Editorial

The politics of democracy

Ideally, corruption needs to be dealt with by the civilian set-up through working accountability bodies

Editorial September 16, 2015

PTI chairman Imran Khan addresses a press conference at Bani Gala in Islamabad on September 14, 2015. PHOTO: PTI

Unsurprisingly, Imran Khan’s comments at a press conference in Islamabad that the Rangers and the military should look into corruption in Punjab following action by the paramilitary force in Sindh, has not gone down well with the government or indeed others who understand the Constitution and the rules of democracy. Imran Khan may be quite correct when he says that General Raheel Sharif has become the most popular man in the country. But regardless of this, under the supreme law of the land, the military has a specific role and tackling corruption does not rank in it. Given this, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar is quite justified in lashing out at the PTI chairman and asking why a politician who claims to favour democracy is calling upon the military to intervene in what should be a purely civilian domain.

We all know that corruption is a major problem in our country. Ideally, it needs to be dealt with by the civilian set-up through working accountability bodies. All political parties should be pressing for this rather than for military intervention. This is especially true given the particular history of our country and the long period of rule by military dictators.

It is true that the Rangers, working under military command, have helped improve the law and order situation in Karachi, but the city has its own specific dynamics. Here corruption, criminality and terrorism have formed a nexus of sorts, with elements within political parties embroiled in this nexus. Even here, ideally the provincial government should have spearheaded the drive against wrongdoing. It is unfortunate that it lacks the capacity, and more importantly, the will to do so. But even given this, there can be no excuse for calling in the military to intervene in other places. The task of elected governments, including Imran Khan’s PTI in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, is to find ways to deal with such problems on their own and prove to the people that they have been elected for a reason. Asking the military to take over key civilian tasks only adds to institutional confusion. The ire of the interior minister is then quite justified.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2015.

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COMMENTS (2)

S.R.H. Hashmi | 8 years ago | Reply Your stand is a principled one, that while the military high command is admittedly doing a commendable job in Karachi acting through Rangers, dealing with matters of ‘pure’ corruption – which do not have other serious repercussions apart from financial ones- is clearly out of its jurisdiction as other departments exist which have been specifically created for this purpose. And that some justification could be made for military’s involvement with matters of corruption in Karachi in cases where it is interlinked with criminality and terrorism. However, MQM leaders often complain of the operation being directed against them, and of receiving no satisfactory response from any source in respect of their complaints of torture, extra-judicial killing and disappearance of their members, and imposition of undeclared restrictions on their operation – like collection of hides etc which provide bulk of the funds for their massive welfare services – which amounts to attempts at drastically curtailing their political role, if not eliminating it altogether and to create space in Karachi for some other party, commonly hinted as PTI. And this is what has forced them to resign en bloc from the Sindh Provincial Assembly, the National Assembly as well as the Senate. And MQM’s complaints do not seem to be unfounded. If the focus is entirely on criminality and terrorism, how come Uzair Baloch’s disclosures were not aired with the same passion as those of Saulat Mimirza and no arrest are reported to have been made of high-ranking people very close to him. Also, Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza remains a free man despite having openly boasted about issuing a few hundred thousand arms licences, and not for firing at weddings. And there were also reports about him having organized the Lyari gang. Public also heard Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza saying to his gunmen during court appearance “Agar koi garhbarh karay to seedhi goli thok do” (If somebody creates problems, shoot straight at him). If somebody could say things like that right before the eyes and ears of the media, what else could he be capable of doing in private? Yet he seems to have no problems, neither do many others. Now, coming back to corruption, this transgression by you-know-who could be extra worrying for our so-called democrats because if the trend continued, eventually the boots could reach their doorsteps, and that could be very embarrassing and more, because the hands of very many of them happen to be unclean. Unfortunately for the masses, while their preference seems to be for democracy, the nation has regularly been short-changed by the so-called democrats and for them there is not much to choose from as between the democratic governments and the military dictatorships simply because both forms of government have played their part in bringing the country and the nation to their sorry state. Ideally, corruption cases should be probed by NAB and FIA, but in view of peculiar conditions prevailing in our country, relying purely on these institutions would amount to saying goodbye to accountability, as our experience clearly proves. In the Swiss bank case, we saw how a prime minister declined to write the letter despite being asked to do so by the Supreme Court and preferred to lose his job. And then came the other prime minister and rapidly gathering shine on his face clearly showed how well he was doing in his new job. He did write the letter as demanded but at the same time, unknown to many, another secret letter was sent which changed the complexion of the case altogether. However, no action seems to have been taken against those who organized this. And there was the supposed peer of Asif Zardari who claimed that he prayed for two months in Holy city and that was what saved Zardari Saheb’s money. What a joke? And there was the case of another senior politician who expressed surprise at how a large sum of money ended up in his bank account, and innocently offered to return it. And recently NAB expressed satisfaction at having reached 126th position (in a list of 174)in the Corruption Perceptions Index, scoring 29 points out of a maximum 100, as against the top position holder Denmark which scored 92. And NAB proudly announced that it had recovered a total sum of Rs.263 billion since its inception in 1999, And when compared with the total corruption in Pakistan, which was put at Rs.8 billion daily by a former NAB chairman Admiral (retd) Fasih Bukhari, the corruption money of Rs. 263 billion recovered by NAB in 15-16 years amounts to no more than 33 days corruption in Pakistan. And the NAB chairman is appointed after consultations between the Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition. Now, with both coming from parties which have large concentrations of corrupt persons within their fold, and right up to the top level, is there any possibility of them agreeing on a person who would probe corruption cases in a meaningful way, including against them personally? No wonder this important position remained unfilled for months when the two leaders could not agree on a name, and this despite Supreme Court’s involvement, and despite (rather because of) the fact that only NAB chairman could initiate new cases. So, while nobody can deny that the demand for corruption cases to be probed by institutions specially created for this purpose is absolutely right in principle, it is clearly impractical in our peculiar circumstances. If there is a real desire to drastically curtail corruption – and not just to go through the notion of doing so - it has to be done by strong, independent, capable people from ‘outside the system’, And with corruption institutionalized and taken to new heights through extreme cooperation between the government and the loyal position – which is how it has been until quite recently - a way has to be found to stop it otherwise the whole nation will be crushed under its weight while our leaders will fly over to rest in their cosy nests abroad, with stacks and stacks and stacks of ill-gotten wealth. And the massively over-priced projects that they initiate – to accommodate their hefty commissions – will take national debt to astronomical levels, forcing us to obtain yet more loans to pay the past ones, involving us in a debt-trap which will prove to be a death-trap for us. The way his businessmen sons join Nawaz Sharif in China whenever he goes there for signing MOUs/contracts, is particularly discomforting because in Corruption Perceptions Index, China is only slightly better placed than Pakistan, securing 100th position, with 36 points scored out of 100 as compared to Pakistan’s 126th position with a score of 29 in a list showing 174 positions. Karachi

Parvez | 8 years ago | Reply What does not make sense is your asking the corrupt to police themselves.

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