Speculating about the future of democracy, Pakistani intelligentsia moans about the disease of 'authoritarianism' in Pakistani culture. It is said to be nurtured through retrogressive cultural values that promote submission to patriarchy and kill the questioning spirits of an individual. The ideological backing of mono-theistic religion and the political hegemony of 'two nation theory' disenfranchise marginal groups, including those based on gender and ethnicity. Most importantly, it is argued that the structure of democratic norms, having evolved in the West through a long process of conflict between the bourgeoisie and the feudal, has not established itself in our culture. The assumed reason for that is the absence of cultural pre´requisites to democracy as a system of governance from the moral and social fiber of the society which troubles the growth of democratic process in Pakistan.

The argument of organic incompatibility of democracy with retrogressive cultural values assumes a certain ideal type of democracy which is both a theoretical as well as historical fiction. It brings Western and non-Western societies at an unwarranted parallel which is not permissible, as such, without qualifications due to vast historical and cultural differences between the two societies. The normative culture of democracy is given a historically fix origin. Instead of viewing culture as a process of becoming, this argument looks for pre´requisites, as if culture on its own can breed democracy without having to have the democratic process. Instead of studying the shaping influence of historical experience of the political subjects, the argument sticks to democracy's origins and lumps the failure of democracy on cultural values. It omits the local brand of democracy by committing itself to the professional humanist perspective of subsuming the evolution of non-Western societies along western historical lines. In other words, by staring too much on the Western history, it looses sight of all local, multiple histories.

This argument, because of being based on false assumptions, also buys the claims of British colonial historiography which says that democracy is bestowed on India through colonialism. It suggests that it is, thereby, an alien concept, used to run institutions of power formed for colonising people. No doubt, there is an element of historical truth in it but in the heat of the argument we are likely to forget, as Edward Said reminds us, the grand narrative of democracy and enlightenment as well as its institutional practices which mobilised people in the colonial world to rise up and throw off the yoke of imperial subjection. The sad fact, however, is that official historian of state nationalism have excised chapters on anti-imperial struggle that nourished a democratic culture from the pages of Pakistani democratic history by splitting the struggle along communal and separatist lines. But this is part of another story.

Aijaz Ahamd, a Marxist critic of post-colonialism, has argued that the historical adequacy of democracy and nationhood should not be looked for by referring to their origin in Europe, but has to be established through reference to local practices. The historically adequate sign for democracy existed in pre-partition India in the shape of anti-colonial struggle, which was internally far more democratic than the colonial state and which mobilised some 20 million peasant households in Quit India Movement. Similarly, various sub-national movements, in post-partition Pakistan like those of Bengali, Sindhi, Seraiki people, along with broad-based peasant and labour movements, are all testimonies to the fact that democracy is not the privilege of a few cultures.

Moreover, the position that attributes the failure of democracy to archetypal features of Pakistani culture like family institutions and bradari networks echoes modernisation theorists arguments which attribute under-development to the internal backwardness of the third world societies. These arguments, augmented by the educated prisms of our intellectual elite, resonate well with the paternalist arrogance of great fiction writers like Joseph Conrad and Kipling who forecast that the Indian reality required, indeed beseeched, British tutelage more or less indefinitely. Notwithstanding the fact that Pakistani state gives us democracy more in breach than in observance, it is still worth recalling that nowhere in Europe and North America adult franchise was implemented with such low levels of literacy and material well being as in Pakistan. Nowhere in West did women get the right to vote in the founding moments of electoral democracy as they did in India and Pakistan.

Having said that, I do not intend to privilege the feudal residues, patriarchy and gender oppression, the presumed ills of social structure. Nor do I want to play down the corrupting influences of martial laws on the fractured political process. Nevertheless, I want to register my unease with the argument that ties democracy with a handful of Western liberal values. What I want to press for is the position that democracy as a political practice is to be read in the active struggle of political subjects in our political space. The institutional values of democracy should be separated from the democracy as set of cultural practices. It is the active political struggle of a subject that can form a historically adequate sign for democracy. In this sense democracy and its success or failure is not just a squabble over its origin.

The forms of democratic norms will, however, be different in different societies. In Pakistan, for instance, ethnic, religious or kin-based networks will continue to provide support for electoral process in view of the weakened modern civil institutions and state welfare system. Those who think that democracy can only work if there is the ethos of 'one man one vote' -- freed from kinship networks -- are trying to live in a future that is never to come. If our society is pervaded by clientalist relationships of one sort or the other then the point is not to disown its historical origin by constructing a mono-lithic definition of feudalism or castigating it in a barrage of moral rhetoric. The task is to understand the sociological significance of patron-client relationship that provides an important nexus for electoral politics in Pakistan.

The renowned British anthropologist, Ernest Gellner, while differentiating and historicising the modern conditions of civil liberties, calls politics based on clientalism as "government-by-network". In this formation, formal institutional arrangements matter far less than do informal connections of mutual trust based on past personal services -- that is, exchange of protection from above for support from below. Such a society is ruled by networks, quasi-tribes and alliances forged on the basis of kinships, services exchanged, common regional and ethnic origin and common institutional experiences. But generally it is still based on personal trust rather on formal relations in a defined bureaucratic structure.

Now it is important not to disavow what is often hastily dismissed as 'feudal residue' in our passionate yearning for democracy but to understand how this structure has evolved and how it interacts with modern democratic institutions. A radical research into the forms and norms of local democracies is what can provide an understanding of local democratic order. It should not be forgotten that if our society has to ever reform itself and acquire dignity for itself among the comity of nations, it has to do it in terms of its own local cultural ideals rather in terms of something borrowed from the outside.

