War Weary Pakistanis Disapprove of US, Taliban and Al Qaeda

Pew polls conducted in 2010 and 2011 show that overwhelming majority of Pakistanis take a dim view of the actions of the United States, Taliban and Al Qaeda.

According to the latest poll, only 12% express a positive view of the U.S. and just 8% have confidence in President Barack Obama to do the right thing in world affairs. Most Pakistanis see the U.S. as an enemy, consider it a potential military threat, and oppose American-led anti-terrorism efforts. The killing of bin Laden has had little effect on the results.

Pew conducted the survey in Pakistan as part of its Global Attitudes Project in April, and conducted a second poll right after the May 2 raid on Bin Laden’s compound in the city of Abbottabad, Pakistan. Pakistanis’ views of Bin Laden had become increasingly negative in recent years. In a 2005 Pew poll, 51 percent said they had confidence that Bin Laden would do the right thing in world affairs; in April only 21 percent had such trust.



Looking forward, 51 percent of the respondents in the latest survey expect relations to deteriorate between the countries as a result of the American military action, only 4 percent anticipate better relations and 16 percent said there would be no change. And after the death of Bin Laden, Pakistanis took a more pessimistic view of relations between their country and the United States. In a prior survey in April, Pakistanis were divided: 35 percent said relations had improved in recent years and 35 percent disagreed. After the Abbottabad raid, 29 percent said relations with the United States had improved and 44 percent had the opposite view.



Pakistanis continue to reject suicide attacks against civilians as a means to defend Islam. Fully 85% of Muslims in Pakistan say this kind of violence is never justified; another 3% says it is rarely justified and just 5% say it is sometimes or often justified.

Pakistanis continue to view their traditional rival India negatively. Three-in-four express an unfavorable opinion of India, up from 50% five years ago.

When asked which is the biggest threat to their country, India, the Taliban, or al Qaeda, a majority of Pakistanis (57%) say India.

Still, roughly seven-in-ten say it is important to improve relations with India, believe increased trade with their neighbor would be a good thing, and support further talks to reduce tensions between the two countries.

Similarly, Indians express negative opinions of Pakistan; 65% have an unfavorable view of their traditional rival and more name Pakistan as India’s biggest threat (45%) than name Lashkar-e-Taiba (19%) or Naxalites (16%). Yet, like Pakistanis, Indians would like to see improved relations between the two countries and most support increased trade between India and Pakistan.



At the heart of tensions between India and Pakistan lies the Kashmir dispute. Nearly three-fourths (73%) of Pakistanis consider the Kashmir dispute a very big problem. Majorities in both countries think it is important to find a resolution to the Kashmir issue, but Pakistanis are more likely than Indians to give this issue high salience (80% vs. 66% very important). Majorities of Pakistanis across age, education and ethnic groups agree that resolving this issue is very important.

Even though the Pakistani military has come under sharp criticism since the U.S. raid that killed bin Laden, it remains overwhelmingly popular: 79% say it is having a good influence on the country. Ratings for military chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani have remained on balance positive – 52% give him a favorable and 21% an unfavorable rating. This represents a slight change from the April poll conducted prior to bin Laden’s death, when 57% rated him favorably and 18% unfavorably.

Among the politicians, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan scores the highest with 68% of respondents approving, and President Asif Zardai is the least popular with a mere 11% support. Nawaz Sharif has lost some of his popularity with his approval down to 63% from an earlier poll showing 71% support. Ninety two percent say that the country is heading in the wrong direction. 85 percent of those surveyed see the economic condition as bad and 60 percent fear further deterioration in the next 12 months. Most people consider rising inflation, unemployment, crime, terrorism and political corruption as key issues of the country.

Aside from confirming the ongoing India-Pakistan rivalry and mounting dissatisfaction with the nation's leadership, the Pew survey results essentially reinforce the fact that vast majority of Pakistanis are tired of rising violence and wish to be left alone by the United States, Taliban and al Qaida.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Pew Poll in Pakistan 2011

Appeasement in Swat

Kashmir in Context

ISI Rogues-Real or Imagined?

Pakistanis See US as Biggest Threat

Daily Carnage in Pakistan

King's Hypocrisy

Military Mutiny in Pakistan?

India's Guantanamos abd Abu Ghraibs

Obama McCain Debate on Pakistan Policy

Privatization of Key State Functions in Pakistan

The last few years in Pakistan have seen significant proliferation of privatization of traditional state functions. There are a growing number of private security companies providing armed guards, private toll roads, private education at all levels, private hospitals and clinics, private water delivery businesses, and private clubs. Instead of helping improve the situation for all of their fellow citizens, it seems that the Pakistani elite are retreating into their own shells to isolate themselves from the terrible effects of deteriorating governance in their land.

