The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Accountability of judges Proposed Bill a step in the right direction UNION Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily’s statement on Wednesday that the Centre will bring forward the Judicial Standard and Accountability Bill in the winter session of Parliament to “resurrect the judiciary’s image” has not come a day too soon. Unfortunately, the judiciary’s image has taken a beating in recent times because of increasing cases of corruption and misconduct on the part of judges. It is a matter of regret that there is no statutory mechanism to check corruption in the higher judiciary. While high court chief justices have disciplinary powers over the lower courts, the Supreme Court and high court judges can be removed only through impeachment by Parliament. That this process is too cumbersome and time consuming has been borne out by experience. Though the Chief Justice of India can prevail upon a judge to resign, his advice could well be disregarded. The fragility of the present collegium system of selecting judges has also come out in bold focus through the Dinakaran affair. There is neither adequate transparency nor accountability in the current system. The basis on which the Supreme Court collegium chooses judges is unclear. In the light of increasing cases of corruption involving high court judges, Mr Moily’s observation that the government would like to revisit the judges’ appointment process and that the proposed Bill would have provisions for dealing speedily with “corruption, misconduct and misdemeanour” is welcome. Since people have great expectations from judges and the judicial system is a pillar on which democracy rests, any act of misconduct on their part should be viewed seriously and they should be held accountable for their acts of omission and commission. The inordinate delay in the elevation of four high court chief justices to the Supreme Court even after the collegium had delinked their elevation with that of Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran who faces charges of land-grabbing in Tamil Nadu is regrettable. As for Justice Dinakaran, if the collegium finds him guilty of the charges, his continuance in the Karnataka High Court itself would become untenable.
	Raising the bar Stiffer IIT entry criteria is welcome GETTING into the prestigious IITs has never been a cakewalk. The percentage of successful students in 2009 was a mere 2.6 per cent. Now, IIT entry may be further restricted as the Class XII cut-off percentage for the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is likely to be increased. The proposed move to revise the eligibility criterion deserves to be welcomed as a step in the right direction. The present eligibility bar of 60 per cent was introduced nearly three years ago. Raising the bar further will not only reward merit, but is likely to curtail the mushrooming of coaching institutes that have of late become the bane of education. Over the years, these teaching shops have not only commercialised education, providing an unfair advantage to the well-heeled but also adversely affected school education. Some may see the dilution of Class X board examination and putting greater emphasis on Class XII examination for IIT entrance as contradictory. However, both are meant to boost the standard of school education. The cut-throat competition has negatively impacted the quality of secondary education. As of now education in senior classes in schools has becoming coaching-centric. As aspirants tend to ignore school education, they miss out on significant learning, possible only within the school environment. The change is aimed at discouraging “coaching class culture”. Undeniably, schools are real temples of learning and there is an urgent need to tame teaching shops. The IITs must indeed seriously deliberate over the JEE reforms and arrive at a rational weightage that while providing equal opportunity to students from poor background must not stonewall brilliance. While the interest of students cutting across all classes has to be kept in mind, the centres of excellence should have no place for under performers.
	Thought for the Day Peace will not come out of a clash of arms, but out of justice lived, and done, by unarmed nations in the face of odds. — Mahatma Gandhi
	Corrections and clarifications In the headline “Time frame must for change of discipline” (Page 3, October 22), the apt word would have been “limit” in place of “frame”. The headline “NASA rich, schoolgirls return home” (Page 7, October 22) is odd. It should have been “Girls back after enriching NASA trip”. In the headline “Clear air on land lease, ex-Jathedar asks SGPC”, (Page 4, October 21), the word ‘tells’ should have been used instead of “asks”. In the intro of report “Key accused in PF scam found dead” (Page 1, October 19), the word multi-crore has been mis-spelt as “mutli-crore”. Despite our earnest endeavour to keep The Tribune error-free, some errors do creep in at times. We are always eager to correct them. This column appears twice a week — every Tuesday and Friday. We request our readers to write or e-mail to us whenever they find any error. Readers in such cases can write to Mr Kamlendra Kanwar, Senior Associate Editor, The Tribune, Chandigarh, with the word “Corrections” on the envelope. His e-mail ID is kanwar@tribunemail.com. H.K. Dua Editor-in-Chief

