Link down! The horrors of getting your passport renewed in Pakistan

This article has been published with some changes at
http://www.dawn.com/news/1219194/link-down-the-horrors-of-getting-your-passport-renewed-in-pakistan

My passport expired last year and I did not dare to think of a renewal, knowing full well the horrors of going to the passport office and doing the khwari. 

But as a PhD student, I had to publish at least one paper internationally. Luckily, mine got accepted for “IS&T International Symposium on Electronic Imaging 2016 in Video Surveillance and Transportation Imaging Applications Conference” in San Francisco. I could no longer put the renewal off.

One fateful Tuesday morning, I finally willed myself to go to the main passport office. I arrived at 8.30am, and as I was walking towards the head office, about a dozen people who wanted to 'help' me get my passport renewed descended upon me out of nowhere!

The 'agents'

Commonly known as ‘agents’, they have bank challan (tickets) in their hands and are ever-ready to assist you – minus the khwari, at a cost, of course.

They guarantee the submission of any application in under 15 minutes and promise to deliver the passport to your house. The offer sounded too good to be true so I did not pay any heed to the clamour and went directly inside the office.

To my dismay, I saw four haphazard queues, with no idea what to do or where to start. I looked around but failed to find an information counter.

Fortunately, I spotted a colleague who had come for a renewal too. He explained the entire process to me and advised that I should go to the regional branch at Awami Markaz on Sharae Faisal, which covers my locality. "Also, it won’t be this crowded," he had said.

He did mention, however, "Wahan link down hojata hai kabhi kabhi." (Their server link is sometimes 'down'.)

I thanked him and rushed to the regional office. A flock of agents descended once again. I ignored them and went straight ahead. This office was definitely better structured than the previous one.

Thankfully, I found an information counter as well. The man behind the desk said I would need to submit the fee at the bank and would additionally need my expired passport and original Identity Card along with their photocopies. That bank's branch was on the 2nd floor of the building I was standing in (Awami Markaz). I went down, submitted my fee, and came back up again to find a queue the likes of which I had never seen before!

The long wait

It was already 10:30am, and I had to go to the university so I decided to come back later. The next day at 9:30am, I was standing in line for a token once again. The queue was so long that it stretched out of the office and into the street under the naked gaze of the sun.

While I was waiting, I started chatting with the people around me. I was unnerved at what they had to share; a gentleman who is a senior manager at a bank told me that the last time he came, he had spent hours finishing all prerequisites, carefully collecting and organising all documents, and when he reached the last counter for the final stamp, he was asked for the original ID cards of his parents!

Another one told me that he was asked for his matriculation certificate. A third was asked for his latest electricity bill. They were told that their process could not begin without the aforementioned records.

I argued that the information counter had not mentioned any of these requirements. They smiled at my naiveté. Suddenly it struck me, after all this trouble I could still get rejected at the final counter for not having some random document.

As our queue moved forward at a sluggish pace, I did finally manage to get out of the scorching sun and under the shade. To my utter dismay, I felt a gush of hot air right above my head. I looked up to find two AC heaters droning on.

On moving forward, I saw a guard standing near the counter religiously trying to keep the queue in proper order. He was not letting anyone outside of the line go in directly. I salute the guard for that. Many people came with big references but he wouldn't budge.

Finally and at last, I was inside the office. I realised that there were just two counters; one for men and one for women. However, on close scrutiny I saw that there was another counter to get tokens. I had been standing in this line for almost an hour and was still waiting for my turn, but I saw some people coming in with agents from the exit door, going directly for their tokens without having to wait in line.

We were furious at this point. This continuous intrusion was delaying our turn. Someone behind me started shouting. We all joined in and soon the Assistant Director sahab came and calmed us down. He ‘scolded’ the token guys for the lapse.

After 2 hours of waiting, I got my token, pictures and thumb impressions done, and then came the time for data entry. The space between the token counter and data entry counter was so cramped, one could only stand sideways. Men, women, the elderly and children, all stood in a state of asphyxiation because the air conditioners were barely working.

All of this had started to feel like a very tedious and unpleasant experience. Some tried to ignore the surroundings by blankly staring at a cricket match on a tiny TV screen in a corner.

The two most frightening words

Just as I was thinking it couldn't get any worse, someone shouted:

“Link down!”

