Express Tribune Editorials 9th March 2025

[danish]

Cops or robbers?
When the enforcers of the law become its violators, the very foundation of public trust crumbles. The recent arrest of a serving policeman, allegedly the mastermind behind a gang stealing luxury vehicles in Karachi's upscale neighbourhoods, is a damning indictment of the rot within the police force that enables, protects and, in many cases, promotes such individuals.

The revelations are as predictable as they are disturbing. Karachi's residents have long suspected that elements within law enforcement are complicit in the very crimes they are tasked with preventing. But how does a criminal network thrive under police watch unless the police themselves are involved? The breakdown of law and order does not stop there. A transporter from North Karachi learned this the hard way when he was robbed at gunpoint last month - only to be further harassed and intimidated by the police when he sought justice. The Anti-Vehicle Lifting Cell may have arrested one of its own, but it is unlikely that this marks the beginning of a broader crackdown. How many more officers are running similar operations? How many reports of police involvement in criminal activities are buried, dismissed or quietly "handled" behind closed doors? The Sindh government's silence on the matter is telling.

What Karachi needs is not another token arrest but a full-scale purge of corrupt elements within the police force. Strict accountability and an end to the culture of impunity are long overdue. Furthermore, internal mechanisms must be strengthened, with regular audits and undercover investigations. A culture of impunity has allowed corruption to fester within the force for too long. If this continues, Karachi's police will become indistinguishable from the criminals they claim to fight.

Trump and Iran nuclear deal
Is To say US President Donald Trump's foreign policy during his second term has been all over the place would be an understatement. His first few weeks in charge have seen him tear up traditional alliances and take U-turns on his own positions, both long-held and new. Moving away from his tariff wars and refusal to assist Ukraine in an actual war, Trump is now claiming that he wants to open nuclear talks with Iran in the hope of ensuring that the Islamic republic never gets a nuclear weapon.

These talks would probably have been unnecessary if Trump, during his first term, had not taken the unprecedented step of withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The deal ensured that Iran would not pursue nuclear weapons for at least 15 years in return for removal of longstanding sanctions on the country and its return into the global financial system. Iran had been adhering to the deal, even giving up some of its highly-enriched nuclear materials; but Trump, who famously does not read his intelligence briefings, chose to rely on the Iran hawks on Fox News and withdrew from the deal, which effectively nullified it. To its credit, Iran reportedly followed the terms of the deal for another year, hoping that the EU and other signatories would either convince the US to come back, or would grant it favourable terms to compensate for its losses. It was only when Trump increased sanctions that the Iranians went back to working on its weapons-grade uranium enrichment.

Whether or not Trump is sincere about renewing a deal that he himself destroyed is also questionable since the last week has seen him get a lot of bad press over his economic policies and disastrous government downsizing campaign. However, if it is not an attempt to "flood the zone" with so much disinformation that his actual actions go unnoticed, the olive branch was still wrapped around a tank, as Trump threatened to go in militarily and "do something", meaning he still hasn't learned how to say the 'quiet part' quietly.


Circular debt fixation
The enigma of power sector circular debt is no less than a white elephant. Year after year, the government's piecemeal measures to get away with it force it further down a quagmire of debt. The root cause is an inflated and insane deal with the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) that has put the successive governments – as well as the general masses who are made to pay by their blood and sweat – in a quandary. The power sector circular debt today sits at Rs2.4 trillion, and is growing. There is, nonetheless, an emergency payment hovering over the heads to the tune of Rs1.5 trillion in principal amounts to eliminate the debt stock. Thus, the government's decision to borrow Rs1.25 trillion from the commercial banks is another recipe to stay afloat and does not come to guarantee a long-term solution.

The new loan sought at less than 11% interest rate is said to be 5% cheaper than the existing liquidity facility that the government ensures for making timely payments for energy purchases. While the endeavour is to log the new funds under Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA), and not be part of the public debt, the bottom line of income and expenses makes it a perpetual debt in the shadows. In order to strike a balance, it is said that IPPs will be convinced to waive the interest payments amounting to Rs272 billion in return for taking upfront full payments. The intention is to lower the soaring power tariff for domestic and industrial consumers, by coming up with a rebate on bills, and to gradually eliminate the threat of circular debt to the power sector viability.

The fixation, however, is in the form of IMF's resistance that is refusing to vet the deal. The Fund is also against lowering of power tariffs, making exports and production come to a naught. It is a catch-22 situation and there isn't much room for the government as it struggles to live with IPPs and a plummeting economy. The way out of the mess is to renegotiate the power purchase deal with the IPPs, privatise the distribution companies and cut down on pilferage and institutional corruption.