Stereotypes & Security

Open The Door & Let Me Win!

February is normally that time of year when the themes on everybody's mind are pleasant in nature, such as Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, spring, etc. Even people in simple, cash-strapped Pakistan are thinking romantic thoughts & admiring the new leaves as they sprout on the trees.

But this year, the theme that has ruled so far, is the concept of "security". The debate about the various definitions of safety are everywhere: Talk show hosts shrilly discuss the concept, hoping that if viewers feel they might go deaf listening to the ear-piercingly loud declarations, the message may be rendered more credible; the Finance Minister firmly states that there will be no job security unless he is allowed the option to freely fire thousands of PIA employees; the debate on the legality of Military Courts revolves around whether it is "okay" to strip some citizens of their basic human rights in order to protect the same human rights of other citizens. The list is both endless & overwhelming.

While only an experienced lawyer would even think of attempting to resolve all these security debates with a single concise statement, the rest of us would also like to get a grip on what would be the "safest" thing we could do with our time & resources. In my opinion, the answer is that security is a highly individual concept because it embodies the filling of the gaps that we can't naturally manage with our own physiological assets, whether the requirement is food, clothing, shelter, transport, information or any other human need. So, when it comes to choosing a "secure" location, the answer for each of us is the location that best enables us to pursue our professions & discharge our responsibilities smoothly & successfully.

Here's an illustration: If the project is carried out while adhering strictly to the letter & spirit of the original plan, the 2 Pakistani Provinces that stand to get the most noticeable financial boost from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are Khyber Pakhtunkhwa & Balochistan. Punjab & Sindh will gain as well, but not as much as the afore-mentioned Provinces. This is clearly evident to all parties who have access to an accurate list of projects - by the way, a genuine list is harder to compile from public gossip than it looks; for instance it was recently revealed that certain unnamed parties were apparently trying to inaccurately classify the Punjab Orange Line project as part of CPEC!

Anyway, back to the point I was going to make. Many people wonder why a financial professional would choose Peshawar over apparently more "modern" locations like, for example, Rawalpindi. The statistically-correct answer is the fact that Rawalpindi is nowhere near as organized & sedate as it was before the turn of the Century, as cases such as the Defense Housing Authority ponzi scheme, the Adiala Road land fraud, the Gulistan Colony Rapist Trio & the 54 Ghost Teachers could attest. But, as US law enforcement professionals can tell you from experience, crimes can be orchestrated anywhere. The real reason Peshawar (&, in time, Haripur) is the place to be if you are betting on the future is because of the Corridor. The first people to put down business roots here & successfully associate their brands with the Province stand the best chance of getting in on the ground floor of what is expected to be the most profitable mega-project undertaken in Pakistan since 1947.

In the spirit of making the debate more interesting (& financially relevant), this week's discussion revolves around a comparison of the strengths & weaknesses of Pakistan's Provincial Capitals - in no particular order - paired off with recommendations of which lines of work is each city best suited to. Hope you like it!

Karachi

Karachi pretty much has it all: highly profitable businesses in every sector in the country, some of the finest educational institutions, excellent shopping malls & stunning tourist sites. Such a shame that so many media outlets look upon journalism as a competition of who can come up with the most shocking headlines, instead of using words for what they were meant to do: Showing readers & viewers a whole new world.

If the written & spoken word were accorded the respect it deserves, people would see that calling Karachi "crime-infested" is based on the same fallacy that persuades the ignorant that China is the world's greatest polluter. In each case, ignoring the importance of averages is what leads to such embarrassing mistakes. China is both the world's most populous country & the world's factory; that means that firstly, pollution levels are quite controllable if you calculate the numbers on the basis of the population & secondly, biting comments are more likely to be directed at a hub of commercial activity than a country that runs its economy on cash infusions from other nations. These 2 points - population numbers & commercial importance - are equally relevant to Karachi.

Lahore

Lahore has lost its way recently; instead of being the living history book & the center of knowledge that it used to be, it has gotten hopelessly mired in setbacks such as the question of the negative environmental effect of the Orange Line project, the confusing policy swings of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry or the latest mind-numbing details about the Lahore Literary Festival (why would people who haven't bothered to attend, want to hear about the wanderings of those who did?).

But Lahore could really hit the spot if it stepped up & started attaching due importance to its position as a seat of learning - especially in light of the fact that certain criminal parties are apparently trying to bankrupt the education sector through the murder of accomplished academics & the strategic use of bomb scares in places like the educational institutes of Rawalpindi.

