a group of militants after blocking the highway stormed the local police station and took Levies officials hostage for several hours. They managed to esc­ape after security forces arrived at the scene but not before setting the premises on fire.

In Kalat, militants attacked a Levies station, two hotels, and the residence of a tribal elder besides setting alight a toll plaza on the national highway.

In the exchange of fire, 11 people, including four Levies officials and a police sub-inspector, lost their lives whereas nine people, including Kalat Assistant Commissioner Aftab Lasi, were injured.

In Bolan’s Kolpur area, six bodies were recovered. Security officials believed they were also shot dead by militants.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti addresses a press conference at CM House, on Monday.—PPI

In Lasbela, the militants stormed a camp of the Frontier Corps after ramming an explosive-laden vehicle into the main gate and entered the premises under the cover of heavy gunfire.

Similarly, militants blocked several highways in Mastung, Kalat, Bela, Turbat, and Panjgur in addition to the all-important Coastal Highway, which connects Karachi with Gwadar. The militants blew up a railway bridge near Kolpur, cutting off Quetta from the rest of the country and another track near Mastung, disconnecting the rail link with Iran.

Subsequently, all passenger trains to Punjab, Karachi, Peshawar, and Chaman were cancelled while goods trains for Iran were also stopped.

‘14 martyred’

In a statement on Monday, the Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) said “21 terrorists” were killed while 14 soldiers, including four law enforcers, embraced martyrdom.

“Security forces and law enforcement agencies immediately responded and successfully thwarted the evil design(s) of terrorists and sent twenty-one terrorists to hell in ensuing clearance operations, ensuring security and protection of local populace,” the ISPR said. “However, during the conduct of operations, fourteen brave sons of the soil, including ten security forces soldiers, and four personnel of law enforcement agencies, having fought gallantly, made the ultimate sacrifice and embraced shahadat.” The military’s media wing said sanitisation operations were being conducted and the instigators, perpetrators, facilitators, and abettors of these heinous and cowardly acts, targeting innocent civilians, would be brought to justice.

Meanwhile, the banned BLA claimed responsibility for the attacks. In a statement, the banned outfit said the Majeed brigade carried out the attacks and two suicide bombers, including a female attack­­er, targeted the FC camp in Bela.

The pictures of the bombers were released on its social media site and they were identified as Mahal Baloch alias Zalan Kurd, a resident of Gwadar district, and Rizwan Baloch alias Hammal, also a resident of Gwadar.

Bugti, Naqvi denounce attacks

CM Bugti condemned the incident and expressed heartfelt sympathy and condolences to the families of those who died in the attacks.

“The terrorists and their facilitators will not be able to escape an exemplary end,” he said in a statement. The Balochistan government will pursue these terrorists, he added.

Meanwhile, in a press conference at the CM Secretariat, Sarfraz Bugti claimed the militants used 4G internet to spread their message and suggested that there should be a debate in the provincial assembly on the matter. He said family members of BLA chief Bashir Zeb were government employees and it was now time for them to decide if they were with the state or the separatists.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, through a statement posted by his ministry of ‘X’, formerly Twitter, vowed to “bring forward the facts along with evidence after investigations” into the attacks.

“These destructive incidents are a conspiracy to create instability in Pakistan. The enemy wants to create anarchy in the country under a plan,” Mr Naqvi claimed.

Vowing to take “every possible step” to restore law and order in Balochistan, the minister asserted: “The terrorists and their enablers will not be able to find a place to hide.”

“If someone thinks that by such cowardly acts, they can defeat the nation’s unwavering determination, they are mistaken,” he said.

Separately, the interior minister told reporters in Lahore that the decision to launch the Azm-i-Istehkam operation in Balochistan was a tricky matter, but added that the political leadership would decide in a few days. He said that a tit-for-tat response would be given to terrorists, besides seeking a political solution, APP added.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2024

Quest for justice

Tariq Khosa 

Published August 24, 2024

DAWN

THERE comes a time in the life of nations when citizens start to feel that the social contract between them and the state is on the verge of collapse. What holds them together is the national purpose, postulated through constitutional frameworks and based on the rule of law, justice and equity.

I feel very despondent and disappointed after a recent visit to Balochistan where the state seems to have lost its narrative of national cohesion due to the follies of those who wield actual power in the province. The sense of despair is so palpable that one starts to lose hope in a peaceful and prosperous future for this land of great promise.