This meant that all work would now stop. And here we were standing half suffocated, while the staff began to relax. They ordered tea for themselves and started watching the cricket match.

I remembered that I had once discussed the passport renewal process with one of my university colleagues and he had told me that he got it made through an agent.

Interestingly, the agent had told him “Sirjee jaldi karain, link down honay ka time hogaya hay.” (Hurry up sir, it's time for the link to go down.)

Almost immediately, I understood what had passed. By then, another 40 minutes had gone by and now people were starting to get angry.

By 12:15pm, I felt certain my work would not be done that day. And just as I was standing there feeling terrible about it, the assistant director announced that they could only process passport renewal applications and would not be entertaining other requests.

I was in luck!

They took my token and called my friends and I one by one. I was done in the next five minutes!

Then came the dreaded last counter which would decide the fate of my application. As I moved towards the counter, I glanced at the irritable faces of all the people still expecting to hear: ‘Link up’.

At the final counter, there was a plaque with the words 'Assistant Director' on it. The director sahab, who was by then under a lot of pressure, did not ask me anything and just signed off my application.

I couldn’t believe the relief that washed over me as I realised I was finally done.

However, the respite was short-lived as this experience made me realise how 'genuinely' interested the government is in the affairs of its people

This is just my experience. Almost everyone across the country has similar stories of horror to share about public hospitals, police stations, license offices, schools or district councils or other government-run institutes.

And then, how are we to feel when we look at the parliamentary lounges, the chief minister houses, governor houses, or presidential palaces or the army generals GHQ, the core commanders places etc? Our political and military elite seem to be taking pretty good care of themselves. Either be at this point in time or earlier.

When I think about the developed world, I can safely say that they think about the well being of their citizens irrespective of who is in power in the government. Why can’t we say this for Pakistan from the day of its inception? Even after 68 years, did we not get any leadership which could solve our problems? My analysis is that we have many many good people but what we lacked as a nation was a revived ideological approach towards life. This ideological approach unites a society and moves it towards developing systems which align their thinking. This had been the case for every revived nation in history. Whether it be under the capitalist model or the communist model or the model of Islamic governance in the history under Caliphate. Replacing an administrator here or there, making a country a police state or making NAB strong will not make us a nation that cares for its people. I urge the day when we will have a system and a leadership that would elevate the situation of the masses. 

Let us play our role in spreading awareness about the incompetence of the ruling elite and the ruling systems so that they are pressured enough to be changed or be replaced. 

Taliban as Reconciliation Partners

This article has been published with some changes at
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-351677-Taliban-as-partners

“We actually view the Taliban as being an important partner in a peaceful Afghan-led reconciliation process. We are not actively targeting the Taliban,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said on 5th November. This is a very significant statement given by the US department of Defense.

The Americans have been trying for peace talks with the Taliban for quite some time now from its start in Qatar, then China and most recently in Pakistan. Interestingly, the American President George Bush had said earlier in September 2004 that  “And as a result of the United States military, Taliban no longer is in existence. And the people of Afghanistan are now free.” And in December 2004: “In Afghanistan, America and our allies, with a historically small force and a brilliant strategy, defeated the Taliban in just a few short weeks.” After more than 14 years of celebrated victory and elimination of the Taliban, Americans seem to be back to square one! The Americans changed their position regarding Taliban so drastically that one can only view this as a complete failure of American control in the region.  

The statement from the pentagon becomes very much out of the ordinary when it is connected with the very recent battle of Kunduz which led to the downfall of the city on 28th September and then re-taken by Afghan forces with the help of Americans till 15th October. One security official briefed on the situation in Kunduz estimated that the Taliban force in the city numbered 500 against the estimated government forces of 7,000 troops in the area. “The problem wasn’t lack of security forces,” Zalmai Farooqi, a district governor who had retreated to the airport said, “but there was no good leadership to command these men.” This somewhat seems to be a repeat telecast of the episode of Mosul in Iraq. As mentioned by the Americans earlier, since they are not actively targeting the Taliban, it was the first time since 2001 that they had taken control of a major city in Afghanistan. But why are Americans doing this? If we analyze this situation critically, we can see that the fall of Kunduz in this climate holds great value for the American plan to stabilize Afghanistan.