The government has forged 'partnerships' with the private sector in order to finance infrastructure needs of the country and open new sectors -- on the premise that the role of the state is to provide a policy, regulatory and legal environment.

Within this context the recent title of Pakistan Development Forum 'Drivers of Economic Growth: Unleashing the Potential of the Private Sector' was relevant given that it would reshape the way the government does business.

It must be recognised though that these considerations also impact the discourse over public goods and the role played by governments in financing and providing social services -- health and education, in particular. And it is here that another dimension relating to 'unleashing the private sector' -- one that draws the social sector into the debate -- is of relevance.

Exploring different arrangements for the delivery of public good does not mean changing role of the government but transforming it. It is hoped that future gatherings of the Pakistan Development Forum will expand their focus to this broader and more appropriate context of public-private roles and opportunities. It is also hoped it would ensure adequate representation of stakeholders -- one of the key stakeholder in this arrangement being the indigenous civil society.

Public-private relationships range from interface arrangements, privatisation, contractual roles, to true partnerships. The latter being long-term task-oriented arrangements that bring together organisations with the mandate to offer public good on the one hand, and those that could facilitate this goal though the provision of resources, technical expertise or outreach, on the other.

Extrapolated to a health sector context, a range of partnerships can be cited from within Pakistan where the public-private mix works together for service delivery, enhancing outreach, in governance arrangements and strategic planning. For example, Pakistan is involved in many transnational partnerships such as GAIN, GAVI, STOP TB and Roll Back Malaria for improving access of populations to products and services. At a service delivery level, the recent strategy to revamp the Primary Health Care System is based on a public private model where services are contracted out to NGOs at a basic health care level.

Partnerships have also been forged for the delivery of preventive programmes, as in the case of the National HIV/AIDS and Malaria control programmes. Examples of outreach enhancing partnerships are the EPI programmes' use of private sector field force to augment polio day campaigns and the social marketing partnerships with Green star, Key Social Marketing and Marie Stopes for improving contraceptive use. Partnerships with NGOs with technical capabilities such as with Marie-Adelaide for leprosy control are also well established.

The public private interface can also be galvanised at a governance level; representation of the private sector on hospitals boards such as in the case of SIUT and Kidney Centre in Karachi and other hospitals is an example; at a grass roots level, public-citizen partnership can be formed at the level of Citizen Community Boards and Village Health Committees as part of the Devolution initiative.

Public private relationships can also be forged for resource mobilisation; these allow governments to tap into corporate resources and enable the commercial sector to fulfill its social responsibility. The recent contributions of Merck Marker to renovate and upgrade the Emergency of PIMS hospital is an example of an infrastructure related contribution; Novartis pharmaceuticals' contribution of Rs. 1.5 billion in the year 2005 to provide the anticancer drug Glivec under its 'Glivec International Assistance Program' is an example of contributions for improving access.

The private sector interface for health financing also has the potential to restructure service delivery. The state currently models health care delivery on tax revenues and out-of-pocket payments; this base can be broadened by mainstreaming the role of private insurance industry, enhancing the coverage of the Employees Social Security Scheme and mainstreaming health in the recently launched Social Protection Strategy.

It is well-established that the potential of the private sector partners can significantly improve outcomes across a range of social services. It can enable the state to share responsibility for getting programmes out to communities by relying on groups and organisations that have complementary mandates. These arrangements present a very powerful mechanism for leveraging the strengths of various partners; however caution needs to be exercised given that the idea is not to privatise public responsibilities but to strengthen safety nets. Careful attention therefore needs to be paid to ethical, conflict of interest related, methodological, accountability, sustainability and governance issues in such relationships. In line with this there is a need to develop norms and standards which stipulate certain criteria in relation to the relevance of partnerships to the overall goal of development. In addition, there is also the need to strengthen and update policies, legislative frameworks and operational strategies that legitimise and give clarity to the roles and responsibilities of the public and private stakeholders in combined models.

The Punjab Government has drafted a law -- the Punjab Private Participation in Infrastructure Development Act -- which lays down a statutory framework and procedures for formalising the participation of the private sector in building infrastructure in the province. According to their website, the law will come into force after approval by the provincial cabinet and assembly. This law and the institutional mechanisms which it will create -- the Punjab Infrastructure Regulatory Authority -- are primarily relevant to building infrastructure and outlining contractual agreements on the basis of BOT, BOO and ROT -- expressions that have been referred to in the Medium Term Development Framework. However, legislation on public-private relationships needs to be more overarching and applicable at a country level.

The role of the recently created Infrastructure Project Development Facility under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance can be important in this regard as it can play an important role not just by providing timely and easy access for Private Public Partnership (PPP) implementing agencies but also preparing and managing PPP projects in the country in view of the aforementioned considerations.

The impetus for creating a conducive environment for public-private partnerships needs to come from the public sector. This raises the issue of capacity and highlights the need for gaps in capacity to be bridged as a priority -- particularly with respect to regulation given that the success of public private partnerships lies in the ability of governments to transparently regulate such arrangements. It must be recognised that the results of such actions will only be as good as the government intends to make them and therefore, governments must have a strategic outlook in attempting to yolk the private sector to their own cart.

"A Free Trade Union, comprising the whole of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, Siberia, Turkey, and (I should hope) the United Kingdom, Egypt and India, might do as much for the peace and prosperity of the world as the League of Nations itself." John Maynard Keynes, 1919

Trade and commerce have been the most effective way of establishing peace between rival nations. History offers great many examples to support this viewpoint.