As a police officer, I served in Balochistan for almost five years as superintendent/ senior superintendent in the early 1980s, and as inspector general in 2007. Both tenures were under the military eras of Gen Ziaul Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf. In fact, Balochistan has mostly been under direct or indirect, but overt, military rule. The early 1980s witnessed the post-1970s Bhutto-era counter-insurgency development phase as well as the post-1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The gun culture prevailed. The state was fully involved in promoting jihad as an instrument of proxy war between the US and Soviet Union.

Every other day in Quetta, there were bomb blasts and acts of sabotage against state institutions. The police bore the brunt as the front-line law-enforcement agency. My nights were spent on city roads trying to enhance police vigilance against saboteurs and some criminal elements amongst the Afghan refugees. New colonies like Pashtunabad were established by refugees who could not be confined to camps on the Afghan border areas of Pishin and Quetta districts. Additionally, the theocratic revolution in Iran in 1979 added another law-and-order dimension to the Shia-Sunni sectarian violence — another proxy war at our doorstep.

Such multidimensional challenges were faced by the then-military government through good governance and the infusion of massive development funds through the state machinery in the shape of the bureaucracy and security services, including the police, FC and army. Gen Rahimuddin was a tough governor and hard taskmaster. He ensured that civil service and police officers were posted on merit.

The lesson was this: respect the Baloch and trust the Pathan; they’ll never stab you in the back.

We served under three outstanding chief secretaries Sheikh Jamil Ahmed, Saleem Abbas Jilani and Savak Rustam Poonegar, and three outstanding IGs Dilshad Najmuddin, Syed Saadat Ali Shah and Kamer Alam. They ensured that the best officers were posted as deputy commissioners/ commissioners and district SPs/ DIGs. The cream of the DMG and PSP were called in from Punjab, Sindh and NWFP (KP) and posted to field assignments for top-class service delivery and effective law enforcement.

I spent four years from 1982 to 1985 in Balochistan as additional SP Quetta, SP Sibi (including Kachhi, Dera Bugti, Kohlu and Kahan) and SSP Quetta. We served with a sense of pride in a province that was recovering after a military operation and political turmoil. The people and tribal elders gave us respect and we cherished our time spent in remote regions. We were far away from home but never felt unwelcome in the lands of the proud Baloch and Pakhtuns. The lesson we learnt and propagated to those in the corridors of power in Islamabad and Rawalpindi was this: give respect to the Baloch and trust the Pathan; they will never stab you in the back.

Balochistan in the first decade of the 21st century was in the even more severe grip of our military establishment under Musharraf. The West’s ill-conceived war on terror resulted in militancy, violence and mayhem, particularly near the Pak-Afghan border, and generally across Pakistan, with Karachi becoming a haven for militant groups.

Balochistan faced another phase of insurgency that intensified with the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti near Kohlu on Aug 26, 2006. Prior to that, the issue of enforced disappearances had created discontent. Dr Allah Nazar, a Baloch student leader from Turbat and a gold medallist from Bolan Medical College Quetta, was picked up from Karachi in 2005. His brother was killed in illegal custody. He became a dissident and formed the Baloch Liberation Front, launching attacks against state institutions from near Turbat on the Pak-Iran border. This is when the leadership of Baloch dissidents passed on from sardars like the Marris, Mengals and Bugtis to the lower-middle- and middle-class youth.

The policy of persecution has led another young doctor Mahrang Baloch of Kalat to capture the imagination of the Baloch youth. Her struggle started when her father was found murdered two years after his enforced disappearance. The active participation of women is a unique feature of the movement. It is a radical departure from the Baloch culture and has pitted women (symbols of honour and the custodians of homes and hearths) directly against the state.

The matter is no longer in the hands of the Baloch nationalist political parties that have become irrelevant. This is the direct result of the massive rigging carried out by the deep state in the Feb 8 national elections. The people of Balochistan are angry at the blatant misuse of authority and corruption by those who conducted the polls. We are witnessing the erosion of the state’s writ.

As a patriot, I beseech the power brokers to pay heed to the alarming situation in Balochistan. They must distinguish between the bullet and ballot. They must abandon their barrel-of-the-gun tunnel vision and open all channels of communication with Balochistan’s disgruntled youth.

To avoid a total meltdown, immediate course correction is needed. The results of the fraudulent Feb 8 polls must be scrapped, and new fair and free elections held under an impartial ECP. Let power be transferred to the genuine representatives. A caretaker government comprising persons of known integrity and credibility must be set up to ensure good governance and impartiality. Above all, let us stop tinkering with the Constitution and laws. And those in position of authority should neither seek nor be given an extension in their tenures.

