Topic: Reforms in FATA; what are the hindrances? Guests: Ayesha Syed (member Parliament of Jamaat-e-Islami) Zar Ali Khan Afridi (social activist) Theme: The program focuses on the primary role of the Parliament (National Assembly & Senate) and the hindrances that come in the way of legislation on FATA. The discussion will primarily focus on the following core questions surrounding the empathy of the mainstream political parties towards FATA. Is it necessary to amend the Constitution of 1973 and enable the Parliamentarians to legislate on FATA by passing the powers  of legislation under the Article 247 to the Parliament? Why Reforms are taking so long? How women and their rights are affected? Would FATA could be mainstreamed and brought at paar with the rest of Pakistan? Will the situation in FFATA become normal under the current constitutional status? WATCH EPISODE - 09 PROMO https://vimeo.com/113695922

Most of Pakistan’s state-owned corporations are in the red, and profusely bleeding. Even the Privatization Commission and Pakistan Cricket Board are living off the blood and sweat of poor Pakistanis. In 2013-14 alone, the federal government doled out about Rs 95 billion to a handful of state corporations in the name of stabilization and restructuring. Among them, Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) stands out as a white elephant – surviving on massive financial infusions by the central government for decades, with its resources being plundered by the colluding trio of the management, the contractors and the suppliers. In April, the government handed out an Rs 18.5 billion bailout package to this den of corruption, where according to a presentation to the prime minister in April 2013, average monthly losses run at a whopping Rs 1.5 billion. In 2009, the PSM received a bailout package of Rs 40.5 billion. Yet, the massive corruption, mismanagement and vested interests have rendered it good for nothing, with the result that in October, the plant could produce only 1,870 tons of iron and steel – a small fraction of its daily capacity of 91,667 tons. In fact, it has been running at a mere ten percent of its capacity most of the time in the last several years. Insiders say its cumulative liabilities currently stand at over Rs 260 billion. “The landmass alone is priceless; it’s like a gold mine”  The PSM has been a classic case of managerial fraud, willful bureaucratic deception, political patronage of professional incompetence, and blatant abuse of the governmental authority to appoint cronies. Why then do we continue injecting money into a bottomless pit? Potential investors with inside knowledge say the Pakistan Steel Mills promise much more than what the doctored balance sheets say. An encounter with an industry lobbyist offers an instructive insight into the reasons behind the scramble for the PSM. After a tour of the massive premises in July 2005, a German member of...

The European Union (EU) has voiced serious concern over worsening ties between Pakistan and India, urging the two nuclear-armed neighbours to resume the stalled peace process. EU Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark addressed Foreign Affairs committee of the National Assembly on Wednesday, December 3.  Apart from India-Pakistan stalled peace process, he also urges on the need of reforms in political system, devolution of power to the grass root level, deteriorating situation of Human Rights and uplift of the Pakistan economy. Below is the speech of EU ambassador •Dear Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, honourable members of the National Assembly, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to address you on EU-Pakistan relations. •We have been working hard in recent years to strengthen EU-Pakistan relations, expanding beyond the traditional sectors of trade and development cooperation. To this end, the EU and Pakistan adopted in 2012 a 5-Year Engagement Plan. Pakistan is the only country with which such a Plan exists, illustrating the importance we attach to our relationship. •The Engagement Plan aims at facilitating cooperation on a wide range of issues, including democracy, human rights, rule of law, economic cooperation, energy, counter terrorism and migration. We are now working to implement this Plan and to translate it into concrete results. •2013 already bore of this Engagement Plan with two very important milestones: the EU Election Observation Mission for the general elections in May and the granting of GSP+ status for Pakistan in December. •At the end of 2014, the EU will start rolling out its next seven year framework for development cooperation with Pakistan with a budget of €653 million. It is a 53% increase compared to the previous seven years, demonstrating the seriousness of our commitment. Our programmes will focus on rural development, education, rule of law, respect for human rights, strengthening of democratic institutions, economic...

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas touching Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan suffer a toxic mix of state and non-state violence and neglect. The consequences are unlikely to be good. Whether it’s the drone strikes, terrorism or military operations in FATA, all of them lead to the killing of the innocent people. Through drone strikes, civilian casualties occur and through military operations hatred and enmity against the state multiplies. These are the sentiments of a Pakistani student from Frontier Region Bannu in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). At Pakistan’s lawless frontier, this is a semi-autonomous entity abutting Afghanistan, governed through tribal codes and rules known as the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR). Although commonly seen as jammed between two major evils, the Pakistan army and the Taliban, its inhabitants also face a third, unseen—CIA-operated drone strikes. While FATA was used as a springboard for training ‘fighters’ for the anti-Soviet Afghan jihad in the 1980s, it was still relatively stable and peaceful until the onset of the ‘war on terror’ in 2001. Soon after the US and its allies initiated ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ in the wake of the ‘9/11’ attacks, FATA again became the centre of attention, a safe haven for the Taliban and other militant factions such as al-Qaeda and the Haqqani network. The Pakistani government has since periodically launched military offensives and brokered peace accords, yet none of these efforts has established an enduring peace in FATA. And locals bear the brunt of the offensives, forcing many to leave their homes, as of the deals and the drone strikes. ‘Good’ Taliban? A female student from Kurram Agency, based in Islamabad, gave this assessment: FATA is lawless land and the government has different policies regarding use of force against some factions of the Taliban, where some are targeted whereas a few are ignored. But the people of FATA are suffering from every kind of militancy—whether...

What does Imran Khan want — is it just power or a revolution? This question kept resonating at a recent conference in the UK. Most vocal among the enquirers were at least five foreign diplomats who are familiar with Pakistan because of their assignments in Islamabad. They all sounded sympathetic to the narrative that Khan peddles today i.e., rule of law, accountability, and peoples’ empowerment through district governments and autonomous national institutions. But they clearly differed with the PTI methodology (ouster of the government through sit-ins). Lots of critics at home, too, have had a similar contention with the PTI and its leadership, which have been oscillating between legitimate aspirations (mentioned above) and paradoxical approaches to fulfill those aspirations. Only a few weeks into the Islamabad dharna — once Khan and his cohorts diligently made their point about the rule of law and real democratic values — even sympathisers had begun requesting Khan and company to wrap up the protest and instead build upon the goodwill that the party received in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and elsewhere. By discarding advice on how the party can consolidate its power base in K-P through institutional reforms and then showcase its achievements there, the entire leadership continues to silently tail Khan and be led by his belligerent, shallow, and at times, contradictory rhetoric. This has certainly taken the attention, even of the PTI leadership, off some of the good work that the party has silently done since the summer of 2013. In the first place, the PTI narrative since August has polarised the country in two camps i.e., forces of the status quo and those challenging it. The fact that none of the other parties, including the PPP and the PML-N, are in favour of local government elections also underscores their contempt for devolution. Secondly, (all based on personal experiences of people living in Peshawar, D I Khan and Kohat) no provincial police enjoys as much...