The Second World War witnessed the worst enmity between the Allied forces led by Great Britain and the United States, on the one hand, and the Axis powers, led by Germany, on the other. It took several decades after the war to mend relations between the people of these countries. But as soon as the European Union was formed, the situation started changing dramatically. The union gave rise to higher levels of economic well being resulting from enhanced economic cooperation and was instrumental in reducing the enmities and the memories of the atrocities of the World War II in the minds of most people especially the next generation that came of age by the 1970s.

Famous economist Wilfred Pareto (1889) wrote, "customs unions and other systems of closer commercial relations (could serve) as means to the improvement of political relations and the maintenance of peace".

History provides ample evidence that no neighbouring countries have ever survived and progressed on prolonged belligerent relations. The drive for economic integration often begins with political objectives. The newly established democracies of the Southern Cone -- following the example of France and Germany which laid the foundation stone of EU in 1950s -- formed Mercosur in the mid-1980s hoping to dampen traditional military hostility between major regional powers: Argentina and Brazil. Southern African Development Community (SADC) originated in the 1980s as a coalition opposed to apartheid in South Africa and has more recently turned to creating a free trade area. Some observers note that African customs unions and free trade areas are as active in conflict resolution as in trade liberalisation. Finally, many see relaxed tensions between India and Pakistan as the real payoff from the Safta agreement.

Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) can also provide institutions and a forum for bargaining and negotiations to address tensions before they erupt into conflicts. European integration, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), and Mercosur are often used as venues for improving political-military relations.

Many current studies also point out that RTAs that expand trade flows appear to have a substantial dampening impact on conflict. Mansfield and Pevehouse in a 2000 study have attempted to identify empirically the role of RTAs in ameliorating conflict. They found that, on an average, the likelihood of the outbreak of a militarised interstate dispute declines by around 50 per cent if the states belong to the same RTA. Only RTAs that expand trade flows, however, appear to have a substantial impact on conflict. In Africa, for example, RTAs that address the management of cross-border resource issues (such as water) are more effective in reducing military conflict than other RTAs.

In a similar vein, the formation of South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) between India and Pakistan along with five other South Asian nations (Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka) may provide a life-time opportunity to forge sustained peaceful political and economic relations between the two nations based on mutual respect and cooperation much similar to what the European nations have developed under the umbrella of the EU.

But first a bit of history. South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) was formed by seven South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) in 1985 for increasing political-economic cooperation. Over time, the economic focus of Saarc was gradually sharpened leading to the signing of the South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (Sapta) in 1995. Nothing substantial happened for a lot of years but talks continued nevertheless, ultimately resulting in the signing of Safta in 2004. The Agreement came into force on January 1, 2006 and its implementation will begin on July 1, 2006.

This, however, does not mean that Safta has put an end to any trade-related problems in South Asia in general and between India and Pakistan in particular. Though it's heartening to see that the two countries are moving closer to each other, the pace at which these developments are taking place is extremely slow, sometimes not without reason. For instance, there are apprehensions in Pakistan that under free trade its economy will be swamped by a much larger Indian economy.

Though China too has a surplus in its trade balance with Pakistan, but somehow that is not seen as a problems. In the case of bilateral trade with India, Pakistan's response has been to stick to a positive list, which allows it to decide the opening of trade on item to item basis. This goes against the spirit of free trade agreements, where trade is generally allowed in all commodities other than those contained in a negative list of sensitive ones. Since others in Safta are following a negative-list approach, the success of the agreement will depend on Pakistan also coming on board.

Also, despite the fact that both India and Pakistan are the members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), only former has accorded the most favoured nation (MFN) status to the latter which has linked reciprocity to the Kashmir dispute between the two countries.

It will be futile, though, to expect Pakistan's political apprehensions or its fears of being swamped by a much larger Indian economy to disappear overnight. What we can hope for is that once Pakistan realises the benefits of increasing trade, its suspicions will recede.

A series of (successful) deals, may be molasses-for-tea deal or a sugar deal, should remove Pakistani fears of free trade. Furthermore, its willingness to expand the positive list to 1013 from existing 773 items is also a pointer to the right direction. A small one, perhaps, but a significant one nonetheless.

The setting up of district consumer protection councils and consumer courts in 11 Punjab districts is on the cards. The Punjab government says in the next phase these institutions will be established in other districts of the province as well.

Both the councils and the courts are being set up under the Punjab Consumer Protection Act, 2005, that aims at protecting the rights of consumers.

Though consumer protection laws exist in other provinces as well, it is for the first time that a region in Pakistan is putting them into practice. While the Punjab government is claiming to have taken a lead in setting up the courts and the council, it is also doing so after a great delay. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) had been taking strict notice of repeated missing of deadlines for the setting up of these institutions, envisaged under the ongoing Access to Justice Programme (AJP).

On paper, the law that governs the setting up of consumer protection institutions looks pretty balanced and is tilted in the favour of the consumers, who find it hard to believe that they finally have a forum for redressal of their grievances. If put to practice both in letter and spirit, the consumer courts should prove to be a deterrent for unscrupulous manufacturers and service providers who can go to any extent to maximise their profits.

The act says: "The manufacturer of a product shall be liable to a consumer for damages proximately caused by a characteristic of the product that renders the product defective when such damage arose from a reasonably anticipated use of the product by a consumer." It also makes it binding for the manufacturers and traders to display prominently a notice specifying prices of all goods available for sale in their shops or display centres. The act also says that every manufacturer or trader who sells any goods shall issue to the purchaser a receipt showing the date of sale, description of goods sold, the quantity and price of the goods and the name and address of the seller. The return and refund policy of a seller has also to be disclosed to the buyer clearly before the transaction is completed.

