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issue An opportunity
not missed Yeh Woh health Three
decades of refuge Grassroot
politics
issue The gravity of the
situation in Balochistan was generally known in the rest of Pakistan even if
it didn’t attract the kind of attention that was required in view of the
seriousness of the crisis. However, some of the information and figures
provided by the provincial Inspector General of Frontier Corps (IGFC), Maj
Gen Obaidullah Khan Khattak, at a recent press conference highlighted the
severity of the Baloch issue and served as an eye-opener. The IGFC alleged that over
30 militants’ training camps had been set up across the border in
Afghanistan to launch terrorist attacks and undertake anti-state activities
in Balochistan. Besides, he alleged that around 121 insurgent training camps
were operating in different parts of Balochistan. He pointed out that about
550 incidents of terrorism had taken place in the province thus far this year
and different militant groups had claimed responsibility for 258 of these
attacks. According to Maj Gen
Khattak, teachers, doctors and civilians had become victim of targeted
killings in Balochistan and over 100,000 people had migrated from the
province due to security concerns. He also explained how the Frontier Corps
(FC), being in the frontline, was the target of most attacks and also the
subject of a propaganda campaign along with the intelligence agencies under a
conspiracy linked with foreign powers. It is another matter that
the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry,
took exception to the press conference as he felt the IGFC was overtaking the
court. He even wondered loudly at a hearing on the petition regarding the
breakdown of the law and order in Balochistan whether the court should summon
Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani after issuing a coercive
order against the IGFC and sending it to Kayani to look into the conduct of
Maj Gen Khattak. Chief Justice Iftikhar
Chaudhry, who has domicile of Balochistan where his family settled after
migrating from Punjab, has continued to take special interest in the worrying
situation prevailing in the province despite his recent family troubles due
to allegations that his son, Dr Arsalan Iftikhar, took money for unclear
motives from the real estate tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain. He has been summoning
military, intelligence and police officers to his court to and demanding
answers about forced disappearances, particularly of the Baloch nationalists,
and emphasizing that the judiciary as the guardian of the Constitution felt
aggrieved when the bodies of missing persons were recovered. This is something unheard
of in Pakistan as military and intelligence officers have seldom been held
accountable. In fact, this has had a positive effect in Balochistan where
families of missing persons until now felt they had nowhere to go to seek
justice. It has also been suggested
that the Chief Justice has earned the displeasure of the military due to his
intrusive hearings into the cases of forced disappearances and his fellow
judges’ occasional assertions regarding the role of the FC and the
intelligence agencies in these incidents. In particular, the FC’s
controversial role and activities in Balochistan have been assailed by the
judges. In one recent incident, a Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief
Justice pointed out how three persons whose whereabouts were being sought by
it were found dead. IGFC Maj Gen Khattak’s
allegations about existence of 30 Baloch militants’ training camps in
Afghanistan and another 121 in Balochistan would certainly be challenged. The
Afghan government has acknowledged the presence of refugee camps for a few
hundred displaced Baloch from Pakistan and denied the existence of any
military training camp on its soil. Courtesy the WikiLeaks,
President Hamid Karzai had admitted to US diplomats some years ago that some
leading Baloch separatists, including Brahumdagh Bugti, had been given refuge
in Afghanistan. Also, the existence of as many as 121 training camps for
Baloch guerilla fighters in Balochistan should be a cause for alarm as it
shows the inability of the government and the security forces to extend the
writ of the state to the whole province and also proves the strength of the
Baloch separatists and the disaffection among the Baloch people. It also
explains the ineffectiveness of both the military and political means being
used to quell the low-level insurgency and find a negotiated solution of the
Balochistan issue. As the FC has been
strengthened and deployed all over Balochistan to contain the insurgency, it
is exposed to criticism as it has been manning roadside checkpoints where the
people complain of delays and rude behaviour of the paramilitary soldiers.
The FC frequently comes under attack by the Baloch separatists and
retaliatory measures and search operations by the soldiers lead to complaints
of excesses on its part. Government and military
officials have on occasions conceded that the loss of fellow soldiers in
attacks by the Baloch militants incite the FC men to take their revenge.