The writer is a former inspector general of police.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2024

Indian police fire teargas at hundreds protesting over Kolkata doctor’s rape, murder

Reuters 

Published August 27, 2024 

Police in India fired teargas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters marching in the eastern city of Kolkata on Tuesday to demand the resignation of a top state minister in the wake of a gruesome rape and murder of a trainee doctor.

Protesters led by university students broke through the iron barricades set up on the route of their march to the West Bengal state secretariat, television footage showed, resulting in a baton charge by the police, who had earlier declared the protest illegal.

The August 9 attack on the 31-year-old doctor has caused nationwide outrage, similar to the widespread protests witnessed after a 2012 gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi, with campaigners saying women continue to suffer from high levels of sexual violence despite tougher laws.

A police volunteer has been arrested for the crime and the federal police have taken over the investigation.

Junior doctors have refused to see non-emergency patients in many parts of the country since the incident at Kolkata’s state-run R.G. Kar Medical College, as they launched protests demanding justice for the victim and greater safety for women at hospitals.

India’s Supreme Court has created a hospital safety task force and has requested protesting doctors return to work, but some have refused to budge, including in West Bengal, of which Kolkata is the capital.

On Tuesday, more than 5,000 policemen were deployed in Kolkata and the neighbouring city of Howrah, a senior officer said, as the protests led by some university students took off, demanding the resignation of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Kunal Ghosh, a spokesperson for Banerjee’s ruling Trinamool Congress Party, blamed the police crackdown on “lawlessness” created by workers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which is the main opposition party in the state, as well as groups affiliated to it.

The BJP has extended its support to the protesting students, while senior state leader Suvendu Adhikari told reporters that Banerjee’s administration was trying to suppress the rape and murder incident — a charge the state government has denied.

PAKISTAN



Small farmers feeling climate change heat find little support from the state

Karachi’s searing heat is killing livestock by the thousands, laying bare the lethal cost of climate inaction and the government’s failure to shield Pakistan’s most vulnerable.

Zofeen T. Ebrahim 

Published August 23, 2024
DAWN

The over 20 million residents of Pakistan’s port city of Karachi, in Sindh province in particular, have been experiencing brutal heat since May. But they are not the only ones bearing the brunt of high temperatures and humidity.
Up to 15,000 cattle died due to scorching heat mixed with high humidity which Shakir Umar Gujjar, president of the Cattle and Dairy Farmers Association, Pakistan, said was “no joke”.

Mubashir Abbas, owner of 170 heads, lost eight cows and five buffaloes to the “extreme heat” in the last week of June, which translates to a loss of Rs5.5 million (USD 19,800) for him.

“Three more are running high fever and I will have to sell them to cut my losses,” he told IPS over phone from Bhains Colony, in Karachi’s Landhi district. “I will fetch no more than Rs40,000 (USD 143) a piece, when the market rate for each healthy one is valued between Rs1.5 and 2 million (USD 5,300-7,000),” he estimated. Every now and then, in the last 23 years, he would lose a few to disease, but he had never “seen a healthy animal dying from heat.”

Livestock, the largest sub-sector in agriculture, contributed 60.84 per cent to agriculture and 14.63pc to the country’s GDP during 2023-2024, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey. More than eight million rural families are engaged in livestock production, accounting for 35-40pc of their total income.

About 15,000 cattle died due scorching heat mixed with high humidity in Sindh province, Pakistan. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS

“From June 23 to 30, Karachi experienced a heatwave with temperatures ranging between 40 and 42°C. The ‘feel-like’ temperature went up to 54°C due to high humidity,” said Dr Sardar Sarfaraz, chief meteorologist at the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

Dr Nazeer Hussain Kalhoro, director general at the government’s Sindh Institute of Animal Health in the Livestock and Fisheries Department in Karachi, attributed extreme heat to the death of livestock, especially exotic and crossed breeds.

The temperature was still lower than the deadly 2015 heatwave temperature of 44.8°C that claimed over 2,000 human lives when the feel-like heat index exceeded 60°C, said Sarfaraz. “A much bigger number of animals died then, and many young animals had to be slaughtered,” said Gujjar.

The heat had adversely affected the milk production of the over 800,000 cattle in Karachi, said Gujjar. “When an animal is in stress and discomfort, due to extreme heat, its intake of regular amount of fodder decreases, which can result in decrease in milk production,” said Kalhoro.