Peshawar

"It's close to the border!"
"Criminals hide in the villages around Ring Road!!"
"The Army is far more accomplished in identifying local murderers & thieves than the cops - they are so fast, it almost seems as though they knew in advance!!!"

Peshawar gets a bad rep. The place, if left unhindered by over-enthusiastic attempts at social engineering, is a lot more peaceful & civilized than the media would have us believe. Take the border issue: Pakistan is shaped roughly like a rectangle - which means that every Provincial Capital is technically within driving distance of one border or the other. All the city needs is a few new street-lights in the residential lanes, a handful of financially-savvy English speakers & a substantially smaller number of imported vagabonds outside respectable houses (they can always pursue their recreational pastimes in the Red Light areas). Once these simple steps have been taken, Peshawar can get back to doing what it was always meant to do: become the financial hub of the western half of Pakistan.

Quetta

Quetta - & Balochistan in general - has recently become associated only with Saryab Road & Southern Command. This is sad, because such violent associations are extremely detrimental to the business of encouraging even local investment. It is fortunate that Gwadar has enough commercial potential to still render investment in Balochistan attractive to a brother nation like China. But that doesn't mean Quetta doesn't have public image issues.

While laudably sincere, the photograph of the Prime Minister perched in an Army Jeep on what looked like a woefully small seat accompanied by a celebrity entourage didn't do much to smash the stereotype. The first thing that needs to be done is that the locals need to be made a part of Balochistan's economic resurgence; this would be best done by encouraging the rich & skilled Balochis (most of whom have left the Province, but are generally based a stone's throw away in Karachi) to come back & put down roots. The trigger-happy tend to be more restrained around the influential than the defenseless.

Conclusion

These suggestions are just meant to be the seed for a debate that would encourage the implementation of new ways to market the assets of our country both within its borders & beyond. There can be no progress or peace in the presence of stagnation. I hope that thinking along these lines will not only prove helpful in solving Pakistani economic challenges but the economic challenges of other Asian Developing World nations as well.

Who Will Guard The Guards?

The Law-Savvy Extortionist

A few days ago, the local paper was abuzz with news that the Counter Terrorism Department in Peshawar had arrested an extortionist who had spent the last year masquerading as a Peshawar High Court judge & coercing some real PHC judges into giving him money. The CTD stated that they had been tracking the suspect since three months &, now that he was in custody, they were entitled to some collective back-slapping.

I found this case interesting for the following reasons:

Firstly, before I came back to Peshawar, I lived for 20 years in Islamabad & Rawalpindi. Over there, the only position an identity thief bothers to assume is that of a mid-rank Army officer, such as a major or a colonel. Even a couple of conmen who lived on rent in the apartment directly above ours were reportedly quite fond of introducing themselves as Army majors who worked at places such as the National Defence University Islamabad or the Wah Ordnance Factory. This is the first time I have heard of a person who took the uncharted route of posing as a judge.

Secondly, Rawalpindi is a place where the concept of an ordinary citizen double-checking a suspicious party's credentials, especially if the party claims a connection to the Army, is frowned upon. The general message is that if the 30-odd intelligence agencies operating in the city haven't objected, why should you? But most people say that Rawalpindi is different because it is the GHQ city. But I guess this story means that Rawalpindi culture & crime is becoming popular.

But most of all, I found the idea that the CTD was in charge of the investigation particularly intriguing.

What Is The Distinction Between Extortion & Terrorism?

"Extortion" is classified internationally as a "White Collar Crime", while "Terrorism" is generally considered a "Blue Collar Crime". In order to thoroughly analyse the scenario & its economic implications, we must start with a clear definition of these 4 legal terms:

WHITE COLLAR CRIME is a general term for crimes connected with, inter alia, antitrust violations, bankruptcy fraud, bribery, credit card fraud, computer/Internet fraud, counterfeiting, economic espionage, embezzlement, environmental law violations, financial fraud, government fraud, healthcare fraud, insider trading, insurance fraud, kickbacks, mail fraud, money laundering, phone/telemarketing fraud, public fraud, securities fraud, tax evasion & trade secret theft.

EXTORTION is the act of knowingly obtaining by threat, control over the property of another, with intent to deprive him of the property & is commonly practised by organized crime. A threat may include impersonating a government authority figure such as a law enforcement official.