The act empowers consumer courts to fine and punish violators and recover fines from them under the land revenue act. To discourage blackmailing and unnecessary litigation in these courts, the act prescribes fines for filing false claims. Simply put, a consumer will now have the option to take the seller of a counterfeit or substandard good at the price of a genuine item to court and seek compensation.

All these noble intentions notwithstanding, there is strong skepticism among major stakeholders about the effectiveness of consumer councils and courts. First, they point out, similar consumer protection acts were passed by other three provinces but not enforced. The Sindh Consumer Protection Ordinance 2004 has even lapsed. Which, according to them, means that mere passing of a law does not go very far in providing relief to people if not followed up by a thorough implementation. Now that Punjab embarks on the implementation phase, they question if the councils and courts will be able to provide prompt relief to aggrieved consumers. Or, will they face the same problems that have choked our judicial system? they ask.

There are some clauses in the law itself which have not won the approval of consumer rights forums and the lawyers. For example, under the Punjab Consumer Protection Act 2005, District Coordination Officer (DCO) is the authority with whom an aggrieved consumer can file his or her complaint. The DCO has the power to even fine the violator up to Rs 50,000, and recoverable as arrears of land revenue. These judicial powers given to the DCOs under the act have been opposed at different civil society fora. In another strange move, the power to appoint non-government members of the consumer protection councils have also been given to DCOs.

Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRCP) Project Manager Amir Ejaz objects to this move and says, "The adjudication powers of DCO are contrary to the basic spirit of justice as DCO himself represents a body that is also a service provider and can be a party in case of complaints against local government offices." He says vesting enormous powers in DCOs -- like imposition of fine on the violators of various provisions of the act, filing of claims before consumer courts for declaring products defective or a service found faulty and to hold inquiry on complaints from consumer protection council -- may harm consumers' interest. "I will propose that the adjudication powers of the DCO should be given to consumer courts whereas the rest of his powers like holding inquiries and filing complaints on behalf of consumers should be given to consumer councils," he adds.

The issue of shortage of judges in the province and backlog of court cases will also affect the working of consumer courts. It is very likely that with the establishment of consumer courts and the ensuing legislation judges' workload will increase by day.

Hafiz Javed, spokesman for Punjab law ministry, tells The News on Sunday that the government is doing its best to protect consumers' rights in the province. On the issue of appointment of judges for the consumer courts, Javed says for the time being sessions judges have been asked to hold consumer courts in their respective districts once a week. "This will suffice as there will not be much load on consumer courts in the beginning. In near future, however, the government plans to depute judges exclusively for the consumer courts," he says.

When asked whether the judges of the consumer courts would have to undergo special training prior to their appointment, Javed says there is no need for that. "The existing judges are competent enough to decipher any new law that has been passed by the legislators and decide cases according to its dictates. All judges have to do is to ensure that the laws are implemented in their true spirit. It's not a big deal for them (to deal with a new law) because all laws are based on the same basic principles of justice."

The history of consumer rights legislation dates back to 1988 when Benazir Bhutto first came into power. There was considerable progress in this direction at that time but the process stalled with the sacking of the government in less than two years. The work on the subject started again in 1994 from where it had stopped in 1990 when Benazir took over the reins of the government once again. But soon the federal government realised that consumer rights legislation did not fall either under its jurisdiction or of the provincial governments. So it decided to hand it over to the provinces.

That is why instead of making a law for the entire country, the federal government enacted Islamabad Consumer Protection Act in 1995 and passed on its copies to the provincial government for guidance. The NWFP was the first province to come up with the concept of consumer protection councils in 1997 but unfortunately the province did not devise any rules of business for these council, making the whole exercise unproductive.

Muhammad Aftab Alam, an Islamabad-based lawyer, tells TNS that it was the active participation of civil society representatives that showed the way to policymakers on legislation for consumer rights. Quoting the example of CRCP, he says this organisation drafted a Model Consumer Protection Act in 2000 and invited a debate on it. It also sent the copies of the model act to stakeholders all over the country. "Experts were also invited from countries like Malaysia that have sufficient experience of running consumer rights councils and courts."

Aftab says CRCP was a part of the body that was formed on the instruction of the governor of Sindh to advise the provincial government on consumer rights legislation. "The Sindh government came out with Consumer Protection Ordinance in 2004 but this ordinance lapsed later on. In 2003, Balochistan also passed an act that was a copy of the one passed earlier by NWFP," he adds.

About the Punjab Consumer Protection Act, 2005, Aftab says it is better than the ones passed by the other three provinces though it cannot be called a model law. "At least, it has given clear rules of business for its proper implementation and has defined roles for the representatives of the newly formed local government system in the proposed consumer courts and councils," he says.

On the effectiveness of the act, he says it is before time to make any assessments on the basis of theoretic discussions. "What's more important is that at least a judicial process for the redressal of consumers' problems has been put in place. Once the councils and courts start working, the problem areas will become obvious making it easier to remove lacunae in the system. This is what India did in 1986. They set up consumer courts at that time without entangling themselves into lengthy debates. But since then they have made several major amendments in their relevant laws to make them more consumer-friendly," Aftab adds.

For consumers in Punjab, that stage still seems quite far off.

There is hardly any area where the US government's penchant for double standards does not apply. The latest example of this came on Tuesday when the US Defence Department, headed by Donald ('Weapons of Mass Destruction') Rumsfeld, in its annual report to Congress warned that the pace and scope of China's modernisation of its strategic forces and other surprising military developments could pose a credible long-term threat to the United States.