There is no doubt that human rights violations have taken place in
Balochistan and suspected members and supporters of the armed separatist
groups and even the unarmed nationalist parties have been abducted and
killed. However, the losses
suffered by the FC soldiers and the targetted killings of settlers,
particularly the Punjabis, don’t get the kind of attention that is their
due. The Baloch separatists sometimes justify the attacks on settlers by
arguing that emotions run high when the Baloch people come under attack or
the bodies of their loved ones turn up with marks of torture after being
kidnapped. There has been a new wave
of violence in Balochistan in recent weeks with all sides sharing
responsibility for the attacks, bombings and abductions. As most FC soldiers
are Pashtuns, many Baloch consider them responsible for their plight. It
seems to have given rise to a simmering ethnic strife as a number of Pashtuns,
mostly from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, working and doing business in
Balochistan, have come under attack in a few of the Baloch-populated
districts. The response and capacity
of the government, both federal and provincial, is inadequate keeping in view
the challenge of stabilising Balochistan and removing the grievances of the
angry Baloch people. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani visited Balochistan
after nine months recently and repeated his offer of talks with the mostly
overseas-based Baloch separatist leaders. The offer has no takers as the
separatists now talk in terms of an independent Balochistan state and refuse
to trust the government and the military. Some progress has been made
on the Aghaz-i-Haqooq Balochistan development and reforms package, but the
Baloch hardliners have rejected it outright and consider it too late, too
little. As for the provincial government led by Chief Minister Nawab Aslam
Raisani, the less said the better as it has yet to take any meaningful step
to provide good governance and stem corruption what to speak of reconciling
with the disgruntled sections of the Baloch population. There seems to be no
shortage of money for Balochistan and its lawmakers as its recent budget
showed when every provincial assembly member was allocated Rs250 million for
large projects and Rs50 million for small projects specified by them. This is
the highest amount given to lawmakers annually in the country and yet its
impact seems to be the least visible. In absence of any real
effort to improve the standard of life of the people of Balochistan,
particularly the unhappy Baloch, and more importantly provide them justice
and a share in the rich natural resources of the province, it won’t be
possible to stabilise the situation.
An
opportunity not missed Last week, the
Chief Justice ordered an investigation team to Kohistan to uncover the
reality behind the alleged honour killings of five girls. The team was able
to find only two of the girls, but they told the team that the others were
alive in their homes, farther up in the hills. The debate continues on
whether those three girls are alive. Meanwhile, controversy remains whether
or not their murder was ordered by a Kohistan tribal jirga. Still others
debate the media’s role in creating a sensation based on vague accusations.
As we debate the details of
this case, the media has highlighted seven other cases of crimes against
women in the past week. In the few days between the time I write this article
and you read it in this paper, there will be other public humiliations, rapes
and murders of women (and men) carried out in the pretext of honour. We need
to put the Kohistan ‘case’ in the context of all the other crimes that
keep happening every day and see if the Kohistan case may have helped change
the pattern of how we address them. For me, the most important
aspect of the Kohistan case was the team work. This case provided one of the
rare examples of collaboration among the major stakeholders in this country
on a case involving women. More often than not, we tend to work against each
other, but this time we worked together. The case was picked up by the media
and then the government. The Chief Justice took a suo moto notice, the
federal government and the KP government cooperated and extended support in
the action while civil society was invited in as a valued team player. This
sort of coordinated response will send the right message to those who violate
human rights. Hopefully, we will look
back on the Kohistan case as an important opportunity that was not missed. Looking at it from the
other side, the remote Kohistan village of Sertay is home to about 40
households and that too for only a part of the year. Vehicles from Pattan
only go up as far as Paro. After that, it is a full day’s walk for the
residents. Situated in a very narrow
valley opposite a large glacier, this village sits on a steep hill slope, at
an elevation of 2400 metres. Last month, the villagers had sowed corn on
their terraced plots and then moved quickly to their summer homes across the
mountains where springs and green meadows beckon their goats and sheep. Their lives are rarely
linked by any telecommunication signal. There is no television, and only poor
radio reception. Otherwise, the only connection with the outside world
requires a journey of a few days on foot to Paro, Pattan or Palace to shop
for soap, tea and sugar. These are the only commodities they require in their
self-sufficient lives, and they get these by bartering their produce. Money
is rarely used. In a village where even
‘sparrows’ never come, the villagers witnessed helicopters flying in and
out three times in two days. The helicopters brought delegations of powerful
government officials — the Hazara Division Commissioner, a senior
politician and former minister from the district, the DPO, DCO and the
provincial minister of information — from that outside world to a village
