Phase 2 - Week 1

09.03.08 – 15.03.08

It may be a universal truth that nothing happens too quickly if it involves a Ministry of Interior. Personally, I can only vouch for the boys a few sectors down the road who have been processing my application to travel to Kashmir since I arrived in Pakistan so I’ve been office based in Islamabad pending receipt of the Non-Objection Certificate (NOC) that means I’m good to go. In all fairness to the Section Officer concerned, a process I had anticipated taking at least a week has been wrapped up in a little under five days so I’ve an early rise tomorrow to make the journey up into the mountains and, after being cooped up behind a desk in the city, the chance to stretch my legs and get to grips with the progress on site is a welcome one.

Its been a few months since I departed and there have been some changes in the meantime. The first of these is the news that two members of the engineering team who I have worked with previously have since moved on from Muslim Aid. Despite initial concern on my part it seems that the impact these changes will have on the project is small with continuity maintained by some key staff that remain in place. For this I am grateful, as we covered a lot of ground last time I was in the country. Working closely with the team over several weeks allowed an understanding to emerge and the ensuing improvements in construction to be made and it would be a backward step to have to undertake this process once again. The second change to have taken place is related to recent events in NWFP, specifically an attack on an NGO office in Mansehra. Several non-governmental organisations in Pakistan, including Muslim Aid, have publicly condemned this action. Work continues but, as a precautionary measure, all insignia have been removed from vehicles to avoid drawing unnecessary attention when travelling in the region. Ideally, of course, there would be no need for an organisation working toward improved livelihoods for vulnerable people to maintain such a low presence but, for the time being, this is the reality of working in the area.

My return to Pakistan has brought with it a fair sense of deja-vu. TV footage of lawyers in full protest mode as the ‘Black Coat Revolution’ drives on takes me right back to arriving here in late September 2007. The images then were slightly more fist-flying violent, tear gas stained versions of the ones I’ve seen this week, but the issues and the personalities calling for change are largely the same. Well change, of a kind, has arrived and the complex world of Pakistani politics has entered a new phase, albeit with the usual suspects. I’ve yet to speak to anyone completely smitten with either Nawaz Sharif (leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz or PML-N) or Asif Ali Zardarwi (Co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party or PPP and widower of the late Benazir Bhutto) – fierce rivals now furiously forming a coalition and two men with rooms full of cupboards full of skeletons – however, for a people so dissatisfied with the ex-general and the current state of their country, these men are viewed as the better (that is to say only) option! The turmoil of recent months has, at least, resulted in an emboldened media and the Musharraf-suspended judiciary have been promised reinstatement in the coming weeks. If hope exists for a peaceful and stable Pakistan, it is perhaps to be found in a civil society that is increasingly finding its voice and expressing a profound discontent with the status quo.