Privatization wave is not limited to Pakistan alone. Prompted by growing security concerns and faced with huge budget deficits, the United States is seeing increasing privatization of security functions, often referred to as "dual law enforcement". Gated communities patrolled by private security guards are popping up all over the United States. Privately operated prisons are also growing, along with private police forces in America.

The US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have seen new highs in levels of privatization in intelligence and combat support roles. The number of US contractors working for the US military and the CIA in the Afghanistan and Pakistan region exceeds the total strength of the US troops and CIA personnel, according to estimates by Jimmy Scahill who has researched and written extensively about Blackwater (aka Xe Services). The presence of over 80,000 US military and intelligence contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan makes the level of privatization of war unprecedented. US is reportedly employing private security contractors provided by the American private military company (PMC) Dyncorp to carry out intelligence and security operations in Pakistan.

Pakistan's neighbor India, too, has hired, armed and trained private militias like Salwa Judum in its war against the Maoists in Chhattisgarh and other Indian states. There have been allegations in the past two years of rape, murder and extortion by Judum and other such private armies backed by the state.

Sweden based security firm Securitas is emerging as one of the largest private security contractors in the world. Securitas has acquired companies to become a player in many countries from the Czech Republic to Mexico and Morocco.

Another private global security company G4S Wackenhut has presence in Pakistan, with its headquarters located in Karachi. It provides services such as armed guards, cash services, security systems, facility management, research & collection services, canine services, consultancy & risk management, to its Pakistani clients.

“These recent acquisitions (by private security corporations) reflect opportunities created by the current economic crisis. Global security providers like Securitas aspire to continual global growth and expansion, and their biggest profit margins are generally in emerging markets. As profits come under pressure in the more mature markets of Europe and North America, a global acquisition strategy becomes even more important,” Professor Rita Abrahamsen and Professor Michael C Williams of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, told ISN Security Watch.

Local government services are being cut in many areas in the United States. California city of Tracy has decided to charge residents for responding to emergency calls. Residents can pay a $48 voluntary fee for the year which allows them to call 9-1-1 as many times as necessary. Or, there's the option of not signing up for the annual fee. Instead, they will be charged $300 if they make a call for help.

At a recent debate organized by Intelligence Squared, the attendees voted in the affirmative for the motion that "California is the First Failed State", because of its inability to provide basic services to its residents, like those in Tracy, California.

Here's a tongue-in-cheek guest post by freelance writer Syed F. Hussaini. It pushes the envelope by proposing privatization of police functions for improving the deteriorating law and order situation in Pakistan:

Pakistanis were heartbroken to see The National Geographic casually listing their country as a failed state in its September, 2009, issue.

There is no calibrated scale to measure how bad is the breakdown of law and order in Pakistan. One convenient barometer can be the personal experience. How many people an ordinary Joe knows who had been a victim of a recent crime? This simple, first hand approach would tell us that the gravity of the problem has reached a level where almost every single individual has a recent story to tell of how he himself or, a family member or friend, became a victim of a crime. It was not so in the 1970s. Back then, incidents of pickpocketing aside, a common man had to search his mind hard to think of somebody he personally knew as a crime victim.

The inability of the state to maintain law and order created a market which has since been growing steadily. Private security companies provide armed guards at the homes of the rich who now travel in convoys of sport utility vehicles loaded with gunmen. Private citizens are dispensing ready justice on the streets of big Pakistani towns burning robbery suspects alive. And, security service providers appear to be working hard to catch up with the enormous needs of this vast market of 173 million consumers.

It is not the first time the private sector is seen marching into the domain of the state and bringing in some positive change. Once upon a time, you needed good connections to get a telephone connection in Pakistan. Or, you had to pay tens of thousands of rupees as bribe to the government officials at the telephone department to have a phone line brought to your home or office.

Things changed. The winds of privatization blew away the monopoly of the telephone department and the advent of the cell phone sent armies of sales personnel chasing the consumers. Overnight, the culture of bribes disappeared from the telephone industry; at least, at the consumer end. Pakistanis would love to see a similar change in the law and order business.



If a guy goes to a police station in Pakistan to report that his car had been stolen, he has to pay thousands of rupees as bribe to have his complaint registered in the precinct records. He is robbed twice, unless he has connections.

Newspapers report robberies committed by police officers. Legend goes that the top police officials auction off the precincts to subordinate officers. The highest bidder is appointed the station house officer as the auction proceeds precinct by precinct.

Gangs run gambling, narcotics, alcohol, prostitution and other illicit businesses and pay the police off to look the other way. The police make additional money by extorting side-walk vendors, transport operators or the law-abiding motorists.