“I was getting between 1,400 and 1,480 kilograms in a day; it is not more than 960kg now. I lose 0.11 million rupees (USD 400) daily,” said Abbas.
Communication gap

The lack of engagement with the farmer by the government was the reason. Gujjar said the communication gap between the Ministry of National Food Security and Research at the federal level and the livestock departments at the provincial departments meant the uneducated farmer was on his own.

“The biggest tragedy is that our farmer is not educated and also unaware of how to prepare or protect the animal from the vagaries of climate,” said Gujjar, adding: “They do their own traditional treatment of their animals, which results in even more avoidable deaths.”

Similar is the plight of small farmers who remain in the eye of the climate storm. “They are continuously in a reactive mode,” said Mahmood Nawaz Shah, president of a farmers’ group, the Sindh Abadgar Board, with “government policies not conducive to them”.

Giving examples, Shah said the minimum price of cotton was fixed and notified at Rs8,500/kg (UAD 30) but growers received Rs5,200/kg (USD 18); a 50-kilo bag of urea increased from Rs 1,700 to Rs 4,600 (USD 6 to 16) in just three years; and the artificial shortage for the same last year meant the farmer had to pay Rs5,500 for the same bag from the black market.

“We had recommended to the government to develop a climate endowment fund and compensate small farmers by involving insurance companies as soon as extreme events lead to crop and livestock losses,” said Shah.

Both the farmers, Gujjar and Shah, have hit the nail on the head on why Pakistan, one of the most vulnerable to climate crises, is unable to manage it effectively. The disconnect and lack of coordination between different federal and their related provincial government bodies is found across the spectrum and is highlighted in the 2024 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) as a major reason that hampered policy implementation, placing Pakistan on the 30th position among 63 countries and the EU, which collectively account for over 90pc of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. “Improved cooperation between different levels of government would be a step in the right direction,” it concluded.

Similarly, the 2024 Environmental Performance Index that assesses the progress of effectiveness of 180 countries in mitigating climate change, relying on historical greenhouse gas emissions data, put Pakistan three rungs down at 179th rank this year from the 176th position it held in 2022.
Indifference and apathy

Both the CCPI and the EPI are a clear giveaway of government’s nonchalance. The latter index has especially pointed to areas like air pollution, wastewater treatment, protected areas management and climate mitigation.

“The country is slipping on most environmental indicators,” agreed former climate change minister, Malik Amin Aslam, pointing to the weak air pollution control measures, non-adherence to the electric vehicles transition and failure to promote renewables. From being a country championing the global green cause in 2022 to now “ignominiously slipping down the environmental performance ladder” should certainly raise alarm bells for our current green policy makers, warned Aslam.

The 2022 floods, which should have acted as a wake-up call for the government, he said, failed to move the government towards preparedness and improving the health of the environment.

Maha Qasim, CEO of Zero-Point Partners, an environmental management and consulting firm, said: “No significant effort had been made in building climate-resilient infrastructure like roads, drainage systems and flood management facilities like levees or reservoirs.

The EPI has pointed towards Pakistan’s use of coal as a driver.

Putting things in perspective, Qasim said that in 2021, only around 14pc of Pakistan’s energy mix was based on coal, while it figured 45pc and 63pc in India’s and Estonia’s energy mix. But in the last two years, Pakistan’s overall GHG emissions as well as CO2 have declined, due to “Pakistan’s overall performance capita emissions from fossil fuels and industry have declined due to stagnant economic growth,” she said.

Thus, Pakistan is well within its carbon budget and has met its Nationally Determined Contribution commitments to the UNFCCC.

The updated NDCs of 2021 have pledged to reduce emissions by 50%, shifting to renewable energy by 60pc and 30pc to electric vehicles by 2030, and a complete ban on importing coal.

Poor transport fuel regulations, old and inefficient vehicles on the road, mass cutting down of trees to make way for rapid urbanization, burning of agricultural residue and poor solid waste management have also been mentioned for Pakistan’s poor score.

Aslam, however, said the index failed to “register or recognise” Pakistan’s efforts on reforestation—the Billion Tree Tsunami Afforestation Project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, followed by 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Programme across the country. “The EPI ranking can certainly enhance its acceptability and credibility by improving these areas,” he said.

Weak governance

Sobia Kapadia, a humanitarian aid practitioner, added factors like “weak governance, turning to fire-fighting and ad-hoc measures” whenever a climate crisis arises, thereby destroying the symbiosis.

