Mustafa Qadri,
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 31 August 2010 10.00 BST

In Pakistan, cricket is a matter of special pride. Cricketers have for decades been ambassadors for a more positive image of the country and a source of hope and enjoyment for those whose everyday life is both difficult and joyless.

We are generally averse to public displays of hedonism in Pakistan, except when it comes to food (in private, of course, all bets are off). But success, or failure, in cricket provides most Pakistanis with an opportunity to express themselves in ways that would normally risk censure. When our cricket team wins, people literally dance on the street. When they lose, the effigies start burning.

The hot and cold of public affection breeds a certain kind of fatalism in our elite athletes, not to mention the super-rich. When the going is good, squeeze every ounce of good fortune lest it run out tomorrow. That attitude has a lot to do with the poisonous tolerance for match-fixing that has engulfed Pakistani cricket since the 1980s.

Another, ironically, is that cricket is no longer merely an elite pursuit but a ticket to unimaginable riches for some of the poorest citizens. In the past, cricketers came from the educated suburbs of the big Punjabi cities. Today, they come from the humblest of backgrounds. Mohammad Yousuf, one of the greatest, most elegant batsmen the country has produced, is the son of a Christian rail-station sweeper from Sargodha in the Punjab heartland. His gifts come not from sporting academies, but nature and the rough and tumble world of street cricket.

Much like the country, Yousuf went through something of an Islamisation. After converting to Islam he lost contact with his Christian family, but his career took off. Sadly, a decade of match-fixing allegations has coincided with an increase in overt religiosity within the team. Such is the malaise of our Islam, where ritual and public displays of faith outweigh the need for moral conduct.

Remember always that, from nothing, our cricketers become stars. Yet, it is argued, they earn far less than other cricketers because their cricket board and country cannot match the huge sums available in India, England or even Australia. Does that justify the high degree of alleged criminality? Hardly. The honour of playing for your country has proved sufficient entitlement for generations of athletes the world over, not to mention some of Pakistan’s greatest such as Imran Khan, the squash champion Khans, Jahanghir and Janshir, and Hanif Mohammad.

Pakistan is a different country now, overpopulated and underdeveloped with a government that doesn’t even pretend to care unless you have money, influence, or the media puts you under the lens. The overwhelming mindset for success is to achieve it at all costs, by any means, and as quickly as possible.

The shambolic Pakistan Cricket Board has no system for preparing our cricketers for the demands of international sport, from the most basic to the more complex. So it is no surprise that athletes with astounding natural abilities exhibit self-destructive tendencies.

Mohammad Asif, another of Pakistan’s talented cricketers who, along with three others, is at the centre of the latest betting allegations, is a case in point. At the height of his still-burgeoning career in 2006, Asif was banned for a year after testing positive for a steroid. Two years later, after making an unlikely comeback, he was detained at Dubai airport on suspicion of possessing illegal drugs and only escaped prison thanks to intensive lobbying by the Pakistan government. What athlete in his right mind would be so stupid? Only someone who had escaped a life of obscurity and poverty to discover that, for the privileged few, the boundaries of life were negotiable.

For the rich and powerful, wealth is typically accumulated through graft, not grit. Privileges are bought, not earned. Unsurprisingly, the line between legitimate business and otherwise is practically nonexistent. Ushered suddenly into this hubristic world, is it any wonder so many of our cricketers turn rogue?

Thankfully, there are some notable exceptions. According to all reports, former World Cup winning captain Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi, both fearless Pathans schooled in the honour code, have not been tainted by match fixing. There are countless other talented, dedicated and honourable cricketers more than capable of returning our premier sport to high repute. These talented athletes and a nation ravaged by floods deserve much better than this scandal.

[This first appeared in The Guardian on August 31, 2010: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/31/pakistan-cricket-match-fixing]

Mustafa Qadri

August 22, 2010

• Last Updated: August 16. 2010 9:00PM UAE / August 16. 2010 5:00PM GMT

When the UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon described flood-ravaged Pakistan as the worst natural disaster he had ever seen, he was not merely describing the extent of the devastation. He was also underlining the extent to which the outside world has yet to adequately react to what the UN describes as the most catastrophic natural disaster in its history.

