Pakistani internal security (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

Just watched a BBC / PBS Panorma documentary 'Taliban Hunters' set in Karachi, from mid-December 2015, which reports (with my emphasis):

The Pakistani city of Karachi is one of the biggest in the world - and now one of the most dangerous. For more than two years, it has seen an onslaught of kidnappings, bombings and targeted assassinations by Taliban militants. The police are now fighting back, but they are understaffed, under-resourced and up against a deadly enemy. More than 160 police officers have been killed in the line of duty in just 12 months......286 Taliban prisoners in the city jail, 3 convicted; the criminal courts are scared to convict and the (new) anti-terrorism courts in action for a year have a 6% conviction rate.

Link, yes I know often not watchable in the USA:http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...aliban-hunters

Hopefully the PBS link does work:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/taliban-hunters/

Rather oddly there is no mention of the para-military Rangers who have been deployed in the city, although I cannot recall how log for; nor the role of other agencies in CT.

[davidbfpo]

From an IISS Strategic Comment on Pakistan, which takes an optimistic viewpoint and on internal security:

Security improved across the country in 2015. Under Operation Zarb-e-Azb, the Pakistani military has nearly completed its operations in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, in particular North Waziristan and Khyber Agencies, with displaced people beginning to return home. A high-level committee chaired by Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan's de factoforeign minister, has produced recommendations for the tribal areas – traditionally governed under antiquated arrangements dating from the British colonial era – that would gradually move them into the Pakistani political mainstream. The attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar at the end of 2014 led to a near national consensus on the need to tackle terrorism. Concerted counter-terrorism operations across the country have yielded impressive results. Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies' statistics indicate a 48% fall in terrorist-related attacks in 2015 compared to the year before and a 38% fall in the number of deaths. The deployment of paramilitary Rangers has also ameliorated the security situation in Karachi, Pakistan's business capital. To be sure, there have been major terrorist attacks this year, including a bomb targeting Christians in Lahore on Easter Sunday. Furthermore, groups posing transnational threats to India and Afghanistan have continued to operate from Pakistan. But the overall level of violence has been lower.

Note a full copy of the Comment is behind a paywall:http://www.iiss.org/en/publications/.../pakistan-e44d

The cited Pakistan Institute website has nothing readily found with the cited statistics:http://pakpips.com/index.php

[davidbfpo]

Thanks to a Pakistani "lurker" for the pointer to three new articles on policing, each takes a different focus.

Lahore, in Punjab Province, has a new police force, for odd reasons called 'Dolphin' whose role is officially a Patrolling Unit and Street Crime Unit. With some hi-tech equipment. Alas all is not well:

Initially, the Force created an impression of being an uncorrupt and efficient outfit. But, that image was soon dashed to pieces when, in random incidents, the DF cops were found guilty of taking bribe, resorting to misconduct, and causing a road accident that killed one.

Link:http://tns.thenews.com.pk/just-dandy-cops/

A broader view of attempts at police reform, where only the motorway police get good marks. This sentence explains:

The government does not follow the Constitution and the laws, the police does not accept its code of conduct or the rules of superintendence.

Link:http://tns.thenews.com.pk/case-police-reforms/

Does the image of policing matter:

The catch-22 in this situation is that an improved public image will undoubtedly help the police force to serve the public better, and yet this image can only be created and sustained if the force is able to drastically improve their calibre.

Link:http://tns.thenews.com.pk/matter-image/

[davidbfpo]

Thanks to a Pakistani "lurker" for the pointer to this excellent article, with two viewpoints from:

... Laurent Gayer, a French social scientist and author of Karachi: Ordered Disorder and the Struggle for the City (2014). For the past fifteen years, he has been studying Karachi’s complex sociopolitical and cultural environment. Omar Shahid Hamid is the second participant in the discussion. He has written two novels about Karachi, deriving mainly from his own experiences as the son of a slain bureaucrat, Shahid Hamid, and as a young police officer in Karachi in 2000s. He has recently rejoined the Karachi police force to work with the counterterrorism department.

Link:http://herald.dawn.com/news/1153570/...mid-on-karachi

[davidbfpo]

Two very different commentaries on the war within Pakistan, made clear in the titles.

First, by Peter Oborne and Sabin Agha, in The Spectator entitled:

Pakistan is winning its war on terror ;Over the past three years, the country has seen an extraordinary reduction in violence

A key passage:

Violence has not just dropped a bit. It is down by three quarters in the last two years. The country is safer than at any point since George W. Bush launched his war on terror 15 years ago. The change can be dated to a special cabinet meeting called by prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Karachi in September 2013. At this meeting Sharif called an end to Pakistan’s culture of violence.

Link:http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/12/p...war-on-terror/

Second, Christine Fair, in WoTR entitled, bluntly:

Pakistan's unending war on civil society

Her point in one sentence:

The Pakistan military is waging a war on democracy at home and wars in Afghanistan and India with the subsidy of the United States.

Link:https://warontherocks.com/2017/01/pa...civil-society/

[omarali50]

But aren't they about two different things? Pakistan could be winning its war against terrorists who attacked Pakistani institutions (bad taliban) and still supporting terrorists who help (real or imagined) strategic aims (good taliban)?

[davidbfpo]

A lengthy Crisis Group report on Karachi (many pgs). From the summary:

Decades of neglect and mismanagement have turned Karachi, Pakistan’s largest and wealthiest city, into a pressure cooker. Ethno-political and sectarian interests and competition, intensified by internal migration, jihadist influx and unchecked movement of weapons, drugs and black money, have created an explosive mix. A heavy-handed, politicised crackdown by paramilitary Rangers is aggravating the problems. To address complex conflict drivers, the state must restore the Sindh police’s authority and operational autonomy while also holding it accountable. Over the longer term, it must redress political and economic exclusion, including unequal access to justice, jobs and basic goods and services, which criminal and jihadist groups tap for recruits and support. It must become again a provider to citizens, not a largely absentee regulator of a marketplace skewed toward the elite and those who can mobilise force. Sindh’s ruling party and Karachi’s largest must also agree on basic political behaviour, including respect for each other’s mandate, and reverse politicisation of provincial and municipal institutions that has eroded impartial governance.

Link:https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/sou...g-fire-karachi