where the Union Councillor is the most important official they had ever seen
before. All this attention came only because other important people in the
distant national capital feared that the villagers might have killed five of
their own women in the name of honour. The response of the
villagers to all this attention could be described as confused; a mix of
curiosity, fear and ambivalence. The media focus on Kohistan and this village
mesmerised people in the markets of Pattan and Palace. We were told the
families of the girls had been in their village houses when the first
government delegation arrived, but, as they were all men in the delegation,
they could not meet the girls. We were not completely sure whether the
villagers had left their houses because of the normal seasonal migration or
just because they had been frightened. But, by the time the third trip of
helicopters landed, we were told that messengers had been sent informing the
villagers to come back to their houses to meet with us. After a few hours, people
started trickling in from all sides. An elder, who was a part of our
delegation, sat and talked to the group while we talked to those who were
coming in. A man from Hakumabad — a two-hour-long walk for the locals —
came just to see who was in the helicopter. For them, it was an amazing
experience. The fact that the third delegation brought women with them had a
visible and calming effect on the villagers. A goat was cut for us and two
warring tribes who had occupied that small village in a state of continual
animosity for the past 30 years competed in their offers of hospitality. The villagers assured us
that they would keep the women safe. I would like to believe that all this
effort will have a long lasting impact, making them think twice before
casually killing their women for vague offenses. Now the question is: can we
continue to make such a coordinated response on other cases as well? Or will
we again fall into our old habits of squabbling with each other, playing the
blame game? The media continues daily
to highlight other incidents. Civil society continues to make noise about
each one. Can we somehow manage to have a coordinated approach where the
federal and provincial bureaucracies, the political parties, the judiciary,
the law enforcing agencies and civil society understand the role, and value
each other in a response to such crimes? Is it possible for
political parties not to use such cases as an excuse to attack each other? Is
it possible for civil society to work with the government in a systematic
manner? Can the judiciary clean up its own house so that the district judges
can honestly deal with these cases? Real police reform seems
the most difficult aspect, but no systematic strategy can be viable without
that component. The operation of jirgas that pass sentences that are outside
the law must be ended. Cases must be pursued by efforts to gather solid
evidence, with all applicable charges filed in the police report. Although this sounds like
utopia, resolving crimes against women on a case by case basis can be only a
beginning. The long journey has to address the political, bureaucratic and
judicial systems… and we can only do that by working as a team. (The writer is a human
rights activist who was a part of the Kohistan delegation) caption From the remote Kohistani
village.
Yeh
Woh The couple in their
late 30s lives in a working class neighbourhood of the city, in a two-bed
accommodation, with their three kids sharing one room. All five have one
compact, locally made car to transport them to and from school and place of
work. Both of them are employed
— she is a teacher at a private school and he is an accounting assistant
with a small manufacturing unit. Their household income is not much, but
enough for a decent living — ‘decent’ as defined by the time and space
they live in. They are content with what they have but they haven’t given
up on the dreams of their own youth; they have simply transplanted them into
the minds of their children. School fee is the second
biggest head in their monthly budget after house rent, but they tend to see
it as an investment in their own future as much as the future of their
children. Kids need English-medium education to get ahead in life, to land
the kind of jobs that come with a six-digit salary, a nice house, a fancy
car, and of course the perks and privileges of the social class assigned by
the right job. But until that time they
must take life one day at a time. Mr CM will have to spend a couple of late
night hours queuing up at the CNG station to beat the strikes and off days,
and carrying buckets of water from a nearby source when the municipal supply
breaks down. Mrs CM will have to alter, postpone or cancel her cooking and
washing plans depending on the loadshedding frequency and duration, and have
her children get used to eating in the dark, sleeping without fan, and trying
to get an A after a disturbed night. They live with plenty. They must do what
they can to get one more day closer to harvesting their dreams through their
children. Mrs and Mr CM have an
unexciting and uneventful life filled with hard work, irritating chores and
bouts of worries, but they see light at the end of a very long tunnel. They
see their kids as the agents and harbingers of change, the change that will
undo all the hurt, even make it worthwhile. The change promised in the
kids’ poetry lessons: There’s a good time
coming, boys, A good time coming, The pen shall supersede the
sword, And right, not might, shall
be the lord, In the good time coming; Worth, not birth, shall
rule mankind, And be acknowledged
stronger; The proper impulse has been
given; Wait a little longer. Mrs and Mr CM never read
this or any other English poem when they were in school. Now, they secretly
think they are the boys being promised a good time. They believe their
children have been given proper impulse through English-medium education.