BLUE COLLAR CRIME is an informal term for crimes that involve some form of tangible damage to person or property; examples include arson, assault, drug abuse, gambling, kidnap, murder, prostitution, rape, robbery & smuggling.

TERRORISM is any activity that is dangerous to human life, potentially destructive of critical infrastructure or resources, a violation of the criminal laws of the target nation, intended to intimidate a civilian population, to influence the policy of a government by intimidation & to compromise the welfare of a civilian population by acts of destruction, assassination, robbery or kidnapping.

CTD Jurisdictional Questions

Now, since all crimes are interconnected, I agree that terrorism is also generally carried out in the name of a large-scale form of extortion. However, the reason that all civilized nations divide criminal investigation into a series of specialities is because each type of crime takes a different skill set. Case in point: a crime born of passion will involve rapid violence, but a crime born of sadism will involve slow torture. The perpetrator of the first crime is likely to be an emotional wreck while the perpetrator of the second is a psychopath. Identifying the guilty party & gathering strong evidence will involve a different approach in each case.

The CTD is expected to catch real terrorists. Whether they actually do or not, that means they are supposed to be trained in blue collar crime. If they stumble across a white collar crime, most people would expect them to hand the case over to another department. But if their jurisdiction in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been recently expanded, then the controversial Right To Information law just became a thousand times more important, because there are literally countless cases where people are clueless which department of the Police can help them.

A Cautionary Tale

Picture an expensive, respectable neighborhood of multi-storied bungalows. The majority of the residents understand & abide by the unwritten rule that if each home-owner has paid a fortune to own property in this neighborhood, it is each resident's responsibility to protect & preserve the charm & dignity of the neighborhood image.

Then along comes a man of origins so humble that he cannot fathom why anyone would care about a triviality like a respectable image. His world view rubs off on his offspring who commit thefts from the private gardens in the neighborhood while they are juveniles & eventually, one of them is rumored to have become a terrorist while the others spend their days indulging in activities they would rather not disclose.

Having hardly any time to pursue income-generating activities & their savings dwindling rapidly, they start secretly offering rooms in their house to professional criminals who happen to be stalking affluent targets who live in the neighborhood. Children start disappearing in a neighborhood that used to be known as one of the safest in the city. Some come home, others don't. People's health starts deteriorating & the doctors are unable to identify any disease as the cause. They tell their patients unofficially that the best treatment would simply be a change of location...& they are right. Getting out of the neighborhood actually helps a sizeable number of them.

Some of the more knowledgeable or well-connected private citizens try their best to save their homes by bringing the sad state-of-affairs to the attention of the authorities, but are rebuffed with insinuations of insanity or wordy jurisdictional excuses. The Police isn't equipped, the ministers are very busy & the Army is completely engrossed in seeing to the welfare of the former petty criminals it has hired as informants & agents, to investigate what those hand-picked agents might be doing in their spare time (with Army equipment).

So, an air of hopelessness & defeat starts to infect the neighborhood. The chemical stink of narcotics preparation is on the air every now & then. The lanes are dusty & unkempt. Water, electricity, telephone, cellphone, cable & WiFi services are sporadic at best. The street lights flicker as though this is a 1970s Detroit ghetto. The residents, especially the young & middle-aged are becoming thin & miserable. And the question of the century for this neighborhood remains unanswered: who among the thousands of law-enforcement personnel roaming the city is duty-bound to do something besides brush the innocent residents off?

Economic Fallout

Missing children & idiosyncratic illnesses do not encourage commerce. Once-thriving markets wear a deserted look, heritage sites are falling apart before one's eyes & the most fundamental components of an acceptable quality of life are now considered rare miracles. Worst of all, the situation encourages even more convicted felons to descend on the neighborhood.

The tabloids & talk shows spend hours wondering who should be blamed; but the reality is that as long as progress is based on counting lives taken instead of lives saved, nobody in the world could possibly bring about even an iota of improvement to society.

The Corridor Of Power

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Debate

(Courtesy gandhara.rferl.org)

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has engendered plenty of debate in Pakistan ever since it was announced. The Pakistani media is awash with different opinions, but the most noticeable one revolves around whether the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province section of the CPEC route has been set or is it being discretely altered to suit the agendas of various political & commercial interests, as the map above seems to indicate.

The Chinese Government has made it very clear that the route has been set once & for all & the first section to be constructed is the CPEC. They also emphasise that the route does not aim to give any area any unfair advantage & has been designed to promote maximum benefit to the people of Pakistan & China. But the debate continues. Some people say that parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province section are being bypassed to give Punjab Province a piece of this highly-lucrative pie. Others counter that the route has been set in stone in one of the several dozen MoUs signed during President Xi Jinping's visit to Pakistan.