The report said that China's ability to sustain military power at a distance -- known in military parlance as power-projection capability -- is limited but it has the greatest potential of any nation to compete militarily with the United States.

Warming to its theme, the report said: "Long-term trends in China's strategic military forces, modernisation of land- and sea-based access denial capabilities, and emerging precision-strike weapons have the potential to pose credible threats to modern militaries operating in the region.

An executive summary of the report said: "Several aspects of China's military developments have surprised US analysts, including the pace and scope of its strategic forces modernisation. China's military expansion is already such as to alter regional military balances."

As the AFP news agency noted in a story published on Wednesday, "The annual China military power report is a closely watched barometer of military relations between the Asian power and the United States, the dominant military power in the Asia-Pacific region. The report made waves last year by calling attention to big unacknowledged increases in Chinese military spending on a major military build-up that it said put at risk the military balance in the region."

The latest report expanded on that theme and said that China had still not adequately explained "the purposes or desired end-status of their military expansion."

The report added: "Absent greater transparency, international reactions to China's military growth will understandably hedge against these unknowns...In the near-term, China's military build-up appeared focused on preparing for contingencies in the Taiwan Straits, including the possibility of US intervention." China now has an estimated 710 to 790 short-range missiles opposite Taiwan, according to the report.

"However, analysis of China's military acquisitions suggests it is also generating capabilities that could apply to other regional contingencies, such as conflicts over resources or territory," the report said.

It said China has "developed a new doctrine for modern warfare, reformed military institutions and personnel systems, improved exercises and training, and acquired advanced foreign and domestic weapons systems."

In this connection, the report discusses China's acquisition of Russian transport and air-refueling aircraft and its interest in acquiring the SU-33, a Russian-made maritime strike aircraft capable of operating from aircraft carriers.

If ever there was a case of the pot calling the kettle black, the Pentagon's report is it. For one thing, the US is hardly in a position to criticise increases in China's military spending when the US's own military spending, under the Bush administration, has risen to record levels and now accounts for more than 50 per cent of the world's total military spending.

In 2000, the last year of the Clinton administration's term in office, US military spending, at $ 301 billion, accounted for 41.7 per cent of world military spending. Under President George W Bush, US military spending rose to $ 335 billion in 2002, accounting for 42.8 per cent of world military spending.

In 2003, US military spending accounted for half the world total of $ 956 billion, driven up by Bush's doctrine of 'pre-emptive strikes' in response to the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

But the term 'pre-emptive strikes' is a misnomer in this case because it implies attacking someone to prevent them attacking you, whereas the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon had already taken place 18 months before the US invaded Iraq in an unprovoked war of aggression in violation of all canons of international law and in flagrant defiance of world public opinion. To make matters worse, it was admitted even by US intelligence agencies months before the US invasion of Iraq that Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks on the US and that the Saddam Hussein regime had no links whatsoever with al-Qaeda.

In 2004, world military spending topped $ 1 trillion on the back of massive US budgetary allocations for Bush's 'war on terror', with US military spending, at $ 455 billion, accounting for almost half the global figure, more than the combined total of the next 32 most powerful nations.

"The major determinant of the world trend in military expenditure is the change in the United States, with its 47 per cent of the world total," said the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its annual yearbook. US military spending increased to 3.9 per cent of its gross domestic product in 2004 from 3.0 per cent in 1999.

According to SIPRI, China's military spending in 2004 was $ 35 billion, only 7.69 per cent of the US figure.

But even this relatively low level of Chinese military spending came in for criticism from US Defence Secretary Rumsfeld. Speaking at a conference of Asian defence ministers in Singapore on June 6, 2005, Rumsfeld posed several questions about China's military upgrade.

"China appears to be expanding its missile forces, allowing them to reach targets in many areas of the world, not just the Pacific region, while also expanding its missile capabilities here in the region," Rumsfeld said. "Since no nation threatens China, one must wonder: Why this growing investment?" he added.

In saying this, however, Rumsfeld was, of course, conveniently glossing over the fact that the US's own nuclear arsenal and missile forces are the biggest in the world -- enough to wipe out humanity several times over. US missile forces have long possessed the capability of reaching every part of the world, including China.

Rumsfeld's remarks brought an immediate response from the most senior Chinese official at the Singapore conference, Ciu Tiankai, director of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Asia bureau.

"Do you truly believe that China is under no threat whatsoever from any part of the world?" Ciu asked. "And do you truly believe that the United States feels threatened by the so-called emergence of China?"

Rumsfeld replied that he knew of no nation that menaced China, and that the United States did not feel threatened by China's rising power.

Yet only a year after Rumsfeld made that statement, the US Defence Department, in its latest annual report to Congress, has come out with the assertion that China's military build-up and modernisation of its strategic forces could pose a credible long-term threat to the United States.

But what about the US's own continuing massive military build-up and its continuing modernisation of its own forces? Don't they pose a threat to other nations, including China? Or are we expected to believe that the US is spending $ 470 billion dollars on its military this year (excluding over $ 100 billion allocated for the war against Iraq and Afghanistan) just for the heck of it, and that this massive military expenditure poses no threat to anybody? If that's the case, why is it spending that kind of money?

Compared with the world's average level of military spending at 3 per cent of GDP, China's defence expenditure is still at a fairly low level, said Ding Jiye, head of finances for the Chinese People's Liberation Army's General Logistics Department, in an interview with the Chinese news agency Xinhua.

According to Ding, China's military expenditure only makes up about 8 per cent of the country's total government spending (not to be confused with military spending as a percentage of GDP), which is only about half the world's average level of 15 per cent of government spending.