“Heat, rain and floods are all connected to the core issue of human-induced development; but blaming heat and humidity on climate change is like blaming the naughtiest child,” said Kapadia, citing resorts being constructed in the mountains by cutting trees.

In yet another recent report that gives insights to investors and helps governments in setting carbon market-friendly policies, Pakistan comes 39th out of 40 countries.

Khalid Waleed, an energy economics expert at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), was quoted by media saying “for the first time in budget history, the government has tagged projects worth Rs53 billion under climate change adaptation and Rs225 billion under climate change mitigation,” referring to the budget presented earlier this month. However, he added that the budget was not climate change project-specific but had been tagged for their climate benefits.

Ziaul Islam finds the budget allocation “rather tricky” to understand as it not only indicates development projects from the Ministry of Planning Development & Special Initiatives, but foreign-funded projects and projects under various ministries and provinces.

Environmental and public policy analyst Dawar Butt, comparing the country’s miniscule environmental spending to India and Bangladesh, said climate did not seem to be a priority. He further added that the climate change allocation has been “cut down by one billion rupees from what finally got approved in this year’s budget.”

Handling climate change on piecemeal basis

But it is not just how the government is handling climate change. Referring to a climate risk awareness survey conducted by GIZ Pakistan, Qasim highlighted that while many organisations are beginning to acknowledge the impact of climate change on their business models, their approach towards dealing with it was “incomplete and fragmented with a focus on climate mitigation” to meet external requirements of clients or regulators rather than on long-term business sustainability.

Due to the funding fatigue, Zia ul Islam suggested the “begging attitude” may be replaced by capacity building of concerned authorities, bringing in necessary improvements in the legal instruments and effective implementation.“

Good news

If Pakistan can somehow link smooth governance with climate finance and showcase to the world that it can fund its own climate solutions, it will give local and international companies the confidence to invest in the country. This year’s Financing Climate Action report by Transparency International states Pakistan has a huge potential to “dollarise climate adaptive and mitigative projects” provided climate governance is improved.

Flood insurance initiatives for farmers, for example, said Qasim, at very low markup rates, have the potential to be “scaled up across the country to increase flood resilience.”

Header image: The extreme heat adversely affected the milk production of the over 800,000 cattle in Karachi. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS

This article was originally published in Inter Press Service and has been reproduced here with permission.

PAKISTAN

Fishing industry holds export potential worth billions if proper procedure followed: expert

Dawn.com 

Published August 27, 2024

Pakistan’s fishing industry holds an export potential worth $4 billion if it follows the proper procedure that India has adopted, according to an expert.

In an interview with DawnNewsTv show ‘All Things Money’, Al-Karam Investments Director Faraz Zafar said that Pakistani fish farmers could produce a “dollarised output” if a proper ecosystem was developed for them, emphasising that the fishing industry had the potential to reach $4 billion if the proper procedure was followed.

Zafar pointed out that despite the volume of the country’s fishing industry, fish farmers were unable to export as much as other countries in the region — such as India and Sri Lanka — in the absence of proper guidelines.

“We export quite a bit of seafood in terms of volume, however, most of our trawlers don’t have proper processing on board and so what you get is essentially almost spoiled fish by the time we get to the harvest,” he said

He cited the example of his interaction with a Sri Lankan entity which was shocked by the amount of catch in Pakistan’s harbours.

“You have to go back to changing the regulations on how trawlers work,” he said, adding that fish and shrimp farms could be high-value items if developed properly in the country.

Comparing India’s fishing industry to Pakistan, he said that the latter faced export bans from countries such as the US for not having turtle extrusion devices. He said that India faced similar prohibitions, however, it had found a way to navigate through those bans.

“There is a proper procedure for you to have a certified product from a farm rather than the ocean,” he stated, adding that currently, the country exported around only $37 million worth of fish so they had to “catch up” with the rest of the region.



As for cotton, when asked why textiles were still being imported, he said it was easier because “there was less trash”.

“It just makes so much more sense that you can solve these issues simultaneously, the quality of cotton, pricing of the cotton, and the availability of the cotton.

“You have to remember that we are now a water-scarce country and cotton is a very water-intensive crop,” he said.

When compared to rice, which is also a very water-intensive crop and is still exported, he replied that cotton manufacturing involved a lot more stages compared to rice, which resulted in more spoilage.

