Current Projects
New Politics and Civil Society in Asia: A Pakistani Perspective
A general overview of what happening around the developing world: what is new politics in democracies craving for change or those in democratic transition? And what are the evolving challenges to traditional governance and political structures i.e. dissatisfaction with the status-quo? This was the objective of the paper read by Imtiaz Gul at the symposium, organized by the Japan Foundation and International House of Japan, on February 6, 2013. Various stake-holders at the lower rung i.e. people and groups at large through a rights-based approach i.e. are challenging the inefficient governments through advocacy and debate on public forum for rights and justice. The facilitators are media and the civil society at large. Electronic and social media in particular and is acting as a multiplier of socio-political messaging. The question arises why are these challenges emerging? a) Failure by the elites to deliver on governance/justice and economic fronts, and b) More openness and ever increasing access to information It means that state failures and shortcomings create space for non-state entities i.e. civil society, business groups, technocrats, professionals and academicians. While governments in as diverse political cultures as India and China, or Pakistan and Egypt, or Bangladesh, continue to represent the upper echelons of the society i.e. the ruling elite trying to preserve and consolidate its hold on power, while the middle and lower tiers of the society appear to be striving for breaking out of the clutches of the status quo. In retrospect, this struggle between the forces of status-quo and those striving for change looks and sounds so familiar because the ruling classes keep preserving their hold on power ´sometime in the name of public interest, sometime in the name of national security and at times, invoking arguments that hardly favour the common man. As far back as 1760s, French Enlightenment writer, historian Voltaire...
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – February 01-07, 2013
The raging wave of violence de-escalated slightly across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, also subsided during the week, wherein 28 persons (49 were in the last week) were perished. Also, the wave of bomb blasts across the country, spree of target killings and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies-continued to mount death toll during the week. The data collected through10 newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 183 persons lost their lives as a result of 68 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 111 people injured. Like in case of preceding weeks, civilians bore the major brunt of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, as civilians accounted foralmost 54 percent of the total death toll across Pakistan. Numerically, 100 civilians lost their lives and 89 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofmilitants, wherein 60 militants got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, one CIA operated drone strike was also reported during the week, killing 6 suspected militants in North Waziristan Agency (FATA). Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability as militants blew up 8 shops in KP and torched 6 vehicles in FATA. Meanwhile, 6 sectarian attacksleft 37 dead, including 2 Shia men in Karachi and 30 in KP, this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings decreased by 5 percent, (16 percent of the total dead against last week 21 percent) during the current week. Overall, 41 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below). Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 28 incidents of target killings; 46 percent took place in Karachi alone,...
Weekly Data Sheet – February 01-07, 2013
Weekly Data Sheet – January 25-31, 2013
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – January 25-31, 2013
The wave of violence further escalated across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, continued unabated during the week, wherein 49 persons (45 in the last week) perished. Also, the wave of bomb blasts across the country, spree of target killings and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies-continued to mount death toll during the week. The data collected through10 newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 244 persons lost their lives as a result of 99 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 110 people injured. As in case of preceding weeks, civilians bore the major brunt of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, as civilians accounted foralmost 48 percent of the total death toll across Pakistan. Numerically, 117 civilians lost their lives and 57 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofmilitants, wherein 115 militants got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, no CIA operated drone strike was reported during the week. Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability as militants attacked one building in Balochistan, two passenger coaches in Sindh, three vehicles in FATA and a shop, girls– hostel and three power pylons in different parts of KP. Meanwhile, 6 sectarian attacksleft six persons dead in Karachi while four were injured in KP this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings decreased by 36 percent, (21 percent of the total dead against last week 57 percent) during the current week. Overall, 56 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below). Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 55 incidents of target killings; 67 percent...