Then, there are the walk-ins seeking justice. They come in to report they had been robbed at gunpoint out on the street or at home, of their wallets, cell phones, motorcycles, automobiles or other possessions. At the precinct, everybody has to pay to have a report registered. That is good, sound, multi-billion-rupee business.

This huge revenue would be the greatest incentive for the private sector to jump into the arena of law-enforcement. Privately-owned companies can set up offices right next to the police stations and start registering First Investigation Reports (F.I.R.) for a fee. Competition between these companies would guarantee fair prices for this service.

Armed with proper government licenses, permits and authority and escorted by lawyers, these private companies can take these reports to the police precinct and have them entered into the government records.

The extortionist police officers at the precinct would lose their leverage over the lone, helpless, scared and stressed out crime victim trying to file an F.I.R. He would never set foot in their den. The police officers would think twice before they mess with the representatives of a licensed, multi-billion-rupee law-enforcement company with its corporate offices adjacent to the interior ministry in Islamabad and at the four provincial capitals.

These private companies in Pakistan can bring some law and order back to the streets of rough neighborhoods by arrays of surveillance cameras and patrols paid for by the crime-weary residents and businesses.

Such companies can set up competent crime scene investigation units and modern forensic and DNA testing labs. Their possible clients would be the families of missing or kidnapped persons and the insurance companies trying to recover stolen property, like automobiles, insured by them.

Pakistan's political leaders are mostly feudal lords or tribal chiefs. It is almost a master-slave relationship between the elected politician and the common man. A government job in Pakistan is a license to steal and extort. It is a parasite-host relationship between a government official and the common man.

However, the relationship between the industrial-business class and the common man in Pakistan is essentially a retailer-consumer one; in essence, an interactive business relationship. It is not an oppressively lopsided master-slave or parasite-host relationship. That is a great qualitative difference, a beacon of hope and solid ground to start working together for a change in the country to bring back the rule of law for mutual benefit.

Another common factor between the industrial-business class and the common man is the fear of being kidnapped for ransom. As the poor common man walks down the street looking over his shoulder, the poor rich man is firmly denied the simple pleasure of a stroll around his own mansion. The rich generate more ransom revenue, run more risk of being kidnapped and live in more fear. They, too, would like to leave their palaces by themselves any hour of day or night without any armed escort and just walk up to the roadside restaurant next block for an ice-cream or, a cup of tea, the way they did back in the 1970s.

True administration of justice, the firmest pillar of good government, is a related issue. Pakistani courts are overwhelmed with a backlog of unresolved cases. There are instances where the complainant and the respondent both have long been dead, killing the case itself. The courts do not know this because they do not have the resources to sift through their backlog for dead cases. There are cases where two parties are just looking for mediation, a fair adjudication, a lawful compromise. Buried in the backlog, the courts are unable to provide even this simple judicial service.

However, government-licensed private courts can provide these simple but essential judicial services swiftly. It would drastically reduce the backlog at the state courts. With their performance and quality of adjudication, these private courts may prompt the state courts to improve their own image.

Over decades, private companies moved into education, water supply and health care as the state failed to perform in these sectors. Now is the time for Pakistani tycoons to move into the business of maintaining law and order and administration of justice.

Free enterprise and competition compel the cell phone companies in Pakistan to offer the best price and the best service to their poorest consumers.

The market forces would compel the private sector to guarantee true administration of justice in Pakistan.

Related Links:

Crises Worsen Class Divide in Pakistan

Are India and Pakistan Failed States?

Eleven Days in Karachi

Armed and Dangerous: Private Police on the March

Pakistan Telecom Boom

US-induced Privatization of Security in Pakistan

Jinnah's Pakistan Booms Amidst Doom and Gloom

Incompetence Worse Than Corruption

Creative Financing of Pakistan's Energy Projects

Pakistan's Energy Crisis

Light Candles, Do Not Curse Darkness

Taliban Exploiting Class Rifts in Pakistan

Water Scarcity in Pakistan

Salman Ahmed Rocks Silicon Valley

Life Goes On in Pakistan

Pakistan's Higher Education Reform

Wheat Flour Shortage in Pakistan

Rising Atta Prices
The rising prices and acute shortages of atta (wheat flour), a staple in Pakistan, are clearly distressing to the people. However, putting it in perspective, this wheat crisis is not isolated to Pakistan. There are widespread fears of food shortages and lack of affordability in
many countries around the world.

According to a recent report in Wall Street Journal, the prices of Illinois corn and soybeans rose 40% and 75%, respectively, from a year ago. Kansas wheat is up 70% or more. And a growing number of economists and agribusiness executives think the run-ups could last as long as a decade, raising the cost of all kinds of food.

