Editorial: DAWN - 28 June 2013

A shameful move: Swiss saga again

EVEN the end isn’t the end, it appears. The long-running Swiss cases/letter saga that seemingly had finally come to a close last November has been revived in the most astonishing manner. Attorney General Muneer Malik informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the law ministry had written a second, secret letter to the Swiss in November; a second letter that directly contradicted the purpose of the first, court-mandated letter. What is most egregious here is the manner in which the law ministry appears to have been used by President Zardari as his personal law firm. As the primary target of the Swiss proceedings, Mr Zardari has the right to defend himself and put forward his own interpretation of the relevant laws. But if that is what the president wanted to achieve, he should have hired Swiss representatives in his personal capacity to lobby or appeal to the Swiss authorities regarding his point of view — and not used state resources to achieve that. In fact, by having the law ministry involved in contradictory missives — one authorised by the Supreme Court; the other presumably emanating from the presidency or his supporters in government — the government appears to have deliberately created severe ambiguity and doubt with the intention of preventing the Swiss from developing any interest in carrying the proceedings there forward.

Still, for all the too-clever-by-half strategising by the PPP legal brain trust, there are political and legal issues, that remain to be settled with an eye on a bigger pur-pose and context. Nawaz Sharif’s government has already indicated its intention to launch an appeal against the Swiss authorities’ decision to not reopen the proceedings involving Mr Zardari — something that the government is well within its legal right to do but which must also be weighed against the possibility of success and the impact it could have on domestic political stability. The principal lesson from the bad old days of the ’90s is that the politics of revenge tend to undermine the system. When heads of parties go after each other and their families, the political system is destabilised. Mr Sharif, if he is serious about pursuing the Swiss cases, should demonstrate an equal willingness to look within his own party’s ranks for misdeeds and corruption.

As for the court, the anomaly has long been pointed out: why the endless fixation with a single individual among the many thousands of NRO beneficiaries? Justice is best served when it is seen as even-handed, above-board and without ulterior motives.

Too high a price: CNG supply

FEW will disagree with the idea of discouraging the use of our depleting gas resources for filling car tanks — and that too at heavily subsidised rates. Calls for raising the price of CNG to reduce the cost differential with petrol have grown over the years as more and more people realise that the subsidy on the ‘cheap’ fuel is being pocketed mainly by the affluent. The poor to the middle-income class gets just a fraction of the billions of rupees being doled out in their name. The previous government had also tried to increase CNG prices last year to discourage its use in vehicles. But the decision was reversed under a court decision that sought to protect the “interests of the consumer”.

Now the new government is reported to have agreed “in principle” to raise CNG rates by over 80pc to reduce the price differential between gas and petrol prices — in one go. This move will discourage the use of CNG in inefficient car engines, and make more gas available for power generation for industry, homes and markets. But is it a wise decision to increase CNG prices all at once? Not many will agree. The use of CNG should be curtailed, but in phases. People have invested billions in CNG kits as well as pumps. The government can build upon the existing ban on the installation of CNG kits in new cars and the import of new kits by raising prices gradually. The government should give a time frame with specific targets to be achieved along the way to prepare consumers and investors for a change in policy. The policy of allowing the use of subsidised CNG with a view to cutting the official oil import bill was wrong and has cost the economy dearly in the last 10 years. The policy must be changed, and the sooner, the better. But not at the cost of consumers and investors who invested their money in this sector only because the government had wanted them to.

A new Syria policy?: Qatar’s change of guard

WITH the Syrian conflict showing no signs of abating, the declaration by Qatar’s new amir that he rejects the Arab world’s division along sectarian lines deserves to be welcomed. The new ruler is 33-year-old Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who became the oil-rich emirate’s monarch after his father, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, abdicated in his favour — a rare pheno-menon in the Arab world. The former monarch and his prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem, had played in the affairs of the Arab world a role that was out of proportion with Qatar’s demographic and geographical reality. On Syria, the former monarch had aligned his policies with those of Saudi Arabia and come out decisively in favour of the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s government. With Iran and Hezbollah on the side of the Damas-cus regime, the ‘Arab Spring’ character of the Syrian conflict acquired a sectarian colour.

The new monarch has changed his team of advisers. Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem, who besides being prime minister was once foreign minister, has been replaced by Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasir, while Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khalid al-Attiyah has been made foreign minister. The cabinet shake-up arouses hope that there could perhaps be some changes in Qatar’s Syria policy. With the clout of Qatar’s oil power, Sheikh Tamim has a chance of pursuing a policy of genuine neutrality toward Syria. The injection of sectarianism into the 26-month-old conflict has sharpened the polarisation in Syria, defied a solution and added to the country’s misery. Qatar can help end the agony of the Syrian people by using its influence, along with that of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, to bring all parties to the conflict to the negotiating table.