As for using drones for irrigation, he said there was little regulation when it came to drones and the first thing to do was devise regulations to avoid red tape.

“As a drone operator, what you’re doing is you’re scanning over large farms, it will come back and tell you everything from weed count to termination rates to plant count,” he said, “It can come back and feed that data into a computer.

“A different drone with pesticides can get up go to exactly where the weeds are, spray just there, and if a farm has less than 3 per cent pesticide used in the area, it can be certified organic,” he said.

“All of a sudden you have the machinery to make almost any good farm certified organic.”

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PAKISTAN

The final umpire

Khwaja Ahmad Hosain

Published August 24, 2024

DAWN

WHEN Imran Khan was the prime minister he tried to stop the vote of no confidence against him through a ruling by the deputy Speaker of the National Assembly. The Supreme Court took suo motu notice. The PML-N and PPP-P also petitioned the Supreme Court.

The court set aside a ruling of the deputy Speaker and also declared unlawful Imran Khan’s attempt to dissolve the National Assembly. All of this was done through a short order.

The short order of the court gave detailed directions to the Speaker regarding the holding of the vote of no-confidence. It was criticised at the time by supporters of the PTI as being a case of judicial overreach. How could the court direct an independent constitutional organ like the legislature regarding the manner in which it was to undertake its internal affairs? Ultimately, the short order was implemented. The detailed reasons came much later. Mr Imran Khan was removed. We went back to Purana Pakistan.

The five-member bench of the court that gave this decision was headed by chief justice Umar Ata Bandial. It also comprised justices Ijazul Ahsan and Munib Akhtar. The decision by a bench which included these three judges paved the way for the removal of the PTI government and for the PDM to take charge. They were hailed by supporters of the PDM and by others as heroes for upholding the Constitution.

For these same supporters, the judicial heroes later became villains. This reflects an unfortunate tendency amongst litigants in our legal landscape. When a judge or court endorses their perspective, they are hailed as brilliant independent jurists. When a decision comes against them, the decision is characterised as unconstitutional or unlawful and aspersions are cast on the character or motives of the judge. What is conspicuously lacking both on the part of the government and litigants generally is a trait which underpins any functioning system: a graceful acceptance of defeat.

For the same supporters, the judicial heroes later became villains. This reflects an unfortunate tendency.

Where humans interact, disputes are inevitable. Mechanisms have been evolved for resolution of disputes. In a cricket match, the decision of the umpire is final. If either party refuses to accept the umpire’s final call, chaos ensues and there can be no match. Two critical elements of a fair dispute resolution process are that, first, the rules must be clear prior to the start of the game.

Second, the umpire who is to apply these rules should be independent and trusted by both sides. In cricket, it was Imran Khan who was at the forefront of the demand for neutral umpires. In his subsequent political life, he appeared through some of his rhetoric to have developed an antipathy to neutrality in situations where it was essential.

The Constitution sets out the rules that are to apply in the case of the government of our country. Under Article 5, every citizen has a duty to obey the Constitution and the law. Generals, judges and legislators each assume an additional obligation. They swear an oath as prescribed by the Constitution. This oath of office requires them to uphold the Constitution. Swearing an oath is a solemn act, invoking a divine witness, regarding one’s future conduct.

The Constitution establishes courts for the resolution of disputes. The Supreme Court is the apex court. It has the final say. For the constitutional system to function, its orders must be implemented. Litigants do not have the option of refusing to implement court orders on the basis that they view them as unconstitutional or wrong.

The Speaker of the National Assembly, although a constitutional office with immunity for certain actions, did not have the option in the vote of no confidence case to refuse to implement a court order. Neither did the then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani when he was required to write to the Swiss authorities in connection with certain bank accounts. In the case of reserved seats, the Election Commission is similarly placed. It must implement the court order. Any other view results in the collapse of the constitutional system.

Two arguments are presented to counter this perspective. First, it is submitted that parliament is sovereign and the supreme lawmaking body. Therefore, judicial interpretation or review which undermines parliament undermines the will of the people. This view is wrong. The Constitution embodies the will of the people as a historic community and was adopted by the Constituent Assembly which was an assembly elected for this purpose. The Constitution expressly contemplates judicial review of legislation. To this extent, parliament is not sovereign.

As justice Jawwad Khawaja explains in his book, we must rid ourselves of alien concepts like “parliamentary sovereignty” which are not part of our constitutional framework. By enforcing the Constitution and striking down legislation or other unlawful actions on the part of constitutional bodies, the courts are in fact giving effect to the will of the people as embodied in the Constitution.