They are waiting. They watch TV together.
There’s two hours of it anyways, between the daily power outages. Kids
choose between films and wrestling and Mrs CM alternates between cooking and
drama channels. Mr CM only wishes to watch news for five minutes at 9 PM, any
channel. He usually watches it alone; everyone else uses the break to eat,
drink, use toilet. He wonders why no one in his family is interested in news,
in staying informed, being aware. There could be something about private
sector teachers in the new budget. There could be an announcement of free
theatre for children or a street football tournament by the city government.
There could be some explanation for the standoff between government and CNG
industry … something concerning me, concerning us. He stops wondering and
attends to news: Some Malik fellow has arrived in Pakistan in his personal
jet to tell the courts he’s not scared of them, if anything everyone should
be scared of him. A really big judge is miffed because his son likes the
above-mentioned Mr Malik more than his own father because the former gives
him more handsome pocket money. United States has berated Pakistan over
something whereas Pakistan has rejected it and asked for more money. A chap
named Haqqani has been found to have written a letter he has been swearing
all along he didn’t write. Mr CM switched channels all
he could but the news agenda is the same. They are all talking about things
and people that have no relevance to him, his family and his environment. He
passes the remote control to his teenaged son just entering the room:
‘Let’s see if some channel is showing How I Met Your Mother’.
masudalam@yahoo.com
health Two important world
reports were released in the past month, with direct links to newborn and
maternal survival. The first, released by the
World Health Organisation on May 3, ranked Pakistan fourth in the world for
preterm births — 748,100 per year. The report, Born too soon, argued that
shortages in qualified health workers and inadequate capacity for the care of
premature babies are a major reason for the lack of progress in reducing
neonatal deaths. It went on to explain how investment in health workers can
considerably reduce maternal and child mortality ratio. The lack of health workers
directly impacts the quality of life for mothers. This was reflected in the
second report, released by Save the Children on May 8, where Pakistan was
ranked 78 out of 80 countries under the less developed countries category on
the annual Mothers’ Index. The State of the world’s mothers, released for
the 13th year, ranked 165 countries for being the worst and best places to be
a mother. It echoed the views of Born too soon — that health workers are
the key to success. Frontline health workers
have a vital role to play in promoting good nutrition in impoverished
communities in the developing world where malnutrition is too common and
doctors and hospitals are often unavailable, too far away, or too expensive. Indeed, we need more
frontline health workers who are skilled and confident in newborn care. We
need health clinics equipped with life-saving commodities. We need community
health workers and midwives to screen children for malnutrition, treat
diarrhoea, promote breastfeeding, distribute vitamins and other
micronutrients, and counsel mothers on good nutrition, hygiene and
sanitation. These ‘lifesaving six’ interventions highlighted in the State
of the World’s Mothers report can be delivered in many remote and
impoverished places through well-trained and well-equipped community health
workers. In a number of countries, including Cambodia, Malawi and Nepal,
these health workers have contributed to broad-scale success in fighting
malnutrition and saving lives. Save the Children says
nearly 1.3 million children’s lives could be saved each year if six
interventions are fully implemented at scale in the 12 countries, including
100,000 in Pakistan, most heavily burdened by child malnutrition and under-5
mortality. With the help of frontline health workers, all six of these
interventions can be delivered fairly rapidly using health systems that are
already in place. What is lacking is the political will; the will to invest
in inexpensive yet proven solutions that are essential to the women and
children who need them most. Three of the six solutions
— iron, vitamin A and zinc — are typically packaged as capsules costing
pennies per dose, or about $1 to $2 per person per year. The other three
solutions — breastfeeding, complementary feeding and good hygiene — are
behavioural change solutions, which can be implemented through outreach,
education and community support. In Pakistan, about 100,000
Lady Health Workers (LHWs) and 4,000 Community Midwives (CMWs) exist at
community level. While the government’s LHW Programme is present in all
districts, only 60 to 65 per cent of the whole population is covered, with
many of the poorest and most vulnerable without any access at all. The prime
minister announced an increase in the number of LHWs to 120,000 and CMWs to
16,000, although about 12,000 more CMWs need to be deployed in order to meet
the World Health Organisation (WHO) criteria. The Government of Pakistan
should live up to its commitment to increase the number of LHWs and extends
its commitment to increase the number of CMWs. These increases would help
close the gap in health promotion and provision of services. Both the federal
and provincial governments and donors should work together to fill this
frontline health workers gap by recruiting, training and supporting new and
existing health workers, and deploying them where they are needed most. The provincial governments
and donors are playing a larger role in the post-18th Amendment scenario as
the LHW programme has devolved to provinces. The appointment and training of
CMWs have become provincial subjects as well and should now be prioritised by
the provincial leaders. The provincial governments
now need their own frontline health workers policies and strategies in light
of their respective Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets. This needs to
be done with great urgency, given high maternal mortality ratios like that of
Balochistan, at 785 per 100,000 live births (Pakistan Demographic and Health
Survey 2006-2007). The government of
Balochistan and all other provincial governments and the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) secretariat will need to come up with
policies and strategies about increasing frontline LHWs and CMWs quickly in
order to put provinces and Fata on the right track towards achieving MDGs 4
and 5. Donor agencies are also required to align their support in the
post-18th Amendment scenario and extend technical assistance to provinces to
respond to the demands in an effective manner. The writer is a development
practitioner and tweets at @amahmood72.