Given Haiti’s devastating earthquake earlier this year, the Burma cyclone two years ago and the tragic Asian tsunami of 2004, that is an astonishing statement.

And yet, the numbers speak for themselves: out of a nation of 180 million, one in 10 people and one third of the nation’s land mass have been affected by the floods; six million need immediate food aid and at least two million have been made homeless. It is a trauma that is impossible to fully comprehend.

Despite the chaos and grief of the Pakistan floods, however, there now exists a unique opportunity to improve the international community’s relationship with this troubled country.

An international campaign of solidarity with Pakistan, similar to those which popularised the Haiti earthquake and the Asian tsunami, is required. We must all play a part in raising awareness, donating to charities, and organising local and international events.

But Pakistan requires more than just sympathy or large-scale humanitarian assistance. With its Islamist threats, political volatility and nuclear arsenal, few will not have recognised the importance of ensuring Pakistan’s long-term survival to promote international peace and security.

Indeed, as the experience of political violence has escalated in Pakistan, its people have felt increasingly disconnected from the outside world. That is a dangerous situation for all.

Rather than just focusing on the plight of Pakistan, it is important for the international media to promote a more positive image of the country by focusing on the tireless efforts of Pakistan’s civil society, welfare organisations, and government and military personnel, who have been working alongside humanitarian workers to aid flood victims. Such service illustrates that Pakistan’s population is not caught up in terrorism but hard working and decent.

Many Pakistanis feel a deep sense of victimhood fuelled by the international perception that their country is the centre of global terrorism. There is a sentiment here, and not without good reason, that the world rarely remembers the sacrifices Pakistan has made in this global conflict.

More Pakistan citizens have died as a consequence of terrorism and counterterrorism than any other country in recent years. To travel on a Pakistani passport is to expect almost certain harassment by customs officials the world over. As authorities struggle to cope with this latest crisis, the risk is that these old grievances mix with a new, raw sense of neglect.

The resentment created by all these factors is keenly stoked by al Qa’eda, the Taliban and other Islamist groups who champion the notion that the world is out to get Pakistan. A recent Pew Research Centre survey revealed that an astonishing 59 per cent of Pakistanis view the US as an enemy.

Beyond external concerns, however, are worries of persistent inflation, which has made staple foods like wheat and dhal a luxury, and a chronic shortage of energy that leaves homes and businesses without electricity for large periods of time. Following the recent floods, those concerns have magnified.

The US, along with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the UK and Canada, has been quick to pledge multi-million dollar humanitarian assistance. The US has also provided helicopters for relief missions (although the scale of its airborne assistance has been greatly curtailed by the decision to escalate the war in neighbouring Afghanistan).

China, however, which on paper is one of Pakistan’s strongest allies, has pledged a paltry $7 million thus far. India, which has pledged only $5 million of its total $500 million aid budget, has missed a monumental opportunity to develop bridges at a time when real and imagined torrents continue to divide the subcontinent’s two largest nations.

All of these pledges are a fraction of what is required to provide the food, medicine, temporary housing and other assistance urgently needed.

For too long, tragedy has been the main source of unity in Pakistan. Just as Pakistanis have marched together to depose dictators and demand better living conditions, the floods have united otherwise disparate ethnic, linguistic and religious communities like never before in a shared experience of grief. This natural disaster has not discriminated against ethnic Punjabis – long resented by other minorities for dominating the state – Sindhis, Pashtuns or Balochis, the latter two of which have already been ravaged by destructive insurgencies.

Now more than ever, Pakistan, its government, and its people need our support. Out of this unprecedented tragedy comes an opportunity to prove that the world is committed to the well-being of Pakistan. In so doing, we guarantee regional and global security far more effectively than any troop surge or drone strike ever could.