Weekly Data Sheet – January 18-24, 2013
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – January 18-24, 2013
The deadly wave of violence receded across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, surged substantially during the week, wherein 45 persons (33 in the last week) were shot dead. Also, the wave of bomb blasts across the country, spree of target killings and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies continued to mount death toll during the week. The data collected through10 newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 101 persons lost their lives as a result of 73 violent incidents around the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet). The violent incidents also left 45 people injured. Like in case of last week, civilians again bore the major brunt of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, wherein civilians accounted foralmost 84 percent of the total death toll. Numerically, 85 civilians were killed and 19 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds in the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofmilitants, wherein 10 militants got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, no CIA operated drone strike was reported during the week in any part of the country. Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability as militants attacked two school buses, a cellular tower, blew up three houses, five government schools and blew up seven shops in different parts of KP. Meanwhile, 12 sectarian attacksleft 13 dead, including one in KP and 12 in Karachi. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings increased by 16 percent, (57 percent of the total dead against last week 41 percent) during the current week. Overall, 43 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below). Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 32 incidents of target killings; 81 percent took place in Karachi alone,...
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – January 11-17, 2013
The overall level of violence increased substantially across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, continued unabated during the week, wherein 33 persons (compared to 29 in the last week) were killed. Also, the wave of bomb blasts across the country, spree of target killings and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies continued to mount death toll during the week. The data collected through10 newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 251 persons were dead as a result of 50 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 457 people injured. As in case of preceding weeks, civilians were the major victim of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week. Civilians accounted foralmost 80 percent of the total death toll across Pakistan. Numerically, 203 civilians lost their lives and 323 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofsecurity forces, wherein 35 security personnel got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, one CIA operated drone strike was also reported during the week, killing six suspected militants in North Waziristan Agency (FATA). Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability as militants attacked eight NATO containers and blew up a state department in Balochistan, a government school in FATA, blew up two check posts in KP and Balochistan. Meanwhile, sectarian attacksleft 128 persons dead as a result of three bomb blasts in Quetta and one bomb blast in KP. Most of the dead were from the Shia sect. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings decreased by six percent, (41 percent of the total dead against last week 47 percent) during the current week. Overall, 41 percent of the total violent...
Weekly Data Sheet – January 11-17, 2013
CRSS ED Imtiaz Gul to advise UN Rapporteur on Drones
Ben Emmerson QC, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, has picked up Imtiaz Gul, the executive director of the independent Centre of Research and Security Studies, as part of a group of international specialists who will examine CIA and Pentagon covert drone attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. The second Pakistan on the panel of experts isJustice Shah Jehan Khan Yousafzaiwhohas spent two decades assenior judgein the circuit of Peshawar high court, has heard high-profilelegal challengesto the drone campaign. Ben Emmerson announced the launch of the enquiry in London on Jan 24thsaying that those states using this technology and those on whose territory it is used are under an international law obligation to establish effective independent and impartial investigations into any drone attack in which it is plausibly alleged that civilian casualties were sustained.– Inclusion of two Pakistani experts i.e. Imtiaz Gul, a multiple author and security analyst,and Justice Shah Jehan Khan Yousafzai, who boasts a long legal career plus an in-depth understanding of the implications of the controversial drone strikes underscorea growing international appreciation of the public resentment of the CIA-operated drone strikes. CRSS helped Emmerson in compiling cases wherein innocent people, mostly women and children, became victims of the predator attacks. One area the inquiry is expected to examine is the deliberate targeting of rescuers and funeral-goers by the CIA in Pakistan, as revealed in aninvestigationby the Bureau for the Sunday Times. Emmerson recalled that the Bureau had (in October 2012)alleged that since President Obama took office at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims and more than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. Christof Heyns [UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killing] … has described such attacks, if they prove to have...
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I am also a member of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting. Recently, we held a meeting with the Director General of Radio Pakistan and we told them to initiate such local programs (like Constituency Hour) in regional languages to educate and inform people. Even Indian Radio can be heard in FATA which is being used for propaganda purposes and must be closed. Therefore, we should launch some standard and quality programs like CRSS that will change the taste of the listeners.