Second, a contextual argument is presented based on past Supreme Court decisions which have haunted us as a nation. It is submitted that since the Supreme Court made such terrible mistakes in the past, it cannot insist on compliance of its orders. This is an argument for judicial humility rather than non-compliance of court orders. We cannot be a hostage to our past. The Supreme Court has corrected some of its past errors. This is to be welcomed. Other institutions and departments must also introspect. We must not let our troubled past define and ruin our future.

Where there are disputes and a prescribed process is followed for their resolution, the losing party must learn to gracefully accept defeat and move on. When the defeated start undermining the status as opposed to the reasoning of majority Supreme Court decisions, we all suffer. You can disagree with passion.

For the constitutional order to function, you must comply. Today’s victors may be tomorrow’s losers. If we are to prosper, it is the constitutional scheme that must be protected. The decision of the final umpire must be implemented.

The writer is an advocate of the Supreme Court.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2024

What she wore

Muna Khan

Published August 25, 2024 

DAWN

ON the day I sat down to write this piece about a PTI leader’s objection to a woman’s clothing, this paper’s front page carried a photograph of doctors at Ganga Ram hospital protesting the administration’s attempts to bury the alleged rape of a five-year-old girl. A member of the janitorial staff in Lahore has been arrested. According to the hospital’s medical superintendent, the janitor “touched” the girl at 2am and was apprehended after she made a lot of noise. Young doctors, however, tell a different story of the girl’s screams during the assault which alerted patients’ attendants who helped nab the alleged rapist.

I wonder what the five-year-old girl was wearing as she slept with her mother in the hospital before she was attacked. I wonder what the mother was wearing.

A woman’s clothes are responsible for all ills in society — she will be molested or raped or killed whether she is in aam shalwar kameez or covered head to toe or in a shroud in her grave. Her body is up for grabs the moment she steps out of her home, for whatever reason — to study, work, buy groceries etc. A woman’s body is the topic of conversation whether she is being stripped of her right to wear the hijab in one country or forced into wearing one in another.




No man should police a woman’s body.

I bring up clothing because of PTI lawmaker Iqbal Afridi’s recent comments about the “inappropriate” clothing worn by a woman executive at a power division’s committee hearing. After the high-level executive gave her presentation and left the room, Afridi said she should not have attended the meeting in such an outfit and suggested devising a standard operating procedure for women’s clothing.

My first thought was to wonder what she could have possibly worn to this meeting until I stopped myself. It isn’t about what she was or wasn’t wearing. No man should police a woman’s body. When he does so, he dehumanises her and allows others to disrespect her too. Men fault women for their clothing which arms the ‘she was asking for it’ brigade. This is simply wrong.

Yet here we are.

Incidentally, the chair of the committee apologised for the incident but to my knowledge so far, Afridi hasn’t. Neither has anyone from the party, including its women supporters, distanced themselves from his inappropriate remark.

This partisanship is a real hurdle to progress in society. While elected representatives have come together to pass laws against sexual crimes, it is not enough. As this paper noted some months ago, “over 80 per cent of suspected sex offenders in the country are acquitted because of deficient investigation, weak prosecution, out-of-court settlements and pending cases in the lower courts.”

Men just get away with things here.

Data about women in this country make for a depressing read. Pakistan was ranked 145th out of 146 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Gender Gap Index, a drop from 142 in the previous year. At least 10,201 cases of violence against women were registered last year, according to a report in this paper in March. This was up by 14.5pc from the previous year.

Lawmakers’ statements matter more against this backdrop. Men have policed women since forever but when they prioritise it over intelligence, skills and competence, it becomes problematic. Men cannot decide what is appropriate for women to wear and women must stand up to such bullies.

Perhaps a great example of challenging the policers came in April when YouTuber Shaila Khan shut down her interviewee who said the problem in the country was that women had strayed from Islamic values and then he placed a dupatta on her. She immediately removed it and asked “why does your version of Islam begin and end with a dupatta” before schooling him further on disrespecting her space, touching her without her permission and rejecting him calling her his sister. The best bit was when another woman spoke up in her support, saying Shaila had the right to dress as she wanted. This was a great example of how even one person’s support gives a woman courage and conviction knowing she is not alone.