Mustafa Qadri is a journalist based in Pakistan. You can see his work at mustafaqadri.net

[First appeared in The National newspaper on August 17, 2010: http://thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100817/OPINION/708169914&SearchID=73400858303357]

FEW will not have been moved by images of flood-ravaged Pakistan.

Now in their second week, the floods are believed to have affected one-third of Pakistan’s land and just over one-tenth of the entire population. In a nation of more than 170 million, that is an astonishing number.

According to the UN, the Pakistan floods represent the greatest natural disaster in the organisation’s 62-year history.

Yet out of this grief comes a unique opportunity to develop a positive link between Pakistan and the West and, by extension, improve our collective international security.

Given its political instability, the threat of terrorism, and its nuclear arsenal, we can ill afford to let Pakistan collapse. A major global program highlighting the need to help Pakistan would send a powerful challenge to the perception, keenly stoked by al-Qa’ida, the Taliban and other Islamist groups, that the world is out to get Pakistan.

Australia , along with Saudi Arabia, the US, Britain and Canada have been quick to pledge humanitarian assistance. The US has also provided helicopters for relief missions, although the scale of its airborne assistance has been greatly curtailed by the decision to escalate the war in neighbouring Afghanistan. China, on paper one of Pakistan’s strongest allies, has pledged a paltry $US7 million ($7.8m) thus far. India, which has pledged only $US5m of its total $US500m aid budget, has missed a monumental opportunity to develop bridges at a time when real and imagined torrents continue to divide the subcontinent’s two largest nations.

But all of these pledges are a fraction of what is required to provide the food, medicine, temporary housing and other assistance urgently needed. It is also a small fraction of what was raised for the Haiti earthquake earlier this year, the Asian tsunami of 2004 or even the earthquakes that hit neighbouring Kashmir in 2005.

Not only do the flood victims deserve more, the goodwill generated by our charity would be a major victory in the battle for hearts and minds our leaders, generals and security officials so often tout in the so-called war against international terrorism.

To understand the importance of goodwill, remember that ordinary Pakistanis feel besieged by a world that considers them a terrorist threat even though more of their lives have been lost to terrorism in recent years than anywhere else in the globe.

Consider, also, that a recent Pew Research Centre survey revealed that an astonishing 59 per cent of Pakistanis view the US as an enemy. The greatest security concern for Pakistanis is India, according to the poll, not al-Qa’ida or the Taliban.

More than security concerns, however, Pakistanis are wary of persistent inflation that has made staple foods such as wheat and dhal a luxury and a chronic shortage of energy that leaves homes and businesses without electricity for large periods of every day. After the recent floods, those concerns have magnified.

The floods have destroyed Pakistan’s prime grain belt in southern Punjab, costing what the World Bank estimates conservatively to be $US1 billion in lost wheat crop. In truth, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Only in time will a more accurate picture of the devastation emerge, although the total economic, human and political losses may never be discovered.

But it is already clear that the floods have united Pakistan’s disparate ethnic, linguistic and religious communities as never before in a shared experience of grief. The disaster has not discriminated against ethnic Punjabis – long resented by other minorities for dominating the state – Sindhis, Pashtuns or Balochis, the latter two already ravaged by destructive insurgencies. Dangerously, all Pakistanis have now developed a shared sense of resentment towards civilian officials who appear helpless to assist them while the military and civil society, including questionable Islamist charities, pick up the humanitarian slack.

The humanitarian side of things is already happening in earnest. Along with increasing that assistance, however, it is now time to start major publicity campaigns to highlight the situation in Pakistan. Just as occurred after the Asian tsunami and the Haiti earthquake, we must all play a part in raising awareness, donating to charities and organising local and international events such as concerts involving Pakistani and world entertainers. Rather than just focusing on the plight of Pakistan, moreover, it would help for the international media to promote a more positive image of Pakistan. Thankfully, there is no need to invent it. All they need do is focus on the tireless efforts of Pakistan’s civil society, welfare organisations, government and military personnel, often working side by side with humanitarian workers from all over the world, including Australia. This would demonstrate the truth that, like most of us, Pakistanis are not terrorists but hard-working, decent people.

