The writer is an independent social scientist and author of Military Inc.
But more important, the accompanied summary of the British Council survey fails to even pick on the nuances of its own research and mainly focuses on acceptance of sharia and military. For instance, while condemning democratic rule, 34 per cent of respondents considered the democratic system as comparatively better for providing access to water, gas electricity, education and heath care. However poor a democratic system, it is still the only one that caters for a larger redistribution of resources than military rule. As far as the seeming condemnation of democracy is concerned, this is not peculiar to Pakistan because Latin and South Americas have experienced similar situations where people seemed far more supportive of the military especially under democracy in transition, which is always beset with greater problems.
The report also failed to flag the significance of perception-building, especially through the extensive use of media, since 56 per cent admit to the influence of television channels and media (unlike the SDPI data, this one fails to consider people’s opinion about media itself). The electronic media, followed by print media, has played a major role in the past five years in building perception regarding various organs of the state. The political players get lambasted from morn until night adding to people’s anger and the media tends to exaggerate the shortcomings of the politicians vis-à-vis other players.
Similarly, the positive opinion reported in the British Council survey regarding the judiciary (51 per cent believe it has improved) is based on constructed perception rather than reality. The breaking news culture in this country is a “shock and awe” method of constructing opinion without analysing ground reality. Ordinary people hear about the suo-motu actions but fail to match these with actual and ultimate results in these cases. Ordinary folk are impressed by, for instance, action taken in Shahzeb Khan’s case in which the higher judiciary did not allow witnesses to retract. However, this is still no answer for improving the judicial system that makes it possible in hundreds of terrorist cases for criminals to escape conviction because no efforts were ever made for securing evidence. Are we even talking about a witness protection programme?
Meanwhile, the state seems to be collapsing at places, a term that people hate to use in this country. But what does one call a situation where police officers resort to extra-judicial killings and are then paraded around the place as heroes? Punjab, in particular, is known for this method, which, in itself, is travesty of justice. The state police is appointed and trained to apprehend criminals and bring them for fair trial. Police officers are discouraged by lack of capacity and corruption of the judicial system, and encouraged by political bosses, to resort to quick fix solutions like extra-judicial killings. This method, however, allows crime and criminals to expand and go deeper into society. Why would a criminal, for instance, surrender to the police or take an amnesty plan seriously if he fears being summarily murdered? An extra-judicial killing may look exciting in a film but it is technically plain murder. Moreover, with this method in place, where is the difference between the state police and the Taliban who also often kill people in the name of speedy justice. Why condemn the tribal areas when other parts of the country have also become tribalised?
Naturally, this method provides very short-term relief but it also makes society susceptible to violence — if random police officers can kill without trial, then why can’t individuals if they think they are delivering justice? The fact is that the overall policing system has collapsed to a great degree. Police officers tend to compete with one another in extra-judicial killings and then boast of having brought down crime in their areas by fudging and manipulating numbers. All it takes is for the police not to register an FIR for the crime figures to go down. Sadly, there is no mechanism for an objective and impartial assessment of the police that could go as feedback to the government. Extra-judicial violence also has the effect of scaring organised civil society that, in any case, comprises a lot of corrupt elements who then eulogise such action rather than condemning it. When you have posters and banners by civil society patting a police officer for such action, it is something to get worried about and not celebrate.
Pakistan definitely needs to restructure its internal security apparatus, especially the police. A professionally trained and disciplined force is necessary and it must not have some of the cowboys that we have today. However, a change in the policing system must go hand in hand with major restructuring of the judicial system. It is obviously attractive to play to the gallery but if the superior judiciary of this country wants to be remembered by posterity, it must take measures in streamlining and improving mechanisms for strengthening its capacity to provide justice. The present method of evidence collection and its interpretation by the court is vague. The exceptions made in the Shahzeb Khan or the Memogate cases need to be institutionalised.
The muck of the system is not just stuck with political society but is all over. Wonder who will volunteer to clean up?
Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2013.
COMMENTS (11)
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One thing that the liberal literati of this country cannot stand is the SC and particularly the CJP. They are comfortable with the loot and plunder that the politicians - particularly the ones whom the support - and hardly raise a voice against them. On the other hand the poor CJP and the Sc are constantly bombarded by their criticisms no what they do. The fact that the SC and the CJP get pulled in because of the sheer incompetence of the current rulers simply evades them. Shajeb case is just a case in point. Why did the Sindh government not take action on it? And why have they not taken any action so far on the beating yup of the lawyer who went to contest the nomination of Qaim Ali Shah? Authors and her fellow liberal colleagues one find no problems with the feudal rule that has been imposed on Pakistan for the past six decades and which has been rejuvenated and thoroughly re--energized by the current set of rulers with their next generation ready to step in. But anyone who tries to do something about it, no mater how insignificant, they go right after him/her with vengeance. Yes, the CJP and his colleagues on the SC are not angels but no one expects them to be angels. They have made mistakes and one should not be surprised as they are human too. But the issue is that compared to our rulers today they have performed orders of magnitude better. To go after them is simply partisan politics at its worst. The above comment of the author on the report is simply a reflection of the problematic attitudes that are so common amongst our liberal/secular crusaders.