US military spending works out to nearly $ 300,000 per soldier, and Britain's and Japan's to nearly $ 200,000 per soldier, as against China's $ 10,000 per soldier.

Rumsfeld and other American officials, however, contend that Chinese military spending is 'understated' and that its actual spending is much more -- a contention that China denies. But even if we were, for argument's sake, to accept the US contention as being true, China's military spending, according to the US's own figures, is still only a fraction of US military spending.

The American CIA's 'World Fact Book 2003,' for example, says that China's military spending in 2002 amounted to $ 55.9 billion. By contrast, US military spending in 2002 amounted to $ 328.7 billion. In 2003, US military spending rose to $ 379.3 billion, in 2004 to $ 379.9 billion, in 2005 to $ 400.1 billion. In 2006, it is projected to rise to $ 419 billion, excluding the money being spent on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Rand Corporation is the US's leading think tank on military matters. A Rand Corporation report issued on May 19, 2005 estimated that China's defence spending is substantially lower than many previous outside estimates of the share of GDP that China devotes to defence.

The study estimated that the purchasing power of current Chinese military spending (that is, what a dollar spent in China will buy) runs between "$ 69 billion and $ 78 billion in 2001 dollars, and could reach $185 billion in 2001 dollars in 2025." Even this estimate, however, amounts to only about 40 per cent of current US military spending (again, excluding spending on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has already cost US taxpayers more than $ 300 billion).

By comparison, said the Rand study, US military spending was 3.9 per cent of its GDP in 2004, "amounting to nearly $ 430 billion in 2001 dollars."

So which country's military spending is actually a source of worry to the rest of the world, China's or the US's? The answer to that question is the US's, of course. Unlike the United States, China has no doctrine of 'pre-emptive' strikes. It was the US that invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, and it is again the US that now seems to have Iran in its gun-sight as its next target.

Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas has recently been appointed Pakistan People's Party's senior vice president in Punjab. Prior to this, he has worked as the party's provincial general secretary and provincial secretary information.

Ghulam Abbas has been active in politics since 1960s when he was a very popular student leader in Murray College, Sialkot. Later, he also made some significant waves in student politics at the Punjab University.

Ghulam Abbas is a staunch follower of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was arrested 11 times during Ziaul Haq's rule and was subjected to tortures of all kinds. When Benazir Bhutto became prime minister in 1988, she appointed Ghulam Abbas as her advisor on youth affairs. He claims that he convinced Benazir to announce the lifting of ban on student unions soon after his appointment to this post. He was also the minister for anti-corruption in the provincial cabinet of Mian Manzoor Wattoo in mid-1990s.

In a detailed interview with The News on Sunday, Ghulam Abbas talks on different issues including the future of democracy in Pakistan and the role of student unions in creating quality leadership. Excerpts follow:

The News on Sunday: What are the factors not letting a true democratic culture develop in Pakistan?

Gulam Abbas: I have no hesitation in saying that the military is the biggest culprit in this respect. It has always blocked the way of democracy in this country. Soon after the death of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the real control of the country passed on to the military. When Zulfikar Ali Bhutto tried to give power back to people, he too was killed by the military. How can you think about the development of a political and democratic culture in a country where a serving military chief, who also claims to be the president of Pakistan, is presiding over the meetings of a political party? He is even seen resolving differences among the members of that party.

TNS: Is it fair to to blame only the military for this state of affairs and ignore what the political parties have been doing all along? Aren't political parties and their leadership equally undemocratic?

GA: I agree that the military is not the only culprit. There are many other factors as well. Political parties have faults of their own but on the whole their role has been positive. The worst role has been played by civil bureaucracy and the fundamentalists who have always supported and strengthened the military. No doubt, the religious parties and the mullahs of this country have hijacked the nation in the name of Islam. If in the past they had accorded legitimacy to Zia's regime in the name of Islam, now they strengthened Musharraf through the 17th amendment in the Constitution. Just look at the condition of the two provinces -- Balochistan and NWFP - where these mullahs are in power. Military operations are going on in both of them but the mullahs are least bothered. They can't oppose the government simply for the reason that they don't want to lose power in these provinces.

TNS: But the government is saying that it has launched military operation in Balochistan to clean it of miscreants and put it on the way to progress...

GA: It's one of the most ridiculous claims I have ever heard. Military operations can never provide solutions to problems. In fact, they further aggravate existing problems. The military has seen the consequences of launching military operation in East Pakistan but unfortunately it has not learnt any lesson from that. Now the military is creating a similar situation in Balochistan. Though this operation is launched on the orders of some generals, the Balochis are condemning Punjabis for all the cruelties being inflicted upon them.

TNS: You talk a lot about democracy, why don't you start it from your own party? How can you justify the dictatorial control of one family on PPP. Isn't it true that even your nomination as party's provincial senior vice-president was made by Benazir Bhutto and the party workers were not even consulted?

GA: I would simply say that these are all baseless allegations. Benazir Bhutto is the party's chairperson not because she is the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It's because she enjoys the confidence of 100 per cent workers of PPP. Secondly, it is a misconception that Benazir Bhutto takes all decisions on her own. No, she always consults workers before taking any decisions. PPP is the only political party in the country that has allowed people from the powerless class to become its leaders. Even the secretary general of the party, Jahangir Badr, next to Benazir Bhutto in party hierarchy, comes from a lower middle class background. I feel no hesitation in saying that if there were no PPP in Pakistan, I would have found no place in the country's politics. The same holds true for more than 50 per cent of party' provincial and national legislators. They all belong to middle class society. Without PPP they could not have even become union councillors.