But the reality of the matter is completely different. Punjab Province is simply being unfairly accused of trying to snatch money from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The competition is actually between two districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa itself.

Abbottabad District Versus Haripur District

The real tussle, according to a thorough study of the press statements of the various parties is as follows:

The Chinese have declared that they will stick to the original route that passes through Haripur District. The very sound reasons for this choice are:

1. Agriculture

Haripur District produces the best wheat, red blood oranges & guavas in Pakistan (&, according to some experts, the world). In addition, it serves as a base market to the entire Hazara Division & supplies high quality fruit & vegetables to Peshawar, Islamabad & Punjab Province. It even exports its produce to regions as far away as the United States & the European Union.

2. Natural Resources

Haripur District has Pakistan's two most important natural reservoirs, Tarbela Dam & Khanpur Dam, both of which provide water for irrigation in Hazara Division. In addition, Tarbela supplies approximately 25% of Pakistan's electricity needs & Khanpur supplies almost 100% of the water needs of the cities of Islamabad & Rawalpindi as well as surrounding areas. Haripur District is also known to have sizeable deposits of rare earths (according to a study conducted by Peshawar University in 1973).

3. Industry

The Telephone Industry Of Pakistan (TIP), the biggest telephone factory in Asia, is located in Haripur District. Cactus Fertilizers (formerly Pak-China Fertilizers), the largest producer of phosphate fertilizer in Pakistan, is situated here, too. The Hattar Industrial Estate houses the most modern SSP Fertilizer unit (Double A Fertilizers).

4. Literacy Rates

The average literacy rate for the whole of Pakistan is 63%. Haripur District clocks in at 53.7%, which is noticeably higher than the Hazara Division literacy rate of 35.2%. This is very impressive considering that only 12% of the population of Haripur District live in urban areas & the remaining 88% live in rural areas.

5. Historical Significance

The culture of Haripur goes back at least 3,500 years to its status as the heart of the Gandhara Civilization. From there, it went on to be a very important location for Alexander The Great. Next, it became the true home (&, according to some historians, the final resting place) of Ashoka Maurya. After that, Turko-Mongol warrior king Timur made Haripur a strategic barrier to protect the Kabul-Kashmir route. Following this long tradition of importance, Haripur remained a consistently significant location all the way through the Durrani, Sikh & British dynasties. In addition, several very historically-significant Buddhist sites can be found in Haripur District.

On the other hand, a small segment of the Pakistani population is angling for a change in the route; they would like it to pass through Havelian Tehsil (a sub-division of Abbottabad District) instead. The positive points of Havelian are as follows:

1. Economy

While agriculture & business in general are the main occupations, most ordinary Havelian residents are employed by the ordnance factories & depot in the town & the majority of the remainder work for the KMW courier service, the head office of which is located in Havelian.

2. Location

Havelian is located on the Karakoram Highway & is the terminus of a branch railway.

The Financially-Challenged Areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province

Another pressing concern for some people is that the CPEC bypasses some of the poorest areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. They contend that if the CPEC were re-routed to pass through these areas, the locals would very likely strike it rich.

But what about the commerce spawned by the Indus River in ancient times, which gave rise to entire civilizations? Did anyone talk of re-routing the Indus? If the people of that time had wanted to, they certainly had the technology to do it. But they didn't. They built canals & made judicious use of the tributaries of the Indus; & they progressed every inch as well as their counterparts who lived & worked close to the Indus itself.

In the same way, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government has shown remarkable commitment & drive in the last few months alone. The re-carpeting of the road to Hattar & the renovation of the Changi Bandi Bridge are ample proof that if they put their minds to it, they can accomplish anything. If it is felt that some areas are getting neglected due to the CPEC not passing through them, build a few "tributary roads" instead.

In The Spirit Of Full Disclosure

My name is Teene Zahid. I am the first born child of Maj. (r) Zahid Qamar & Dr. Walia Waiza Agha. My father owns around 70 acres of agricultural land in Hazara Division, mostly in Haripur District. As his legal first born, I am also his second in all his financial commitments & transactions. Consequently, I would naturally be very interested & invested in any development project that targets Haripur District. However, I have taken great care to present an unbiased assessment of the CPEC debate, because I also attach great importance to my professional position as an economic & IT consultant.