'However poor a democractic system,it is still the only one that caters for a larger redistribution of resources than military rule'.Unfortunately,it is not true in Pakistan.As a general rule merit is the first casulty during a democratic rule and is replaced by political paternisation.It has been experienced over a period of time that during military rule employment oppurtunities increases and generally merit is followed most of the time.Performance of education,health and other social sectors is also far better.This trend is reversed during democratic rule.If gas,electricity and water resources sufficient let us say for 10million is distributed without any addition to 20million with the result that no one gets anything,it is called mismanagement and not larger distribution of resources.To me British Council Survey is absolutely true.If it is not to authors' liking,instead of finding faults with it,try to find out the reasons of lack of trust in democratic rule.The survey in fact means that a democractic rule should improve its performance to remain a viable option.It should cater for the needs of general population which wants merit in every case,instead of enriching/catering for themselves or their cronies.
Judiciary and Police can't be different than the society. I find some strange arguments in the write up. The polls are a reflection of the current state of affairs and don't represent a permanent shift of opinion in any society. Polls in Pakistan are especially meaningless as almost 70% rural population and people in the interior of Sindh and Balochistan are never represented.
Almost 60% folks in the US invariably show their disenchantment with the politicians. Congress's approval rating often stays below 30% mark, that doesn't mean that people are against the democratic process. When you ask direct question about Sharia in Pakistan, most would lie as they don't know how the pollster would react to their response. They simply don't trust the pollsters enough to speak the truth about any question about religion. If you say something against the sharia, the same pollster might bring blasphemy charges against you.
The state is not collapsing, it is burdened by its economic woes. Indian Police works the same way Pakistani police does. Pakistani police is nowhere near the Indian police in Indian Punjab, UP and generally in northern India in fake encounters or police muqabala. In India, fake encounter is the only mean of getting rid of the criminals as the corruption in the judiciary, like in Pakistan, would result is release of criminals. Anyway, a political poll by British Council is not even worth a second look, what to talk of an op-ed. Ms. Siddiqa is a brilliant writer/columnist, and she can write about some real issues.
Spot on. Impossible to have meaningful progress when your judiciary and police systems don't work - like building a house on quicksand.
It is surprising where the poll was taken,was it taken Garrison towns or central Punjab where people benefit from Military rule at the expense of Sindh and Baluchistan.If the pole was taken from all the four constituent states of the country the outcome would be different.How can a Baloch and a Sindhi praise Army rule when they get torture and dead bodies from that rule.Even the elected Prime Ministers are not exempt from them or for that matter elderly politicians who are minding their own business.The propaganda against the Democracy is all around us different garbs some with red caps and others with Arabic dresses.You have to give Democracy a chance to take roots and then you can count the blessings of your vote otherwise boots would be trampling over you forever.
Such opinion based research is problematic. For one, given 60 years of love of Army=love of Islam=love for Pakistan, such conclusions are hardly surprising. There has never been any effort to emphasise rule of law and upholding the constitution as = love for Pakistan.
"Police officers are discouraged by lack of capacity and corruption of the judicial system, and encouraged by political bosses, to resort to quick fix solutions like extra-judicial killings. "
Yet interestingly, when a terrorist of another country is given due process of law and actually convicted and sentenced to death and the sentence carried out in another country, the Pakistani parliament sees it fit to pass a resolution condemning that. Talk about double standards.
It's a good sign that the op-eds coming from the author have become less grim over time (which I believe is because of the growing institutionalization of democracy). I really hope we continue this journey to the time when 'Military Inc.' is entirely gone and it becomes just another pillar of our democratic system. It's understandably hard thing to do (even for a country like united states), but continuation of democracy is the ONLY solution to all our grievances and problems.
Many thanks for drawing the attention to such an important topic......
I wish Authoress had also written about modern crime scene investigation Techniques.... We have finger print database in Nadra but Police never bothers to take finger prints and compare with Nadra database...
Just by finger prints we can prove and catch many many murderers and Thiefs and then our Judiciary will also not have any reason to let the terrorist off the hook.....
If the study has some truth, it appears most of Pakistanis either want army rule or Islamic laws. So all this talk of democracy is the invention of the media?. Add to that the fact that only minority bother to vote, proves the point of the study. Yes, we need to educate our masses. But the politicians should polish up their morals to improve the image. I am an optimist. Slow and steady wins the race, I would say.
Ghairat brigades have made their way into Pakistani society for the simple fact that majority of this nation is incapable of making its mind indepedantly.Results are obvious -Collapsing of institutions.