World Wheat Stock At 26-Year Low
Global Demand is leaving end-of-year grain inventories at levels that are less than 20% of the total amount used each year; a graph of stocks as a percentage of use is as follows:



Source: US Dept of Agriculture

No More Cheap Grain
"The days of cheap grain are gone," says Dan Basse, president of AgResource Co., a Chicago commodity forecasting concern.

Rising prices and surging demand for the crops that supply half of the world's calories are producing the biggest changes in global food markets in 30 years, altering the economic landscape for everyone from consumers and farmers to corporate giants and the world's poor. The biggest increases in demand are the result of rising incomes in the developing nations where a large number of people have moved up into the middle class. Meanwhile production has failed to keep up with the rising demand. In Canada, for example, Statistics Canada trimmed its spring wheat production estimate to 509.8 million bushels, down from its October forecast of 526 million. In 2006, Canada produced 684 million bushels of spring wheat. Canada produced less
spring wheat this year than in 2006 due to reduced plantings and unfavorably hot conditions during the growing season.

USDA Report on Pakistan Wheat Crisis
According to a US Dept of Agriculture Report in December 2007, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz announced in Sept, 2007 that the GOP would import one million tons of wheat, stating that this action was necessary to “maintain a reasonable buffer stock for the future.” The export price for Pakistani wheat during the April-May export window was approximately $225-232 per ton. For December 2007 delivery, Pakistan is now
looking at an estimated import price of $380-400 per ton, exclusive of transportation. The timing couldn’t be worse. World wheat stocks are at a 26-year low, mainly due to severe weather conditions in the major production areas of Canada, Australia, the EU and Ukraine. Consequently, wheat prices have hit all-time record highs.
The Government of Pakistan subsequently decided to make smaller wheat purchases, rather than a single 1 million ton purchase. Pakistani officials cited overbooking at the Port of Karachi and the problems berthing larger vessels as well as the need for a monthly review of the wheat situation as reasons for moving away from a single tender. They have also hinted that they may lift the ban on private imports. The Government of Pakistan could provide a subsidy for the imported wheat to cover the differential between the government issue price and the import price.
Clearly, Pakistan witnessed a perfect storm scenario on wheat in 2007 with an overly optimistic wheat crop estimate, a well-intentioned decision to lift the four-year wheat export ban to raise farm prices, severe weather conditions in the major world wheat production areas, and increased demand during Ramadan. In hindsight, lowering the official crop estimate should have had the same effect on farm prices as exports, while keeping more wheat within Pakistan. This report clearly spells out some of the mis-steps by Pakistani Government leading up to the current crisis.

Food Subsidies
Many developing nations, such as Pakistan, control and subsidize food prices by procuring the harvest from farmers at a fixed price and by providing subsidies to keep the retail prices low. The world market price for raw wheat comes to about Pak Rs. 24 per kilo in large quantity purchases excluding the cost of transportation, milling and bagging. Pakistan Government has set the retail price of atta(wheat flour) at Rs.16 per kilo. Large differentials in prices and availability across national borders encourage smuggling for profiteering. Add to this the endemic corruption in many developing nations, and you have all the ingredients for a serious food shortage. Measures such as the use of the military to guard grain storage and milling and distribution centers can help temporarily. But these are just band-aids.

The Future
There is no obvious long term solution, other than systematically increasing production, building state wheat reserves (instead of wheat exports), and by providing special assistance to the low-income people. I hope I am wrong but there is clearly a possibility of atta riots in Pakistan to add to the already precarious security situation. The politicians opposed to Musharraf would be all too happy to take advantage of this situation, as the media play up the shortages to stoke widespread public anger.

Bilawal Bhutto's Extra-curricular Activities at Oxford

In his high-profile role as the Chairman of one of Pakistan's largest political parties, there are enormous security threats for Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. In the words of John Giduck, a US security consultant, "The threat level is going to be inordinately high - you are dealing with a young man with an enormous target painted on him. It would take dozens of people and hard assets to keep this man safe". In addition to this security threat, Bilawal is dealing with the loss of his privacy with the British tabloids such as The Sun and The Daily Mail pursuing and finding more and more pictures of him with various male and female friends at various parties in Oxford. Bilawal is reportedly very popular on the Oxford campus and participates in many extra-curricular activities. The Daily Mail has discovered a number of Facebook comments including references to being hungover, his friendship with "Boozie Suzie" and the joys of free alcohol. This new found fascination of the British tabloids is likely to continue in spite of Bilawal's pleas for privacy.

For more on this, please take a look at PakAlumni website.