Is there a way out?

Democracy is a messy business especially in the third world countries. Even India the largest democracy where elections have been held uninterrupted, for decades, is no exception. Reports about the criminal background and corruption of Indian MPs keep surfacing. Their unwholesome misdoings have been documented in reports and a number of publications. For sampling their conduct and behaviour, one may have a look at the Tehelka archives. In the length and breadth of India, dozens of insurgencies continue. Scores of districts are practically out of government's control where writ of the state does not prevail. This has been duly acknowledged at the highest level. The state did little to bring the culprits to book, at Ayodhya. Earlier after Mrs Gandhi's murder by his Sikh guard, thousands of Sikhs were massacred in Delhi. Hardly anyone was punished for this gruesome tragedy. How many fanatical and murderous Hindus have been punished for killing thousands of Muslims and burning of their houses in Gujarat? How many churches have been burnt in India and Christians killed in cold blood over the years?!

What has sustained India is its working political party system and intrinsic resilience to cope with crisis situations. Nehru's major legacy was the establishment of supremacy of the civilian control, keeping alive a sense of sovereign independence while dealing with the outside world and creating a base for scientific research and development. Indra Gandhi's authoritarian interlude failed and is now remembered as a gratuitous aberration.

Pakistan's record is comparatively poor because of frequent military take-overs. Unfortunately we didn't have the benefit of 17 years long leadership that Nehru, so very effectively provided to India. Pakistan's weak political traditions and institutions and intermittent spell of instability in the 50s sucked the military into the body politic. The dictators, later did some good but on the whole, their arbitrary rule proved grievously disastrous. The biggest damage, done by them was the mangling of the political process and the weakening of the national and local institutions. These myopic potentates failed to understand that concentration of power in a few hands at the centre would shake the very foundations of the federation. That their unbridled handling of political and economic affairs will distort cherished values and norms. How we lost East Pakistan, how earlier the bloody Operation Gibralter was launched and how the Kashmir cause was terribly damaged by an ill-conceived misadventure at Kargil, to recall three blunderous debacles.

Prospects for democracy were dealt with a severe blow by the last military dictator when he scuttled the desirable evolving of the two-political system. Yes the political parties were under-performing and at times, indulging in undesirable acts of omission and commission but the fact remains that in the nineties the political process was moving ahead at a good pace and had it continued uninterrupted, the possibility of good days ahead could not have been ruled out. Musharraf on the one hand destroyed the nascent political edifice, and on the other foisted his own outlandish notion of real or "essence" democracy. How credible his "enlightened moderation" was may be seen in the light of his handling of the Lal Masjid syndrome and the killing of Nawab Bugti. The list of his sins is long and will easily fill a big book. We are still suffering from the fallout of his shenanigans. His quick and unthinking surrender (mostly for personal benefit) after 9/11, his referendum fraud carried out with the aid of well-provided nazims, the imposition of a made-to-order local government arrangement created to provide him with a political constituency, by-passing the sinews of the law and order system in the districts, feudalising the local administration and flooding the civilian departments with military officers - serving and retired, inducting puppet prime ministers, reducing the Parliament to a rubber stamp and pulverisation of the judiciary - these are just some of the "contributions" made by him. What however was most galling and troublesome is not his vengeful treatment of PML-N party and its leadership and his determination to keep PPP and Benazir out but the seeds of corruption and dishonesty he injected into the body-politic by entering into a horrendous deal with PPP which on one hand spawned the poisonous NRO and special safeguards for himself, on the other.

Human rights Excesses

Prompt investigations and successful prosecutions are key to preventing crime

The National Assembly was informed on Wednesday that over 8,000 cases of human rights abuse are pending action across the country. Of the nearly 11,000 such cases collectively recorded in all the provinces over the past three years, only 2,632 saw prosecution. Most of the others remain in limbo because there has been no follow-up by the relevant provincial departments which are supposed to take action on the directives of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights.

This shows the low priority we attach to ensuring that human rights are not violated with impunity as they are now, compounding the country’s already negative image. Part of the concerned ministry’s mandate is to obtain information, documents and reports regarding complaints and allegations of human rights violations, refer and recommend investigations, and even develop and conduct information programmes to foster public awareness of human rights, laws and the remedies available against violations.

