The politics of democracy

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

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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