Three
decades of refuge “Why should we go
back to Afghanistan when there is nothing for us. There is no security, no
jobs, no health and education facilities and majority of Afghans come to
Pakistan for availing these services,” argues an old Afghan refugee
Sahibzada Noorul Baseer. Baseer may have his reasons
for staying back, but government officials have a different point to make.
“Most of the refugees repatriate for the sake of benefits and again migrate
to Pakistan after spending some time there,” a senior government official
says. Senior Afghan elders
working for refugees’ rights in Pakistan say that only those refugees who
belonged to northern Afghanistan or associated with pro-Karzai political
groups had returned home. Pakistan is not a signatory
to the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1971 protocols, but even then it
hosted the biggest number of refugees on its soil for almost 32 long years,
and is still hosting 2.5 million Afghan refugees — 1.7 million of them
registered. and 0.8 million unregistered. There is no indication in sight
these refugees would go back to their country in near future. In 2002, the government
started voluntary repatriation of the Afghan refugees and since then over 5.7
million Afghan refugees have been repatriated, constituting nearly a quarter
of the current Afghan population, with the help of United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Following the first major
influx of the Afghan refugees as a result of Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
in 1979, the story of Afghan refugees represents the longest protracted
refugee caseload in the history of UNHCR, with the vast majority (80 per
cent) having been in exile for over 32 years. While there were massive
returns of the refugees between 2002 and 2008, the past three years have seen
a steady decline in overall repatriation due to a host of reasons. This trend
corresponds to heightened insecurity with increasing numbers of civilian
casualties. A recent survey has shown
that up to 60 per cent of returnees are experiencing difficulties rebuilding
their lives and a large numbers of Afghans continue to migrate to cities
inside Afghanistan or to neighbouring countries, Pakistan and Iran, seeking
livelihood opportunities. Currently, there are 81
refugee camps in the country — 70 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 10 in Balochistan
and one in Mianwali in Punjab. The government has announced to promote
voluntary return of the Afghan refugees and has declared the current year as
the ‘Repatriation Support Year’. The repatriation programme
is still underway, but the process has decelerated. The government had issued
Proof of Registration (POR) cards to the Afghan refugees in 2006, which will
expire in December 2012. In March 2010, the federal
cabinet had approved a strategy for the management and repatriation of
Afghans in Pakistan that offers alternate stay arrangements to the Afghans,
who might not be able to return to their country in the near future. The new arrangements were
about a visa regime — issuance of work, business and education visa to
Afghans to regularise their stay in Pakistan and effectively monitor the
cross border movement. Zardasht Shams, Cultural
and Press Attaché Afghanistan Embassy in Islamabad, is of the view that
those who are reluctant to go back belong to eastern parts of the country
such as Nangarhar, Kunar and Laghman, southeast Paktia, Paktika and Khost and
Kandahar, Helmand and Zabul. Talking to TNS, he says,
“Situation in Afghanistan is different now and there are more employment
opportunities which are not limited to only urban areas. Gradual repatriation
will be sustainable as mass movement in short period of time is risky.” He
explains that lack of housing or proper shelter might be other concerns
besides security situation. “The Afghan government is
committed to a comprehensive voluntary repatriation of its refugees. However,
this repatriation should be managed through a mutually agreed comprehensive
programme (Af-Pak and UNHCR). The programme should enable Afghanistan to
provide proper shelter, food, health and livelihood opportunities for its
refugees,” the Afghan Press Attaché says. (June 20 is the World
Refugees Day) caption On their way back.