Resentment is a powerful political weapon in Pakistan. For too long, anti-Western sentiment has been exploited by Pakistan’s elite and Islamists to divert attention from their own responsibilities to the nation. Unfortunately, we in the West have too often blindly supported those very groups out of a misguided sense that only they can offer stability. But out of this miserable monsoon comes an opportunity to prove that we are committed to the wellbeing of Pakistan. In so doing, we help protect our own security too.

Mustafa Qadri is an Australian journalist based in Pakistan

[This first appeared in The Australian newspaper on August 17, 2010: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/aiding-pakistan-will-protect-wests-security/story-e6frg6ux-1225906031662]

SECURITY | SOUTH ASIA | PAKISTAN

http://the-diplomat.com/2010/08/09/why-us-can%e2%80%99t-drop-pakistan/

Mustafa Qadri,
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 4 August 2010 10.00 BST

Contempt for human life is at the heart of Pakistan’s miseries. Although the relationship between rich and poor is complex and far from monolithically asymmetrical, fundamental inequalities make progress difficult.

How else to explain our president’s decision to visit Europe while the country suffers one of its greatest natural disasters? In any other country, a head of state would surely cut his or her foreign visit short to lend moral support in a time of catastrophe. The government’s failure in the face of the floods, along with the army’s primary role in confronting it and Asif Ali Zardari’s apparent nonchalance, has been a disaster for democracy in this country.

It is sad, too, as one local commentator noted, that it is only in moments of disaster that the rest of us unite as one nation. The floods have not discriminated against ethnic Punjabis – long resented by other minorities for dominating the state – Pashtuns or Balochis, the latter two already ravaged by insurgencies heavily laced with international intrigue.

As a foreign-born Pakistani, our acute anxiety over a national identity has always struck me as odd because there are self-evidently so many separate Pakistans. In every city, there are entire regions that never intersect, except via the dusty, colourful buses that transport day workers and servants to and from their slums to the homes of the more privileged. Growing up, doting aunties and uncles would constantly warn me not to forget my Pakistani heritage. And yet, as Pakistanis, we seem to easily forget those compatriots who clean our homes, hawk on the streets and fight in our wars.

As wild floods ravage the north west, our president is busy touring Europe in luxurious comfort. Staying back would have helped the assistance effort little, but it demonstrates poor political judgment. It also reflects the elite’s flagrant indifference to human suffering. That is why in the heat of summer and widespread power outages last year our main opposition leader, the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, decided toimport a rare tiger that required a specially built, refrigerated enclosure.

To understand this strange opulence remember that our wealthiest live in a fantasy realm of mansions, servants and privilege derived mostly through nepotism. Superficially cosmopolitan – for their children typically study abroad and imitate foreign accents and customs – they are left with utter contempt for those who are less fortunate. Few show izzat, or respect, to the lowest who work in their kitchens, drive their cars or hawk trinkets to them in the markets. In a society based largely on honour and riven with resentment, it is a dangerous mix.

Resentment is a powerful political weapon in this country. Most of the so-called anti-Americanism in Pakistan is a sideshow used to enable the mass to vent its anger, admittedly at an empire that has done more than most to patronise our elites and feed their megalomania. Criticism of the west, Jews, or Hindus has become the catch-all that enables the oppressed to forget how casually brutal we have become to one another.

That does not mean humanity is dead in Pakistan. There is a lively philanthropy sector. Millions donated to charities helping those made homeless by the war in the Swat valley last year. And appeals for assistance to victims of this year’s floods have already proliferated. Islamist organisations like the Lashkar-e-Tayaba linked Jamat-ud-Dawa, now operating under different names, have been quick to respond to the tragedy, too. The army has been at the forefront of humanitarian relief efforts.