ARTICLE

Instability in AfPak
Need for a pro-active Indian policy
by Maj-Gen Ashok K. Mehta (retd)

TALKING to the Taliban for India is anathema: in the words of Indian Ambassador in Kabul, Jayant Prasad, it is like frying snowballs. The Americans think otherwise. The US strategy on Afghanistan being reviewed a second time by President Obama in nine months underscores reconciling as many of the 15,000 Taliban as is feasible, in both Plan A and Plan B – Invest and Endure or Improve in order to Exit.

Besides talking, the other exercise is outbidding the Taliban to persuade Afghan villagers to lay down arms. It is based on an old saying — that you can rent an Afghan but never buy one and the tradition of triggering defection during combat. The hardcore Taliban — the so-called ideologues — are no more than 5-10 per cent and are led by Mullah Omar who heads the Taliban’s Rahbari Shura or leadership council, also called the Quetta Shura. The reconcilable Taliban are the ones who can be hired or the foot soldiers.

The economics of this strategy entails doubling their salary and would cost around $ 300,000 a day compared to $ 165 million the Americans are spending fighting the war. But getting the rank and file to ditch the Taliban won’t be so simple.

The US strategy innovators are coming up with impressive ideas though ignoring complexities in their implementation. The dialogue with the Taliban at a time when they scent victory and can see an exit arch for foreign forces is unrealistic.

So is the concept of protection of people at the expense of yielding ground and killing Taliban envisaged in the new Gen McChrystal strategy. But by far the most questionable are quantifiable benchmarks of success or progress in strategy within specific time lines.

Generals have months not years to show the strategy is working. Gen McChrystal wants to raise the 92,000-strong Afghan Army to 1,34,000 and the police from 84,000 to 1,60,000 in 13 months. This will not be easy. It is still not clear what the military goal will be: weakening the Taliban or suppressing it as this will determine force levels and time frames.

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said at an international conference on Afghanistan in New Delhi that “putting strategy into effect is the challenge for which there is no quick-fix solution”.

She endorsed the process of reconciliation provided it was under the parameters of the Afghan constitution. She warned against compartmentalising terrorism and striking Faustian bargains with terrorists. Clearly, India and the US are not on the same page over dialogue and reconciliation with the Taliban.

Pakistan’s failures to implement its commitments to deal with terrorist groups within its territory including the Al-Qaeda, the Taliban’s Quetta Shoora, Hizb-e-Islami and Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba has led to the stark decline in the security situation in Afghanistan.

After consistent US prodding backed by a big financial package, the Pakistan Army has launched its fourth offensive in South Waziristan. The hotbed of insurgency is in contiguous areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border astride the Durand Line. It is centered around Kandahar in the south which is dominated by the Taliban and in the east where the battleground is more intricate.

Here operate a loose confederation of affiliates such as the Haqqani network, Hizb-e-Islam Gulbuddin and Al-Qaeda together with Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar e Taiyyaba, Tehrik Nefaz Shariah Mohmand. Both sectors have umbilical links with sanctuaries in Pakistan. Lately, Taliban operations have expanded towards the north and west and provinces around Kabul.

Almost 42 nations which contribute 64,000 troops to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are ironically from outside the region. Another 35,000 US troops (and 21,000 on the way against 40,000 demanded) operate independently. Even with 90,000 Afghan National Army, the force level is insufficient and disparate to meet the challenge. Fewer boots on the ground are compensated by firepower, mainly the air forces. New operational procedures forbid use of air power if it could cause collateral civilian casualties. In the first six months of 2009, of the 1013 civilians one-third is attributed to government forces, mainly in cross firing. It is highly unlikely that European countries will bear the costs of this war. What is therefore being operationalised is a US, not ISAF, strategy as allies have too many caveats — will not operate by night, only fire in self-defence, etc. Growing sophistication in suicide terrorism and IEDs have created havoc in the country. This year is the worst for casualties for foreign troops.

