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Books on Pakistan
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Update No: 013 - (22/02/07)
Still friends after all
During January the position of the Bush Administration on the attitude of
the Pakistani government towards the 'war on terror' was clarified by the
testimony of director of national intelligence Negroponte to the Senate, in
which despite mentioning the existence of strongholds of Al Qaida in the NWFP he
also called Pakistan a 'frontline partner' in that war. Negroponte had appeared
to be critical of Pakistan in December, leading to speculations that the
Administration might finally be coming round to put pressure on Musharraf
concerning Afghanistan and NWFP. Negroponte also seemed to imply that the US
should do what they can to shore up Musharraf's position, which he sees as
difficult in the run up to the parliamentary elections. This seems to imply that
American pressure on Musharraf has reached its peak and will increase no
further. Sources in NATO claimed recently that Pakistani, including ISI, are now
'fully' cooperating in the fight against the Afghan Taliban. In at least some
cases, the Pakistani air force was reported to have intervened in fighting
Afghan insurgents around the border area. Certainly, the Pakistanis have been
cracking down on Afghans crossing the border. More sophisticated technologies
have been introduced, such as biometric checks of retinas and fingerprints. This
is causing protests particularly by the tribes which live across the border, who
often cross it to visit relatives, trade, smuggle, etc, since time immemorial.
The fencing of sections of the border has also started. On the other hand, the
planned Peace Assemblies to be held by Afghanistan and Pakistan continued to
move slowly. Pakistan established a jirga commission in January, but there seem
to be still little agreement between the leadership of the two countries on the
exact role and meaning on the initiative.
Big plans for the tribal areas
The Pakistani government has recently announced plans to merge the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), of which the two Waziristans are part, into
the NWFP. The move would effectively end the autonomy of the FATA tribes but
will only be implemented once the local militancy issue will have been resolved.
On the other hand, such prospects might make the pacification of the FATA more
difficult. Almost at the same time the NWFP governor, Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai,
announced that Rs130 billion will be spent on the development of the FATA until
2015. Already over the past five years, the development budget of the FATA was
increased from just Rs800 million to Rs69 billion annually. A FATA Development
Authority has been formed and it will involve the private sector in its
activities through joint ventures.
Liberal credentials
During February the government continued its offensive to establish liberal
credentials with an eye to the forthcoming elections. The latest development is
the amendment of family laws, so to grant women forced into unwanted marriages
the option to dissolve the marriage. On the economic reform front, the
government has announced the privatisation of the state oil company and three
state banks. These privatisations are part of wider plans to sell US$15 billion
of state-owned companies over the next five years, in order to contribute to the
repayment of US$36 billion of overseas debt. A previous attempt to sell the
state oil company had failed in 2004 because the bidder failed to honour its
commitments. There seems to be strong interest among international investors for
the banks, particularly from Britain where Standard Chartered has already a
stake in a Pakistani bank. The general trend of foreign investment in Pakistan
is positive. According to the Central Bank, foreign investment in Pakistan
reached US$3.3 billion during the second half of 2006, as opposed to US$3.5
billion during the whole of the 2005/6 fiscal year.
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