Although liberal opinion calls for greater democratisation, what can be said when elected officials stand idle in the face of the two sectors of Pakistan society – the mullahs and the military – that are supposed to be our greatest problems? To be sure there are hundreds if not thousands of secular charities that have for decades sought to alleviate poverty and suffering in Pakistan. They cannot match the funding or political support garnered by the Islamic welfare groups or the military. Only support from elected governments can stem the influence of extremists or the military.

One of the principle reasons why the Taliban spread so quickly through the tribal areas in the north west was their promise to provide justice and equality where the state never did. Their leaders are virtually all salt-of-the-earth men of humble origins. Within the state, only the military has demonstrated a capacity to offer meritocratic advancement to every day citizens, albeit in a very limited form. According to the World Bank, 26.5% of Pakistan’s wealth is held by the top 10% of the population. The lowest 20% hold a mere 9.1%. A measure of poverty including social exclusion used by the UN ranks Pakistan 141st of all nations, just above Swaziland but below Burma.

But no statistics or amounts of foreign aid can challenge a mindset. Without compassion and respect for all of our fellow citizens we will never be capable of grappling the disasters that routinely rock our nation.

[Published in The Guardian's Comment Is Free website here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/04/pakistan-corrosive-inequality-zardari-floods]

Mustafa Qadri,
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 July 2010 18.15 BST

News of Cameron’s visit may have been sidelined by Pakistan’s worst-ever air disaster. Yet his speech in Bangalore, India, has fast become infamous here. It isn’t so much the substance of his remarks that have raised our collective ire. We have already heard ad nauseum that Pakistan must end its double game of supporting both the militants and US-led forces in the region. No, what irked was the fact that they were uttered in the heart of elite India. Coming from a first-term British prime minister on his first official tour of the south Asian country, Cameron’s comments inevitably fed the perception that the world, and especially India, is out to get Pakistan.

A similar sentiment has followed the voluminous WikiLeaks allegations of massive ISI support for the Afghan insurgency. Namely, that the leak is part of a deliberate smear campaign against the military, Pakistan’s most robust national institution. Along with this, the British prime minister’s comments “will reignite the hatred Pakistanis have for the west”, according to Khurshid Ahmed, a Pakistani senator and vice-president of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan’s largest Islamic political party. His sentiments are echoed by commentators in the Urdu press.

Some have rightly noted Cameron’s positively dismissive attitude to India’s oppressive crackdown in Jammu and Kashmir. In fact, the deafening silence over yet another bloody Indian response to Kashmiri protests is but the tip of the iceberg. Cameron’s comments coincide with a proposal to sell civil nuclear technology and British military jets to India. In contrast, Pakistani demands for a similar nuclear deal with the west have been met with consistent refusal. War is peace, and good business, it seems. As Pakistan’s high commissioner to the UK noted here on Wednesday, “a bilateral visit aimed at earning business could have been done without damaging the prospects of regional peace”.

To most people here, Britain does not register much. The US is the main player, whether for better or worse, and most of the anti-western rhetoric vented from the mass media or mosques focuses on Washington and its “AfPak” war. Whereas most would not have thought much of Britain’s role in our region otherwise, the first, loud message emanating from Cameron’s government is distinctly pro-Indian. The fact that his comments were immediately trumpeted by Indian media outlets – readily accessible on satellite televisions across the border – will serve to confirm this in Pakistani eyes.

Pakistan’s foreign office noted that the country is as much a victim of terrorism as neighbouring Afghanistan and India. The overwhelming perception here is that Pakistan’s effort in the war against al-Qaida and the Taliban have been largely ignored. Cameron’s comments will further stoke a dangerous “damned if we do, damned if don’t” mentality that leads many to conclude that this is not our war.

But this issue is bigger than Cameron or even Britain’s relations with the subcontinent. Fed on a steady diet of victimhood and international intrigue, we in Pakistan tend only to see that which we wish to see. The prime minister’s comments querying Pakistan’s involvement in the AfPak war may have played well in India. But they also point to lingering international doubts over our ability or willingness to root out extremism from our soil. The irony is that, rhetoric aside, little else will change in our relationship with the west. The west will continue to seek greater access to Indian markets while its relationship with Pakistan’s will remain steeped in the language and interests of the war in Afghanistan.