Mainstreaming the Taliban is being advocated by former Pakistan Ambassador to Kabul Rustam Shah Mohmand. He says the root cause of the insurgency is the presence of foreign forces. His scheme involves inviting the Taliban to join the political process followed by a time-bound exit of foreign forces replaced by the Blue Berets followed by a UN-supervised election that could lead to a broad based government of power sharing. Analysts say that mainstreaming is an idea whose time has not come.

Obama’s AfPak strategy is in its most difficult test bed with prospects of success receding even after incurring $ 24 billion in security costs. Gen. McChrystal’s SOS for 40,000 more troops and $ 9.5 billion are meant to stem the tide of a resurgent Taliban and regain the initiative. On the development side, achievements are quite impressive: more than five million Afghan refugees have returned home since 2002; the number of school-going children has grown from under 1 million in 2001 to about 6 million in 2007, one-third of them girls; the number of teachers has increased seven-fold to 142, 500 including 40,000 female teachers; health and nutrition sectors have expanded and infant mortality reduced by 26 per cent in five years.

A new currency, stable exchange rate and private commercial banks are in place. About 150 cities and more than four million people across the country have access to mobile and fixed digital lines. In 2001, only 15,000 people had access to telecom facilities. TV stations, print media and radio networks have grown rapidly from the dark days of the Taliban.

Opium cultivation has decreased by 21 per cent this year; 98 per cent of the total cultivation of opium is confined to seven provinces, five lying in the Taliban-dominated South. The strong link between poppy and insurgency is unbroken though new ways to combat the problem are being explored including buying off entire poppy crops.

India has played a significant role in the socio-economic sectors of development: humanitarian, infrastructure, small-scale social projects and skill and capacity development. These have created a groundswell of goodwill and reinforced historic Indo-Afghan ties. Washington has kept Delhi out of the political and security sectors due to Pakistan’s sensitivities. Afghans are keen to see India’s political and military footprint not just the soft power.

As a front-line recipient of the violence and instability unleashed in AfPak, Delhi has not only to defend and enlarge its presence and activities across the HinduKush but also devise countermeasures against machinations of antagonists. While the US’ AfPak strategy is being redrawn, recent suicide terrorism in Pakistan and instability in Afghanistan call for a pro-active Indian policy in the region.

MIDDLE

Epical footprints
by Bhai Mahavir

THEY had read a story by Vinobaji how a group of four boys left school — looking for an adventure and had run into a tiger which resulted in an interesting encounter with it. This bunch too had ducked school and were in the forest. So far so good. But, wherefrom were new pupils to get the tiger?

They sat in a huddle to consider the matter but had no clue whatsoever how to sort it out. Some serious thought made them realise that to follow the footprints on the sands of time, they needed the participation of a tiger also. But the root cause was not this, contended the wisest of the group, the initial flaw was that their “great men” had not got their idea from any book.

Osho’s inscrutable idea referring to the idea has a charm of its own! It must have been the approaching festival of Dasehra and Ramlila celebration when emperor Akbar asked his witty minister Birbal, “You people make such a song and dance about Ram; did he have a greater empire than mine?”

“May be or may be not, Alampanah”, answered his never-to-be-caught Birbal, “but Valmiki and more so, Tulsi raised him to the skies — Ramayana story you know…”

“Well, can you not write an Akbarayana, Birbal, in our praise…?”

“Of course, why not,” responded Birbal, “Only, I will need a year’s leave and a lakh of gold coins …”

The deal was settled. Birbal was relieved from his darbar duties and advanced a lakh of ashrafis. He had a whale of a time, life was for him an endless sweet dream of fun and frolic. As the year neared its close, Akbar called him to ask about his progress.