Oh to see any collective action in parliament, where many women’s clothing or appearance have also been the subject of censure or ridicule. Imagine if women parliamentarians ignored party positions and came together to say we will not work until this rapist is held accountable, this harasser is arrested for his crime, this man is held accountable for promoting rape culture and so forth. But women leaders seem to enforce patriarchal values in parliament, perhaps because they don’t want to upset leadership and lose their seats. This is most disappointing. The five-year-old girl deserves more than our sympathy. She must know she has advocates beyond young doctors who want to do right by her.

The writer is an instructor of journalism.
X: @LedeingLady

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2024

Indo-US ties

Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry 

Published August 25, 2024

  DAWN

T

IN the first 50 years of its existence as an independent state, India had uneasy ties with the US. India preferred in those years a close partnership with the Soviet Union. Since the dawn of the 21st century, however, India’s relationship with the US has morphed into a strategic partnership, with unprecedented levels of politico-military cooperation. The primary dynamic behind this upswing is the US competition with China, a rising economic and military power. The US would like to see India as a counterweight to China, and has engaged it in its Indo-Pacific strategy, the Quad, and similar initiatives that are seemingly aimed at containing the further rise of China.

The Indo-US strategic partnership covers a broad range of areas of cooperation. Notably, the US is India’s largest trading partner in goods and services, whose value has grown 10 times since 2000, and the third largest source of FDI for India. Americans of Indian origin have integrated well into American society, and are occupying important positions in the political, economic and technology domains. The relationship enjoys bipartisan support in the US Congress, where India is viewed as a fellow democracy. The India Caucus in the US Congress has over 150 members.

What has further cemented Indo-US ties is a consistent rise in the economic profile of India, which has come a long way from an inward-looking economy, facing a serious balance-of payments crisis in 1991 to a broadly liberal economy, the fifth largest in 2024, with aspirations to become the third largest in the near term. India has also surpassed China to become the world’s most populous country and emerged as a lucrative market for the US-led West. Its foreign currency reserves exceed $650 billion.

With increased wealth at its disposal, India is currently the fourth largest military spender. Its defence cooperation with the US is multifaceted, and includes a growing number of joint military exercises. Defence procurements from the US are also increasing, and major US-origin platforms are now in India’s use. The two countries have signed a series of defence agreements to pave the way for access to each other’s logistics, encrypted communications, geospatial intelligence, and fast-track technology exchange. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2023 visit to the US, Washington agreed to the co-production of F-414 jet engines, including significant technology transfer for India’s indigenous aircraft manufacturing capabilities, and an agreement to supply India with advanced drones to enhance its intel and operational capabilities.


The Indo-US partnership covers a range of areas of cooperation.

However, the US has serious concerns about the relationship. According to the Stimson Centre, there are hurdles to taking cooperation to the next level. Firstly, India’s capacity to absorb foreign technology faces many legal, coordination, and procedural issues. Secondly, the US is ‘unsure’ of India’s political will to deter China in the Western Pacific, because India’s priority seems to be the Indian Ocean region. Thirdly, India has not blocked its trade and investment ties with China. Fourthly, Washington is deeply concerned over New Delhi’s close relations with Moscow and its independent stance on Ukraine and the purchase of Russian oil. Fifthly, India is teaming up with BRICS to explore trade in currencies other than the dollar. Sixthly, the US has concerns over India’s policy of persecuting religious minorities and sending operatives to assassinate opponents on foreign soil.

This is not to suggest that the US is having second thoughts about its relationship with India. In fact, it is going out of its way to ignore the In­­dian leadership’s tendency to assert India’s ‘strategic autonomy’. Al­­th­ough the Ameri­can ambassador to India was blunt in challenging the use of the term ‘strategic autono­­my’, his government did waive the CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act) for India to let it buy a missile system from Russia.

Last month, Senator Marco Rubio introduced a bill in Congress calling for treating India like Japan, Israel, South Korea and Nato members, in terms of sharing advanced weaponry with it. The bill was blatantly anti-China and also echoed the Indian view of Pakistan.

The US tilt raises deep security concerns for Pakistan as it encourages the Indian leadership to act as a net security provider, ie, hegemon, in South Asia. Washington tends to view Islamabad from the lens of Sino-Pak ties, and thus maintains minimal contact with it.

It is clear that whoever wins the US presidential elections in November will continue efforts to strengthen Indo-US ties, and would be unlikely to change the low-profile trajectory of Pak-US relations, which might oblige Pakistan to explore other options.

The writer is a former foreign secretary, and chairman Sanober Institute Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2024