[Published in The Guardian’s Comment Is Free website here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/29/pakistan-damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-dont]

Mustafa Qadri,
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 18 July 2010, 16.00 BST

Pakistan’s special relationship with the United States may have taken centre stage since the attacks of 11 September 2001, but in China it has another enduring great power ally. With Pakistan’s President Zardari returning from a visit of several days to China last week, it is worth considering the country’s other asymmetrical alliance.

China has been Pakistan’s most reliable ally for six decades. Pakistan was quick to recognise China’s communist regime a mere two years after it first came to power in 1949. Ever since, it has looked to the east Asian power to counterbalance its historical reliance on western geopolitical largesse.

After the 1962 war between China and India, the US supplied India for the first time with substantial arms, creating profound disenchantment among the Pakistani military leadership. That disenchantment led Pakistan to seek Chinese military aid.

In the last two decades the economic component of the alliance has taken centre stage. Pakistan has the potential to give China a land link to Middle Eastern energy reserves. A central reason for US involvement in the region is to maintain its global influence at a time when rivals are steadily if slowly emerging. None is larger than China. For China, an added element is developing a regional coalition against an increasingly pro-US India.

Today, the relationship is not so culturally infused. As with so many other countries, China has been happy to develop defence and economic ties with Pakistan while avoiding criticism of its political situation. Perhaps the biggest friction of recent times has been over alleged Pakistan-based Islamist infiltration into China’s restive Xinjiang province, home to the indigenous Uighur Muslim population. That friction prompted a visit by Pakistan’s most powerful Islamist politicians to assure Beijing that they would not stoke Islamist insurgency in China.

Those concerns, however, have proved shortlived. Pakistan has been busy integrating its economy into China, although it has generally been slow going. The much-vaunted deep sea port built in restive Balochistan with the apparent aim of giving a Chinese presence at the mouth of the Persian Gulf has barely scratched its full potential. Expansion of the Karakoram Highway that links northern Pakistan to China seems to have been in development for decades.

Less incremental was the recent announcement that China will sell nuclear reactors to Pakistan. A $2.4bn deal hopes to quench Pakistan’s thirst for energy, and recognition as a responsible nuclear citizen on the world stage.

There are thinly veiled concerns that the agreement could be in breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Despite this, the US, on whose words and action so much of western policy in our region is determined, has offered only limited criticisms. This may have something to do with theUS and India deal that would see the former reprocess spent nuclear fuel for the latter, although India got an exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group for that purpose.

In Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and most resource-rich province, China has been busy trying to exploit coal, copper, and zinc deposits and gas and oil reserves. The indigenous Baloch population says these ventures systematically disenfranchise them. Pakistan authorities counter claim that, emboldened by countrywide instability and foreign support, Baloch feudal leaders have petulantly demanded ever more royalties. An increasingly brutal insurgency and counterinsurgency has developed around this resource politics. After some sobering experiences involving the kidnapping and murder of its nationals, China has learned to accept the bribery culture that keeps both Pakistani and Baloch tribal leaders happy.

China’s relationship to our region stretches back at least 2,000 to the period when scholars and traders introduced Buddhism from what is now Pakistan to the Middle Kingdom, an episode of history celebrated in Chinese literature and the Monkey TV series. Yet in the intervening centuries, the relationship has not had any major cultural or ideological impact on Pakistan, as noted in a satirical poem by the great dissident poet Habib Jalib.

Like Pakistan’s current robust relations with the US, this is because China-Pakistan relations have largely been dictated by elite notions of the national interest and prestige. China may still be happy to play second fiddle to the US here. But with polls revealing Pakistan’soverwhelmingly favourable view of its northern neighbour and continued western missteps in Afghanistan, the dispiriting reality is that our country is a client of more than one state.

[Published in The Guardian's Comment Is Free website here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/18/pakistan-client-state-china-western-influence]