“The major part has been done, Your Majesty,” he replied, “but I have come up against a road block. Sita, as you know was kidnapped and kept in captivity for more than a year. Who is the scoundrel to have abducted our queen, i.e. today’s Ravana…I’ll kill the swine…”

“What! Birbal, what nonsense is this?...” shouted Akbar, “I will…”

“But Your Majesty, Ramayana is incomplete without ‘Sita – apaharan!’...”

Recovering from the shock, the king approached the subject again after a few days and asked if Mahabharata could be tried. Birbal was very positive in regard to this proposal too. “Only, it is a bigger and more difficult theme so the time allowed will have to be doubled.”

Thereby started the epic of new Mahabharata. For Birbal it was a heavenly bliss all through – fun and frolic with no worry at all! Then came the day Birbal came to report a second time.

“It is time,” he said, “Your kingship will enjoy and profit immensely from it. But Sir, there is a little problem. Draupadi had five husbands, Alampanah, who are the four other guys to correspond to our Mallika?...”

Akbar flew into a rage…with hand on sword…eyes bloodshot…and shouted, “Birbal, do you have any sense of what you are talking! The rascals …will pay dearly along with you…”

It is not known as to whether — when Birbal ran for life — his shoes were on his feet or in his hands! In either case he must have had a little understanding of what the very great men leave behind them while parting!

OPED

Time to introduce shift system in courts
by P.P. Rao

THE judiciary in India is unable to render speedy justice to litigants. Arrears of cases have piled up in courts. The Supreme Court has brought down the pendency to two to three years with the help of computerisation and planning. In high courts, the pendency is heavy.

Even writ petitions, which are supposed to provide quick relief and ought to be decided within a few months, take years for a decision. Election petitions, which deserve to be dealt with immediately, take unduly long time. There have been several instances where, by the time the litigation is over, the election petitions became infructuous.

Such delay defeats the people’s right to valid representation in the legislature. In the subordinate courts, the extent of pendency is unmanageable. The few fast-track courts created by the NDA government at a considerable cost have made a marginal difference.

The Constitution guarantees the right to speedy trial but the judiciary is unable to ensure it. Such inordinate delay in the criminal justice system encourages more crime, causes dissatisfaction among the public and makes the operation of the criminal law difficult.

It is well known that delay defeats justice. Witnesses tend to resile from their earlier statements and turn hostile. Investigating officers lose interest and society tends to take a cynical view of the failure of the system.

In corruption cases, the rate of conviction is very low. The conviction rate in the TADA and POTA cases involving the heinous offence of terrorism is very low. The accumulation of arrears is heavy in almost all the tribunals. It is, therefore, necessary to find a solution which is not very expensive but effective and satisfactory from all angles and to all concerned.

While courts are under-staffed and arrears of cases are mounting, a precious human resource available in abundance in the shape of recently retired judges and judicial officers is being wasted.

If their services are utilised after proper screening for physical and mental fitness, integrity and ability by opening a second shift in each and every court and tribunal, it will go a long way in removing the bottlenecks in the judiciary and liquidating the arrears fast to the satisfaction of all concerned.

To ensure purity and efficiency of the system, re-employment of retired judges has to be made on the basis of selection and should not be automatic. In the case of the subordinate judiciary, the selection may be made by a high court or by a committee of senior judges constituted by the full court for this purpose.

For the re-employment of retired judges of the Supreme Court, the collegium which selects candidates for appointment as judges of the Supreme Court may be entrusted with the task of picking up suitable judges who are fit for re-employment for manning the second shift in the Supreme Court. The re-employment could be initially for a period of three years with a provision for an extension of tenure subject to fitness.

Additional ministerial staff will also be required. Even there, to the extent possible, recently retired court masters, stenographers and other administrative officers and employees could be deployed. For the shortfall, if any, fresh recruitment can be made.

The shift-system re-employing recently retired judges, judicial officers and administrative staff will have several advantages:

By utilising the existing court rooms, furniture, telecommunications, library, etc., there would be no need to incur any expenditure on creating additional infrastructure for running a second shift.