TNS: You started your political career as a student leader. What's your view on the ban on student unions?

GA: By banning the student unions, the government has deprived students of a basic human right. In fact, it's Pakistan's ruling class, the feudals and the civil and military bureaucracy, that is afraid of the student power. They know if they allow democratic and political culture to flourish in the educational institutions, their own interests will be compromised. As student politics is always based on some solid ideology, it leaves everlasting impacts on the students' personality and makes them strong enough to challenge anti-democratic forces however strong they may be. Also, student unions are the only platform that allows representatives of middle class to emerge as political leaders. Had there been no student politics, the names of Jahangir Badr, Javed Hashmi, Ghulam Abbas and many others would have remained unknown.

TNS: What do you say about the argument that students should not be allowed to indulge in politics? Instead they should focus on their studies... Also, hasn't the ban on student unions resulted in lessening of violence at educational institutions?

GA: I don't agree that students should be barred from taking part in student politics because it plays a great role in forming their overall personality. History says that student movements have always brought good results. No one can deny the role of students in Pakistan movement. In 1968, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto led students against the tyranny of a military ruler. In France, it was a students movement that forced the government to relax its labour laws. Coming to the second part of the question, I would say that Ziaul Haq's decision to ban student politics has done nothing good. How can a person who promoted drugs, sectarianism, klashnikov culture and many other evils in the society be credited with discouraging violence?

TNS: Despite all that, people link student unions directly with violence at educational institutions. Why is it so?

GA: I agree that student unionism is opposed by some segments of the society. There are some factors that have promoted a bad image of the unions. The history of violence and sectarianism at educational institutions and in society is not older than 20 to 25 years. Student unions became hostage to violence in early 1980s. When you don't allow educated youth to practise their fundamental rights, their energies will certainly be wasted in unlawful activities. Today educational institutions are working as breeding grounds of fundamentalism and students are being used by criminals to fulfil their vested interests. Student leaders of the past have landed in legislative assemblies whereas those of today are being killed in fake police encounters. I would simply say that violence and aggression in educational institutions have increased manifold after 1984 when student unions were banned by Ziaul Haq.

TNS: Your party has come into power twice after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto but it has failed to deliver...

GA: The reason is obvious. What could PPP do under the guns of a military general. In fact, the military has never let PPP govern the country according to its own philosophy. In 1970s, it was the military that tried to sack Zulfikar Ali Bhutto even though he had saved Pakistan Army from disgrace after the East Pakistan debacle. Some days ago, General (retired) Aslam Beg admitted to the press that the military had been involved in making and breaking political governments.

TNS: Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi is saying at different fora that PPP has no future in Pakistani politics? What do you say about it?

GA: I can only laugh at what he is saying. These handicapped politicians who think that PPP has lost its popularity are living in a fool's paradise. PPP is still the largest political party of this country and is based on a sound philosophy. May I ask what's the philosophy and the history of the political party to which these politicians themselves belong?

TNS: If we believe that PPP is still the most popular political party, then why does it need to form alliances with other political parties?

GA: The party is forming alliances not because it is weak. In fact, PPP is ready to join hands even with its biggest enemies to restore democracy and fight against a dictator. It's good that leaders like Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have realised well in time that Pervez Musharraf will go to the extent of selling off the country if they don't unite.

TNS: But aren't both of them responsible for promoting politics of confrontation and revenge?

GA: No, I don't agree with that. In fact, Benazir and Nawaz were never allowed to act independently to lay the foundation of a sound democratic system. The military never let them practice true democracy. It's a pity that a prime minister elected with a heavy mandate is not allowed to change a grade 22 military officer. When a prime minister tried to take this step, he was forced to leave the country. Even when Benazir and Nawaz Sharif confronted each other in the past, the military was responsible for creating that situation.

TNS: Do you buy the government's claims of reducing poverty?

GA: It's a baseless claim. Even the functionaries of the government are contradicting each other in this regard. Dr Salman Shah, the advisor to prime minister on finance, says more than 40 million people in Pakistan are living under the poverty line but Punjab chief minister is singing songs of prosperity. I think Punjab chief minister is talking about those few who are getting richer and richer through hoarding, land-grabbing and other illegal activities.

TNS: There have been reports about growing differences within PPP in Punjab. Why is it so?

GA: I don't believe that any differences exists among PPP workers. There is no grouping in PPP and all the party workers are united under the leadership of Benazir Bhutto.

Economic science focuses on our material activities, studying how we can get maximum satisfaction through material goods and services. Religion, on the other hand, draws humanity's attention in the opposite direction: towards God, who is above and beyond all matter and is indivisible and untouchable. If religion is about mankind's inner life, economics is about our outer life.

This antinomy expresses itself in different forms in the great religions and has naturally often been an impediment to economic progress.

In Buddhism there is a strong emphasis on the transient character of material life. Birth and death, growth and decay all is Samsara: an illusion.

Peace and salvation can only be found in truth, which is eternal and everlasting. The truth is realised in Buddha. The gospel of Buddha therefore admonishes the faithful to extinguish in themselves every desire that antagonizes Buddha. By achieving spiritual evolution, the followers too will become like Buddha. To come to this end, where all sorrow ceases, they are instructed to follow the eightfold path of right comprehension, right resolution, right speech, right acts, right way of earning a livelihood, right efforts, right thoughts and the right state of peaceful mind.