Initially, American plan to stabilize Afghanistan had been to secure a government without Taliban as any stakeholders in the region and permanent presence of American troops to have a strong grip over Eurasia region. But when it failed, and they could not finish off the resistance against them, the plan changed and included Taliban as a small stakeholder along with American installed regime in Afghanistan and American military presence. For this the Americans allowed the Taliban to make an official office in Qatar, took them out of the list of terrorist organization, released several high profile prisoners, involved Pakistan to get support. But the Taliban under the leadership of Mullah Umar were adamant that Americans leave Afghanistan and the regime of Hamid karzai be completely removed and Taliban be given full Afghan Emirate as was before the occupation. This was naturally too much for the Americans to swallow as it would mean a defeat of exceptional bounds in the international arena and waste of billions of dollars and destroying a country for no reason.

Recently, the revised American plan for Afghanistan has seen some light. The change in regime in Kabul with Ashraf ghani and change in leadership of the Taliban and the end of American combat mission in Afghanistan are serious factors supporting the revised plan. Ashraf Ghani is much more open for discussions with Taliban as compared to his predecessor Hamid Karzai. The Taliban new leader Mullah Akhter Mansoor is open for dialogue with more flexibility than Mullah Umar even though several Taliban leaders are still challenging his legitimacy. The Americans had to leave because their official combat mission has ended on 28th December, 2014 and therefore had to pull out the present force of 9,800 US troops till the end of 2015.

This situation seems to be matured for a Taliban-afghan govt-US negotiations. Additional hindrances being faced by the three stakeholders have been somewhat eased out with the battle of Kunduz. For instance: The incident of Kunduz consolidated the leadership of Mullah Akhter Mansoor. It must have also additionally convinced many voices in the Afghan regime of Ashraf Ghani for additional compensations for the Taliban. Because, the Kunduz incident is yet another harsh example that If anything the war torn country has seen in these years, is the surge in militancy by the Taliban resistance. Finally, this incident provides strong justification for the continued American presence in this region. American President Mr. Obama announced just after the kunduz incident that he would keep the forces till 2017 as because they do not want Afghanistan to become safe heaven for militants once again.

Moreover, there is another important stakeholder i.e. Pakistan. The dilemma for American and Afghan Govt is that they cannot enter negotiation without Pakistan. Even though Pakistan is not directly a party in the negotiation process but it has considerable influence over the Taliban through the tribal belt and its previous involvement during the soviet invasion. And it has been very fortunate for the Americans and Kabul regime that Pakistan is actively pushing the Afghan Taliban for peace talks. Not only this, Pakistan has also provided increasing level of support by launching several military operations in its tribal region against Haqqani Network and the likes. This is done to punish the Taliban who are against peace talks and to pressurize the remaining. Pakistan has done all this even though this has caused serious repercussions at home.

Even though, things seem to be moving positively for the Americans, the key player in all this is Mullah Akhter Mansoor. If he consolidates his control over Taliban resistance and is ready to accept power sharing with Ashraf Ghani and ready to accept the permanent presence of some American troops and bases, the Americans will be happier than ever.

This may still be very tough because mainstream Taliban narrative is that of their first leader Mullah Umar. Afghan journalist Raza Wazir rightly points out that “The key issue the Taliban is facing regarding talks is maintaining the unity of its rank and file. For years, the ground fighters have waged war under the banner of jihad, which is why it is now difficult for them to talk with the ‘puppet government.” For this, Mullah Akhter will have to get support of Pakistan to control the stubborn Taliban and make more attempts to control his grip over the Taliban movement and make a fundamental shift in their policy of 14 years. This is a tough endeavour. Either he does this with the help of Pakistanis and Americans and the Afghan government or He sticks to the Mullah Umar doctrine and frustrate the American plans even further.  

What we lose from Civil-nuclear deal with US

This article has been published with some changes at
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-350353-What-we-lose-from-a-civil-nuclear-deal

Ever since the discussion of the “Diplomatic blockbuster” of David Ignatius, there has been a sense of Achievement in the political, intellectual and military circles in Pakistan. It is being hailed as Pakistan’s greatest achievements by some amongst them because that would, maybe, equate us to the Indian-US nuclear deal of 2008. But let us deeply analyze this reality before jumping to any conclusions and celebrations.