Their salary bill will be minimal as their pensions could be adjusted against the emoluments payable on re-employment. The quality of justice rendered by them would be high. Retired judges with their long experience will be able to dispose of cases very quickly as compared to newcomers and not-so-experienced sitting judges. The quick disposal of cases will reduce the scope for corruption.

The prospect of re-employment of clean and efficient judges and judicial officers soon after their retirement is bound to encourage honesty and efficiency among sitting judges and judicial officers.

The shift system provides more opportunities to the needy members of the Bar who do not have adequate work. It will result in larger distribution of work among lawyers because many senior lawyers will not be able to afford the stress and strain of practising in both shifts. The litigant public will be able to get quick relief and also justice of good quality.

The Law Commission of India in its 125th report submitted in 1988 had recommended a shift system in the Supreme Court. The Justice V.S. Malimath Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System (March 2003) has recommended a shift system in all criminal courts. It is high time to make the courts work in two shifts

The introduction of the shift system in courts will be the cheapest and best solution for liquidating arrears and ensuring speedy justice. Parliament has the power to enact the necessary legislation for introducing the shift system with a simple majority in both Houses. Articles 128 and 224-A permit the utilisation of the services of retired judges of the Supreme Court and of high courts for clearing arrears.

The writer is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court

Europe’s angst over Afghanistan
by Jackson Diehl

AS the US President and his National Security Council privately debate whether to send tens of thousands of troops to war, America's European allies watch with a mixture of anxiety and anguish. They know that if the deployment goes forward, they will be asked to make their own difficult and politically costly contributions of soldiers or other personnel.

But they are, if anything, even more worried that the American president will choose a feckless strategy for what they consider a critical mission. And they are frustrated that they must watch and wait — and wait and wait — for the president to make up his mind.

"Everyone is waiting for what is going to be decided in the Oval Office, without having any chance to have our say," moans a senior commander in one European army.

No, Norwegian Nobel Committee, this is not George W. Bush but Barack Obama, the president lionized for favoring harmonious collaboration with the rest of the world. It's fair to say that Obama has tried harder than Bush to coordinate policy with U.S. allies. But his deliberations on Afghanistan are demonstrating how some fundamentals of being a superpower never really change.

For example, when you're supplying 70 percent of the troops for a war and doing 90 percent of the fighting, your allies may just have to cool their heels while you decide whether to escalate, hold steady or blow up your strategy.

And while they wait, they will stew. In conversations with senior European officials visiting Washington, and at a transatlantic conference sponsored by Italy's Magna Carta Foundation last weekend, I heard an earful of Euro-anxiety about the strategy review Obama is conducting.

Some of the concern is simply about the spectacle of a young American president hesitating about going forward with a strategy that he committed himself to just months ago — and what effect that wavering might have on enemies both in Afghanistan and farther afield.

But a surprising amount of the worry, considering the continental source, is about whether Obama will be strong enough — whether he will, in the words of one ambassador, "walk away from a mission that we have all committed ourselves to."

European governments bought in to Obama's ambitious plan to pacify Afghanistan when he presented it in March. Unlike the U.S. President, they mostly haven't had second thoughts. By and large they agree with the recommendations developed by the commander Obama appointed, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who says that unless the momentum of the Taliban is broken in the next year, the war may be lost.

It's hard for European leaders to argue that Obama should send the 40,000 or more reinforcements that McChrystal is seeking, since they will be accompanied, at best, by only 2,000 to 3,000 more Europeans. So they tend to focus on the other half of the equation: why the West cannot give up on the effort to stabilize Afghanistan under a decent government.

"We need to create a stable government in Afghanistan, a government we can deal with," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said during a recent visit to Washington. "Otherwise we will be faced with permanent instability in Afghanistan and in the region."

Rasmussen and other Europeans are also happy to speak up publicly against the strategy sometimes attributed to Vice President Joe Biden, under which the United States would focus on counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida with drones or Special Forces.

