Essays

By Amjed Jaaved

The ebook includes essays on some current issues. The matters discussed are `Defining and identifying terrorists',
`Iran: what next?', `Voile versus turban', `Lessons from states’ failure in history', `Limitations of hegemony', `Muslim League: Past and Present', `Mischievous revelation' by Pakistan's former ambassador to the USA, ` love and marriage', `Shariah', `Cyber warfare', `Taxing the lords',
and `importance of learning mandarin' as China rises.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amjed Jaaved
• Release date: Mar 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310239991

Amjed Jaaved

•Wrote freelance for over 45 years (under original name, homonyms or pseudonyms) beginning with Morning News (Karachi), mostly on current economic and management issues. The contribution titled “An Anti-Inflation Weapon “ attracted the Pakistan's prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. PM House invited him for discussion on the economic proposal in the article. Discussed matters with Special Asst. to Prime Minister and his so-called chief economist. Not joined their team, remained independent. •Contributions were published in leading dailies at home (News International, Express Tribune, Dawn, Nation, Daily Times, Frontier Post, etc) and abroad (Lebanon, Bangladesh, and Nepal). •Served 1970-83 Punjab government as a principal officer (chief officer/taxation officer of Municipal bodies and District Council) before joining the Directorate-General, Inter-Services Intelligence. Retired as director, Inter-Services Intelligence in 2009. Worked at analysis, technical, and media desks, besides in the field. Has special interest in strategy, study of civilisations, international relations,particularly Kashmir and nuclear issues, besides analysis of defence budget. His work on study of civilisations, societies and cultures including analysis of structure of Pakistan's society is on the anvil. Lectured MBA students. He is a Master of Economics, Business Administration, and LLB (Shariah and Law). Knows several languages including Arabic and French. Learned computer languages at two universities. •Currently jobless and looking up for some research/writing/lecture/administrative job or assignment in Pakistan or abroad.

Book preview

ISBN: 9781310239991

Essays

Copyright 2013 Amjed Jaaved

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About the Author

Amjed Jaaved has been contributing free lance for around forty years. His contributions stand published in the leading dailies (News International, Nation, Dawn, et. al.), and abroad (Nepal Review, New Nation Bangladesh, Sangram, and others). He has experience of serving provincial and federal governments of Pakistan for cumulative period of almost 39 years.

During his service, he has had the rare opportunity of specializing on politico-economic aspects of South Asian countries, particularly India. He holds degrees in Master of Business Administration (with financial management as a major), Master of Economics and BALLB.

His special areas of interest include South Asian politics and economics, with emphasis on regional conflicts (including India-Pak nuclear equation), democratic trends (including human-rights violations and corrupt administrative and political practices). His article Rampant Corruption in India, published in Bangladesh stands archived with Transparency International. He knows several languages, including French and Arabic, besides some regional languages and dialects.

Defining and identifying terrorists

Our prime minister has offered the taliban food and force in one platter. His offer reflects that he presumes taliban to be one coherent monolithic body. All taliban, even if they be Pak citizens, are patently bad. So, by corollary, all the students in over 350 madaaris in Karachi alone are terrorists (this appears to be the logic in chapter on mosque and madrassa reforms in Project Air Force: The Muslim World after 9/11). Could the bad ones stop terror without consent of their mentors abroad. Where do we place the person who kills an innocent sunni or shia. Where do we place their sponsors? What we are up against? Do we identify all the stakeholders, even if they be USA, Saudi Arabia or Iran? Does our retributive capability match well with theirs? For one thing, we `need to define what we are up against, a hydra-headed monster, or a pliable stooge, with moorings abroad? We need to define `terrorism’, `insurgency’, and `taliban’?

Army or any other state-force is trained to hit only the visible enemy. What are the features of the `terrorists’? Where do they live? Only in FATA? Or ubiquitous?

Defining anything is not easy. Nothing is as simple as it looks (Murphy’s Law). But that should not frighten us from contributing our mite. Ronald Reagan’s administration termed Afghan fighters as `mujahideen’. His successors saw them as `terrorists’. Earlier, during the World War II, the British described the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army as a `liberation army’. They branded it as terrorists when the Army’s successor, the Malayan Races, launched struggle against British raj during the Malayan Emergency. USA sheltered gallery of Latin American terrorists, extolled as freedom fighters.

Who are taliban? What are their shades and types: `al-qaeda-linked’, `moderate’ or the `neo-‘? Their number? Karzai, a self-styled moderate dangled amnesty offer even to mullah Omar, the taliban leader. He said that `only 150 top taliban, having links with al-qaeda are enemies of Afghanistan’. The rest `who want to work and farm here are welcome to participate in elections and take part in reconstruction efforts’ (Robert D. Crews and Amin Tarzi, editors, The Taliban and the Crisis in Afghanistan, Harvard University Press, Massachusetts).

Crew tells how subjective it is to dub someone as `al-qaeda-linked’, or `moderate’. During 2005-2006 trials of Guantanamo Bay prisoners, several taliban commanders and foot soldiers were released but not a few cooks by US government. `Among the released was former taliban ambassador to Pakistan who ran for Afghan parliament, others remained in custody in Bagram airbase and in secret prisons in other countries’. `The term neo-Taliban first surfaced in a 2003 article in the Economist. It characterized an opposition that has evolved beyond the old regime and encompasses new groups with new agenda’ (p. 276 ibid.). Based on Gallup World Poll, John L. Eposot and Dalia Moghahed tried to differentiate radicals from moderates (Chapter 3: What makes a radical? in Who Speaks for Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think, 2007, Gallup Press New York, pp.65 to 98).

Now, a few words about `terrorism’. There is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism (). But, there are several international conventions on terrorism with different definitions (). Jaundiced countries and organisations dub their rivals as terrorists, like India vis-à-vis Kashmiri freedom fighters ().

The UNSC (2004) report, backed up by a 2005 report, defined `terrorism’ (). But the definition is no jus cogen of international law. A study by the United States’ army found that `more than one hundred definitions of terrorism exist and are being used’ ().

It is eerie that, despite disagreement on definition of terrorism, the International Round Table on Constructing Peace, Deconstructing Terror (2004) tried to distinguish `terrorism’ from `acts of terror’ as per UNSC Resolution 1373.

`Insurgency’ is no less complex a subject than `terrorism’. India banned the well-established political party CPI-M, and flushed the Maoist insurgents’ from Lalgarh (West Bengal).

Better, let us postpone defining, and face the reality. Arrest anyone whoever violates the penal