What has India got from a US-India nuclear deal

The first and most important aspect of this discussion is to understand the reality of US-India nuclear deal. The discussion of nuclear deal with india that started in 2005, materialized in 2008 has not been able to conclude a single nuclear agreement with America or any other country till 2015. According to G. Balachandran, a consulting fellow at the New Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis, “The only nuclear cooperation that India has been able to conclude with any of the countries with whom it has nuclear cooperation agreements is in respect of nuclear fuel.” India had to lower its target of installed nuclear capacity from 63 GW by 2032 to 27.5 GW, as none of the proposed projects have started. Last year, Russia has agreed to setting up 10 nuclear reactors but that has nothing to do with the US-India Nuclear deal. Other than the prestige that comes with the name US-India Nuclear deal, there had been no practical effect of the deal for Indians Energy problems for the last 7 years after signing the deal. The question really arises, are we really dying for such a deal just because of our obsession with India?

What we will loose from a US-Pak nuclear deal

“Possible new limits and controls on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and delivery systems,” David Ignatius, an opinion writer for the US-based newspaper said. It does not sound really encouraging now, does it? Peter R. Lavoy, a longtime intelligence expert on the Pakistani nuclear program, with close relations with the country’s military, and who is currently serving on the U.S. National Security Council, is known to be leading the discussions think that “There’s a political dimension with the Shaheen-III that I think is troubling to the US government, and to many other governments of representatives here in the audience, that now you will have the ability to reach many other countries, in the Middle East, for example, that Pakistan didn’t have that capacity in the past.” It is also described in The Washington Post and The New York Times, the American proposals center on Pakistan’s shortest-range missiles and long-range ones. So to sum it up, we will have to reduce our nuclear program to get a deal which might take 3 years to materialize and another 7 years to start discussing about giving us a civilian nuclear reactor. And off course if anything unusual happens, this deal can be taken off by the Americans, like the F-16 deal in the past in which we got wheat for the money of F-16s.  

What we will get from a US-Pak nuclear deal

Maybe, I am too cynical, so lets explore what we can get practically.  US support for a US-Pakistan civilian nuclear agreement, possible membership of 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) by US support and relaxation of Nuclear Suppliers Group export controls.

I have already discussed how beneficial can the US-Pak nuclear agreement be by comparing with the US-India deal. As far as NSG is concerned, for now, the symbolic significance of a place at the NSG carries no strategic weight for Pakistan, as it has explored alternative markets for its civil nuclear program. Pakistan has already been engaged with China, and to some extent with Russia, for its civil nuclear needs. China is involved in construction of at least six nuclear reactors in Pakistan. Wang Xiaotao, a key official of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said at a press conference “has assisted the construction of at least six nuclear reactors in Pakistan with a total installed capacity of 3.4 million kilowatts.” Most Importantly, China has never imposed any conditions on our Military Nuclear program after supporting us in building the civilian nuclear reactors.

There is another angle to this discussion. Even if we get the NSG membership and people start trading with us in the nuclear domain, we will always be looked at with suspicion. Our track record of the AQ Khan episode will always keep us in the spotlight.  For Instance, on October 20, Congressman Ted Poe, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-proliferation and Trade, urged Obama to not engage in any negotiations regarding a US-Pakistan civil nuclear agreement. "Simply put, Pakistan's current and past record is disqualifying for any consideration by the US to support civilian nuclear cooperation with Pakistan bilaterally”. I am sure that even if the Americans deal with us and we become an active partner in Nuclear Suppliers Group, they, along with the Indians would continue to blame us and blackmail us and humiliate us in the rest of the world. So this move is going to hurt our international standing in the long run despite all our efforts at strengthening the nuclear safety and security regime.

Thinking independently and making better choices for Pakistan

Other than the superficial argument, “whatever India wants, we want it too” there is nothing in it for Pakistan in this deal. We need to overcome our obsession with India and realize that we can make far better choices if we think independently for Pakistan. We already have secured a 46 billion dollar deal with China without any “CONDITIONS” from China on our military assets. Major part of the investment deals with resolving the energy crises as well. Apart from that, Pakistan has exceptional potential for Solar, Wind, Coal, Hydro energy options to meet the energy needs and unnecessary pushing for a US nuclear reactor is absolutely redundant for Pakistan.