"Why are there no Predator strikes in Peshawar or Quetta? Because it can't be done," said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country currently represents the European Union. "But we know leaders of al-Qaida and the Taliban are hiding in those urban areas. I fail to see that as a viable strategy."

Britain, naturally, has made the most direct attempt to sway the Washington debate. Last week Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that he would add 500 troops to Britain's contingent of 9,000 — a step that wouldn't make much sense if the United States were to scale down its own commitment.

— By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post

Inside Pakistan
People turn against the Taliban
by Syed Nooruzzaman

THE Pakistan military has launched its drive against the Taliban militants in South Waziristan with certain advantages. There cannot be as many internally displaced persons as were found during the Swat-Malakand operation. South Waziristan is a sparsely populated region with over five lakh people living there, whereas the population of the Swat-Malakand region is much higher.

The third factor which goes in favour of the armed forces is the tribal people’s disenchantment against the militants, whose activities have made their life miserable.

As Rahimullah Yusufzai, Resident Editor of The News in Peshawar, says in an article carried on October 20, “As was the case before the military operation in Swat and the rest of Malakand division, the military leadership received political support just a day before the attack in South Waziristan. Among the parties backing the government policy and the army action is Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s JUI-F that is sometimes critical of the military option, and even now is offering its services to initiate talks with the TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan).”

Yet it is not going to be an easy battle because of the terrain problem and other factors. Rahimullah says that “military spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas has conceded that the troops’ advance has been slow due to stiff resistance and landmines. The battle will take a familiar course with both sides claiming battlefield achievements as was the case in Swat until the militants start losing territory and men, and withdraw to their mountain fastnesses, retreat to remote places … or scatter to other places in the tribal areas … to survive and regroup.”

Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Kiyani has adopted a strategy to ensure that all the clans of the Mehsud tribes are not antagonised. According to Daily Times (Oct 21), an “Open letter” by the Army Chief addressed to the Mehsud tribes says, “The operation is not meant to target the valiant and patriotic Mehsud tribes, but is aimed at ridding them of the elements who had destroyed peace in the region.”

The letter specifically talks of “foreigners” as the enemy of peace. “The Army Chief’s reference to ‘foreigners’ is a carefully deployed appeal to the codename of Pashtun honour which allows safe haven to the suppliant but bans all hostile acts from him”, the daily adds.

Funds for militants

Tariq Osman Hyder, a former diplomat, says in an article in The Nation (Oct 20), “The battle against the militants has become multi-dimensional… The strength of the militants and their access to arms from Afghanistan are dependent on funding. Some comes from drug money and hostile intelligence agencies across the border. A small part is raised within Pakistan. However, the largest amount is received by transfers using both banking and illegal channels. This is borne out by the fact that while from documented remittance flows some seven billion dollars a year comes from overseas workers, a grey area of four million dollars comes ostensibly for charitable, educational and other purposes from other parties.

“Pakistan must forcibly address this problem with known conduit countries and by activating its investigative and regulatory mechanisms, including the State Bank’s financial investigation unit and the FIA. Certainly, the United States has the muscle to do more on this vital external funding front.”

Why are students a target?

Tuesday’s suicide attack at International Islamic University, Islamabad, forced the authorities to declare all educational institutions closed till Sunday. According to The Nation, “a meeting at the Chief Minister’s House in Lahore … decided to shut all the academic institutions in the province till further orders. Entry tests and the ongoing examinations in various institutions have also been postponed.”

Educational institutions are considered among the softest targets for the militants. That is why the authorities are not prepared to take any further risk. They may allow the opening of the educational institutions after making all the necessary security arrangements.

Dawn (Oct 21) says in an editorial, “But the dastardly attack against innocent students on Tuesday is indicative of the fact that the fight for the future of Pakistan does not just pit the ‘godless’ against the ‘true believers’; it is actually a war by a radical minority in society that is bent on imposing its millenarian ideals on the rest of the population, including those trying to educate themselves about Islam in a modern environment.”

The university has been targeted because it falls in the “moderate” camp of Islam. This poses a major challenge to the authorities in Pakistan.