LAHORE: This is with reference to your editorial of December 23 titled “Hear hear, Mr Prime Minister”. Nobody can disagree with what Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on the floor of the National Assembly on December 23 as his government increasingly becomes cornered by non-democratic forces.
However, the fact remains that in a democracy, people elect a government so that it can provide good governance, act as custodian of the national exchequer, enforce the rule of law, make decisions strictly on merit, provide equal opportunities to citizens, cater to their welfare and provide security of life and
property. They do not elect a government so that it can wreck the state-owned rail, road and air transportation industries, protect the corrupt, or make appointments in violation of merit.
The military and its intelligence agencies have no authority to interfere in internal politics or indulge in real estate or other business, but this cannot stop our sensitive agencies from undertaking surveillance to protect vital national interests in accordance with their specified role as defined in the Constitution. If a government fails to protect the life of its citizens, as it failed in Karachi and Balochistan, it loses its ethical and moral high ground to retain public office. Similarly, the security agencies do not have unbridled powers to arrest citizens without judicial authorisation and due process of law, as has been happening in Balochistan. By the same token, no holder of public office has the right to abuse his position or authority.
A state within a state also exists when other than the authorised tax collectors, a group is being allowed to extort money from citizens as happens in some parts of the country.
Malik Tariq Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, December 24th, 2011.