The human rights minister has complained that his ministry is short of funds. In fact, the authorities’ lethargy in bringing human rights violators to book is aggravating the situation. By failing to make such cases a priority, the state is turning a blind eye to transgressions, an attitude that can only embolden potential perpetrators.

Thorough and prompt investigations and successful prosecutions are key to discouraging and preventing crime of any sort. In a country where there is already poor public awareness about basic human rights, it is incumbent on the state to step up its eff-orts to prosecute human rights violators. The law-enforcement personnel must be encouraged to treat such abuse as a serious crime, and investigations must be thorough enough to enable prosecution. It is only then that the government will be able to send out a clear signal that such violations will not be tolerated.

Flash Floods

People wade through floodwater as they are evacuated from the area after heavy rain in Mardan.

Torrential rains leading to flash floods have devastated large areas of Mardan, Swabi and Peshawar districts. District administrations have declared emergencies and called for help in a crisis that has already killed over a dozen people and destroyed hundreds of houses. The damage is likely to mount since extensive flooding leads to waterborne and hygiene-related illnesses while posing a continued risk to still-standing structures.

To compound their problems, although the residents of these areas were spared the military operation against the Taliban in Malakand, they have not been able to escape the ripple effect of the hostilities. The affected districts hosted thousands of IDPs from other areas. Many IDPs have returned to their native areas, but there are still several families waiting to do so.

The village Shahbaz Garhi, one of the most badly affected by the flooding in Mardan district, was in fact one of the transport points for the IDPs. The provincial and federal governments must, therefore, double their efforts and expedite the repatriation of the IDPs. Everything possible must be done, meanwhile, to aid all affected citizens in terms of shelter, food, potable water and medical aid.

The areas devastated by the floods must be drained and cleaned as soon as possible, and a contingency plan formulated in case of further rain. In the long-term, however, the state must develop a strategy for minimising the risk of flooding and its consequent effects. Mardan and Peshawar districts have always been prone to flash floods but few precautionary measures have been taken.

One possible solution, for example, could be the construction of small reservoirs that could contain the seasonal deluge while also countering the imminent water-stress predicted for Pakistan. To be sure, natural calamities cannot be prevented; but planning and some blue-sky thinking can reduce the damage.

War displaced must winter in camps: UN

Internally displaced families sit with their belongings as they wait for transport to return home at a bus terminal

Thousands of people displaced by war in northern Pakistan are unlikely to be able to return home before March next year, the head of the United Nations humanitarian operation said on Thursday.

About 2.3 million people were forced from their homes by fighting in the northwest, most after government forces launched an offensive against Taliban militants in Swat in April, creating one of the largest internal displacements in recent times.

Languishing in overcrowded camps or sheltering with host families, the internally displaced have been living a hand-to-mouth existence, dependent on aid agencies for everything from food and water to clothes and shelter.

Manuel Bessler, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that while about 1.3 million people had returned home to various districts including Swat, others would stay in camps or with families because of fighting.

'I am afraid that we will still have displaced people over the winter. The large majority, yes, can go home and it is important that they resume their lives,' Bessler told in an interview.

'But there is still a portion of people that will stay displaced but if we don't have any other major emergencies, it should be OK by spring.'

The government has widespread public support for the offensive against the militants, but this could dwindle if the displaced are seen to be suffering though the winter.

EARLY RECOVERY

The humanitarian operation, which has mobilised hundreds of aid workers from scores of aid agencies to respond to the crisis, is moving from its emergency phase to short-term 'recovery' help for people going home.

But Bessler said even when the displaced get home, they will need support in trying to rebuild their livelihoods as many farmers were unable to harvest their crops and have lost their annual income.

Many schools, which both militants and soldiers used as bases, have been destroyed and there is a pressing need to furnish hospitals and clinics with basic health equipment, medicine and staff.

Aid workers say that the Swat Valley, which has borne the brunt of the crisis, was under Taliban control for about two years and law enforcement and civil administration now needs to be re-established.

But Bessler said donors were not responding to funding the early recovery projects, adding that only 3 percent of the $54 million needed for that phase of the relief operation had materialised.