In Hinduism, for example in the Bhagavad-Gita, there is a clear recognition that action in the world is necessary. But work should be done without attachment to the fruits of the work. We are all forced to act, but we should act with self-control and the results of the action should be renounced. Mankind's aim should not be satisfaction of its own needs, as is assumed in economics, but in doing one's duty. This duty is seen as given for every individual according to his or her situation in life, and is worked out in the caste system which has been a serious impediment to economic development.

In Islam, the believer is told that life hereafter is preferable to the life in this world. This again draws the attention and longing of the faithful in a direction opposite to worldly life. Recently some writers have tried to develop 'Islamic economics'. Drawing from the Quran and other Islamic sources, they are trying to restructure economic thought and practices on the basis of Islamic teaching. Many economic practices like the payment of interest, insurance, arbitrage, speculation and indexation are considered un-Islamic. But the injunctions to avoid these economic activities will either impede economic growth or these injunctions will not be followed, creating hypocritical arrangements as in Islamic banking where interest on deposits is disguised as a 'mark-up' or 'commission'.

Christianity also teaches that humanity's aim should be a heavenly, not an earthly, treasure. Medieval Christianity imposed some restrictions on economic activities. There were injunctions for just prices and interest on loans was forbidden. Economics was subordinated to religion, just as science, ethics and aesthetics were. This was a serious hindrance for the development of market capitalism.

Seeing how religion guided mankind in a direction opposite to the striving for the satisfaction of material needs, the question arises as to how the breaking of these religious barriers came about in the West.

The great German sociologist Max Weber has shown that crucial support for this breakthrough came from Protestantism, and notably from its Calvinist version, developed by John Calvin in the 16th century. That was the beginning of the modern area of economics.

But Roman Catholic Church reconciled itself, with certain qualifications, with market capitalism only in the late 20th century. The different influences of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism on economic growth has also been statistically confirmed in a research paper. Bradford de Long, an economist and econometrician, has carried out a striking study of some nations comparing their performance during 1870-1979. He discovers that Protestant nations show higher growth rates than the Roman Catholic ones.

Once the opening for economic forces had been created in the West, market capitalism developed with great power. With industrial Revolution in England it moved from the field of trading to that of manufacturing industry. Under the protection of colonialism, market-system spread from Europe to other parts of the world.

Socialist attempts to plan economic development have generally also failed because of inefficiency, lack of innovation and the dangers of corruption.

Thus the debate over the best form of economic organisation in this situation has been won by market capitalism. The strength of the system is that it uses individual self-interest for material gain to promote economic activity. This stimulates effort, investment and entrepreneurship and thus brings all economic activities together in a market equilibrium that creates a growing material welfare for all. This is what inspired Francis Fukuyama, the best-selling sociologist, to described market capitalism's impressive victory as the 'end of history'.

The question has often been asked: is this a truthful picture of mankind? Is this picture not in conflict with the religious and spiritual nature of mankind? Certainly there are many motivations at work in human inter-relationships other than material self-interest.

Adam Smith, the founding father of classical economics, clearly realised this. Besides his best-known work The wealth of Nations, he also wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments, a moral and psychological work in which he emphasised the importance of sympathetic feelings, culminating in universal benevolence. The new approach of 'behavioral economics' introduces many psychological elements into macro-economics theories, as has been done in Keynes's famous General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money of 1936.

Fukuyama points out in his famous book Trust that classical economics with its fundamental model of rational self-interested human behavior is correct about 80 per cent of the time. But that leaves another 20 per cent of human behavior which is not fully explained by economics. In fact, he says, we have what is called 'bounded rationality'. For example, as all spending possibilities are not known to everyone, certain docility in following advice and information in society can play a role. Generally accepted social values can also be influential.

The crucial question, therefore, is how could the gradual re-integration of religion in our life influence the economy? Here we can find a source of moral values that is both universal and rooted in the depth of our own being.

The solution is to become conscious of our soul, the divine spirit of our true being. That spirit pervades the whole universe and is in all human beings. It is the same spirit in all: it is really universal. When we open our heart to this spirit, forgetting our limitations, we discover that real happiness lies in maintaining harmony with all our fellow-beings and with the conditions surrounding us. Harmony brings peace, and that reflects the inner unity of creation. It is fundamentally good and fills our heart with deep happiness. It is the living source of all moral and social values as they have been expressed and worked out in different cultures by great religions. From this source a harmonising influence can flow into the economy and the whole society.

But the question remains: how can this be built into economic theories? We cannot always say, this economic action is right and therefore legitimate and that one is not. It is often very difficult to create and maintain harmony in economic decision-making. It is constantly threatened by different views and interests of people around us. Harmony can only be maintained if we try to understand these different views and interests. Then we can rise above our limitations and built bridges. It requires an open heart and self-control.

In fact some enlightened management consultants now make recommendations that are exactly in the line with what was described earlier as a natural approach towards a spiritual leadership. Dana Zohar in Rewiring the Corporate Brain stresses the need for leaders to develop emotional and spiritual intelligence besides mental understanding. Instead of dictatorial leadership, she favours a leader who relies on trust and feeling.

Peter Senge, in his inspiring and practical book The Dance of Change, stresses that a leader should not see his organisation as a machine but as a living system, a human community. Senge points out how important it is that leaders on all levels should get as much responsibility as is possible in their part of business. There should be harmony between the purpose of the organisation and the values espoused by leaders and workers. That will create motivation -- what Senge calls "emotional engagement". Issues relating to environment can also find their place in visionary business-leadership.

All beneficial features of a new, responsive and serving leadership will grow naturally once the leaders have an awakened heart, attuned to the ultimate reality of the universe.

The writer is a teacher of economics and a freelance columnist.

E-mail:al-farid@hotmail.com