Grassroot
politics After dilli-dallying
for over two and a half years, the provincial governments are finally working
on holding local government polls after the Supreme Court’s orders. Setting up of district
governments is a constitutional requirement and Section 32 and Article 141-A
talk about this tier of government. After the passage of the 18th Amendment,
the provinces are supposed to decide about these polls though they are to be
held under the supervision of the chief election commissioner. The provincial governments
have come up with different schemes but the one proposed by the Punjab
government has got criticism from several quarters. Reportedly, it plans to
amend the local government ordinance to suit its designs and give powers to
bureaucrats instead of elected representatives of the people. Besides, it has
made public its plans to hold elections on non-party basis. The reaction to this plan
has been severe, forcing the government to refer it to the assembly for a
final decision. The cabinet approval to the plan is not enough as thought
earlier. Dr Mujtaba Chishti, a
former union council member, thinks these elections cannot be held before the
general elections. “There is a perception that the government(s) will obey
the orders of the court and hold the LB polls. May I ask how many orders of
the Supreme Court have been honoured by the government so far?” His point is that it takes
a lot of planning and preparations to hold these polls. The governments are
expecting dissolution of assemblies any time and their replacement with
caretaker setups. In this situation, it is very difficult to hold these
elections, he says. “The law and order situation is least conducive to hold
this huge exercise.” Chishti tells TNS the PML-N
fears people will not support its candidates. He says they (the PML-N)
haven’t served people over the last four years but are now giving money to
their coordinators to do civil works at union council level. “I am sure the
PML-N workers also want to contest non-party elections. They fear the PML-N
tag may harm them as the PML-Q tag harmed the strongest of the contestants in
the 2008 general elections.” Explaining the logic of the
PML-N’s support for non-party polls, Chishti says they party does not want
to lose any seat to other parties. “Once the results are announced, they
can buy the loyalties of as many winning candidates as they can. Support of
local governments is essential to perform well in general elections.” The Punjab government’s
stance on the LB polls has given Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers a
reason to celebrate. They are vehemently telling everybody that the PML-N is
afraid of the popularity of the PTI and fears a major blow if these elections
are held. Ejaz Chaudhry, Central Vice
President PTI, tells TNS that his party has done extensive homework in this
regard. “I have registered 39,000 members in just one provincial assembly
constituency and have their complete record with me. The PTI is active in
6,000 union councils of the country. Is any other party working on these
lines?” The elections, he demands,
should be held on party-basis, but before that the faulty voters’ lists
should be rectified. “The Punjab government wants to stick to these lists
as they suit the PML-N.” Chaudhry slams the Punjab
government for criminal negligence as it did not form a local government to
take over from the outgoing one and took dictatorial measures. He rejects the
government’s plan to amend the ordinance to its benefit. “The system
introduced by Musharraf may not be ideal but it was far better than that of
the 1979. The Punjab government wants to revert to the old one as it passes
on little administrative and financial control to the local governments.” What Chaudhry says can be
substantiated by references in the past where parliamentarians resigned from
the National Assembly seats to take over as district nazims. Then it was
impossible for anyone else than the president to remove a district nazim.
However, under the system proposed by the Punjab government a mayor would be
a minion before the chief minister. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob,
Executive Director, Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and
Transparency (PILDAT), believes that ideally the LB polls should be held on
party basis, but it has to be seen in the local context. He says there’s a
strong perception that party tags at grassroots level lead to severe
divisions. “Even the parties are in a fix over whom to give the party
tickets — obliging one automatically estranges the others.” This, Bilal says, cannot be
affordable to parties as they are bracing for general elections. They have no
time to spend on disgruntled party members. Bilal Mehboob tells TNS
that party ticket normally helps candidates in the LB polls around. A party
ticket may be helpful to a candidate but harmful to the party if the
candidate is weak. An example of this was seen in the by-polls held in Kasur
where the PML-N did not give ticket to any of the two hopefuls. The winner
had the option to join the PML-N later on. |
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