With the worst of the fighting in Swat over, and people heading home from the camps, raising money was getting more difficult.

'The public face of this crisis are the displaced in the camps, are the displaced queuing up for food, so its relatively easier to raise funds for food and shelter,' he said. 'Early recovery is a much more difficult sell.'

He said a 'Friends of Pakistan' meeting of aid donors in Istanbul on Aug. 24, which will bring together a host of nations and multilateral donors, would focus on mobilising funds for rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Corruption in democracy

The common understanding is that most opinion polls or surveys are either unrepresentative or biased. When they are not, their findings could be reflecting more of a passing sentiment than durable public thinking about governments, persons or propositions.

But still there are surveys which seem to endorse the views generally expressed in the mass media, in elite circles and bazaars or in the cabals of dissidents. That can be said about Transparency International’s most recent survey on corruption in Pakistan. While the findings of the survey that corruption had grown four-fold over three years (2006-09) can be disputed, one would be hard put to deny that, in the public perception, the country’s civilian governments have been more corrupt than the military and, further, that the political nazim’s administration has been more corrupt than that of the bureaucratic deputy commissioner.

The higher incidence of corruption in civilian governments doesn’t necessarily imply that their heads, ministers or legislators were also corrupt or connived at corruption. But surely they were all eager to reward their own men for the privations they suffered in the campaigns launched to dislodge military rulers.

When Benazir Bhutto swept into power in 1988 along came a horde of youth claiming jobs, plots and other favours for standing by her side during her long years in jail and in the political wilderness. Whatever their contribution to her victory in elections and before that the sacrifices they had made to try and save her father from the gallows, their expectations were unreasonable and could not be met by remaining within the bounds of law and propriety.

As chief secretary of her government in Sindh then, I recall a second-rung woman leader of her party turning up to demand a plot in expensive Clifton, not being content with one in a lesser area. An absconding district engineer demanded to be made chief engineer as the price for his loyalty. A junior finance official aspired to head the country’s biggest bank. All that was argued, but she could never bring herself round to tell a youth who had set himself on fire for her sake that she couldn’t give him the job he wanted. Every request, every approach made to her was for a favour, not equity.

Courtiers and cronies laid siege to every other political leader before and after Benazir Bhutto. The military commanders did not, nor would they easily succumb. The governors of Sindh in Ziaul Haq’s regime with whom this writer was called upon to work as home secretary and in other capacities had no debts to pay or sacrifices to recognise. Gen Mohammad Iqbal Khan would routinely ignore or defy any suggestion coming from the rapidly-politicising chief martial law administrator that was improper. Gen Abbasi was a stickler for the rules. In my five years with them I hardly ever felt compelled to act against the law or propriety.

The governors in Gen Yahya Khan’s regime — Admiral Ahsan, Air Marshal Nur Khan, Gen Atiqur Rehman and Gen Rahman Gul — were austere men of integrity who followed the rule of law, sought no favours nor dispensed any. While they must not escape their share of responsibility for the disaster that then overtook the country, if ever the administration was free of corruption and pomp in public life it was then. It hasn’t been since — no matter whether the government has been a civilian or military one.

The comparison of corruption in districts under nazims and the deputy commissioners proceeds on similar lines as those under political and military governments. The nazim is the nominee of a political party. The deputy commissioner is a career civil servant. The nazim is accountable to his party boss, the deputy commissioner to an official hierarchy. The DC does come under political pressure but the nazim is himself a politician.

Gen Musharraf’s expectations that the nazims would be non-political, loyal to him alone and ultimately form the backbone of his own party were not fulfilled. Every nazim used his power and the funds he received from the centre to advance the interest of his own party leader and not that of Musharraf. That is, however, not to deny any development that took place under the nazims to the benefit of the community at large. But, as they say, the other side of the coin of development is corruption. The nazims indeed used their power and money unchecked by any public agency or auditors.

The deputy commissioner, on the other hand, works under surveillance and has a choice to take another job if he cannot remain neutral — a choice not available to the nazim. It would, however, be undemocratic and inadvisable to wind up the local councils only because the nazims cannot be neutral or equitable. The ministers and legislators are against the district governments not because of their maladministration but because they are losing their foothold in their own constituencies. Politics, as is well known, is local and sustained by jobs and not by making laws.

Leaving aside the question of corruption being more or less under the nazims or deputy commissioners, the objectives of community participation and neutral administration can both be met if development in the districts is entrusted to the nazims and regulatory functions to the deputy commissioners as coordinating heads of the provincial government. At any rate, the present system in which all functions vest in the nazim is not working.

The nazim of Karachi was heard complaining on television the other day that he could not prevent encroachments in Gutter Baghicha because the police wouldn’t come to his help. Surely, he knows that both under the local government and police laws he is responsible for law and order and the chief of the district police is also answerable to him.

Deputy commissioners had no better control over the police under the colonial laws than the nazim now has in Musharraf’s system. No deputy commissioner, however, could ever disown responsibility for encroachments. This writer was deputy commissioner of Karachi 40 years ago for four years. Those were not the best of times for the administration and Gutter Baghicha even then was a favourite target of professional encroachers. But they were able to nibble at the edges and no more. Losing 400 acres to them in four years signifies total lawlessness or connivance — neither should be tolerated.

Corruption eats up Rs195bn in Pakistan

Corruption level has remained high in Pakistan despite some improvements made in 1997 and 1998, the year when transparency hit its highest levels. Earlier in 1996, Transparency International declared Pakistan the second most corrupt country in the world. Though it is no more the most corrupt nation in the world, it remains one of the most corrupt. Corruption in Pakistan has been viewed by many global monitoring agencies with grave concern.

The World Bank, in its latest report, says that corruption is largely associated with business-government interface and reveals that the menace is more widespread in Pakistan as compared to other countries. Referring to a survey conducted for preparing a draft report, the Bank says results show that perceptions about corruption in Pakistan are based on actual experiences with payment of bribes by investing firms. It reveals that firms making investment have to pay bribes even to get water, telephone and electricity connections.

The National Corruption Perception Survey 2009, conducted by the Pakistan chapter of Transparency International, indicates that overall corruption increased from Rs45 billion in 2002 to Rs195 billion in 2009. Police and Power maintained their ranking as the top two most corrupt sectors in the country.

According to US-based Heritage Foundation, corruption is perceived pervasive in Pakistan. Corruption among executive and legislative branch officials is viewed as widespread. The Foundation in its Economic Freedom Index 2009 labeled corruption as the most repressive factor in economic freedom.

The Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International is given weight by all global agencies like the World Bank, Heritage Foundation and the World Economic Forum. When Pakistan was declared the second most corrupt country in the world by TI in 1996, it caused uproar in the country which created some awareness of corruption and measures were taken to improve governance.

The transparency score of the country improved from one out of full score of 10 in 1996 to 2.53 in 1997. The score improved further to 2.7 in 1998, which proved the highest level in the following decade.

During the much-trumpeted period of better governance under Musharraf, the highest transparency score achieved by the country was 2.6 in 2002. Thereafter, the score declined to 2.1 in 2004 and 2005. It, however, improved to 2.5 in 2008. Governance experts point out that even at transparency score of 2.7, Pakistan remained a highly corrupt country as non-transparency or corruption was 73 per cent.

At current transparency score of 2.5, corruption stands at 75 per cent.“This is pathetic,” said senior economist Naveed Anwar Khan. In other words, he said “it means that on every Rs100 we spend on development, almost Rs75 are lost in corruption. If corruption is curbed we will need one-fourth of our development budget for the current annual development programme.” He said the transparency score of India and Pakistan was at almost the same level in 2002. However, India improved governance by 30 per cent to attain a score of 3.4 in 2008 while China which was at Pakistan’s level in 1997 improved its score to 3.6.That, he added, explained the great leap the economies of these two countries had taken compared with the decline in Pakistan. He said corruption during the last 12 months had increased substantially which would be reflected in the Corruption Perception Index of TI for 2009.

Each Pakistani indebted to Rs 24,412

Each person of Pakistan is indebted to Rs24,412 in average. As per the statistics released by the State Bank of Pakistan, over all current foreign debts cost 50 billion dollars while its population is 170 million. Thus each Pakistani is indebted to Rs24,412.