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cooperation priority Will Islamabad be able to stop the drone attacks after parliament’s recommendations? By Mohammad Ali Khan Islamabad may have tried to bring the country’s foreign policy under the legislature’s ambit, but it is unlikely to stop Washington from carrying out drone strikes inside Pakistan’s territorial borders, as sought by Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS). Unanimously adopted by the joint session of the parliament, the 14-point recommendations seek an immediate end to drone strikes on Pakistani territory and an unconditional apology from the US on air strikes at Salala check posts last year. home Constitutionalism
is the only remedy Now
it goes… Hope
for the industry
cooperation Bilateral challenges The mantra of success for both India and Pakistan is simple — collaborate more both regionally and internationally so as to have a strategic depth in bilateral economic engagement By Pradeep S Mehta and Abid Suleri With Pakistan’s cabinet approving the negative list approach with a commitment to grant the much-hyped most-favoured-nation (MFN) status to India by late 2012, bilateral trade and economic relations are all set to get a boost. With expanding bonhomie,
is it not time for both to join up to look at international trade issues
with third countries which affect them both, even if at varying
intensities? This is simply important because after a long era defined by conflicting cohesiveness and cohesive conflicts, both the countries are now willing to identify and remove the deterrents to their bilateral relations. Such initiatives are bringing optimism and increasing affinity among the trading communities on both sides, while also being praised by the international community. In a globalising world, the bilateral engagement will also be affected by external factors as diverse as differences at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and competitive nature of their external trade (including efforts to diversify their respective export portfolio in common markets). Therefore, an important arena of interventions to the bilateral engagement comes from how both countries are interacting and competing internationally and whether they will be able to build common positions on issues shaping the global economic order and their own conflated interests. For example, when the basmati rice patenting case came up in 1997 due to a US company — Ricetech obtained a patent in the US Patent Office — it affected both adversely. India had filed an objection. Subsequently, it emerged that basmati can be protected as a Geographical Indication under the TRIPs agreement, provided it is so registered under the country’s laws. India approached Pakistan to jointly register it, but Pakistan did not agree as there was a lack of consensus on the definition, areas of cultivation, etc. Following that Pakistan granted a trade mark on basmati rice to its rice growers’ association which only led to further confusion. The lesson from the basmati case raises the question of how both countries should pursue issues of mutual interest at other international forum; and also whether common international issues will affect bilateral pursuits. Recently, Iraq banned
the import of non-basmati rice from India and Pakistan and revised the
minimum length of the grain to 6.8mm from 6.0mm. This meant that only
premium basmati rice can be exported by India and Pakistan to Iraq.
Reportedly, Pakistan also started importing basmati rice from India,
perhaps for re-export. Thus, how both the countries will cooperate and collaborate in their domestic as well as international markets over such commodities remains a challenge. The two countries have to look into such issues seriously by forging a common platform for developing a bilateral or regional supply chain. This will enable economies of scale in their export strategies. The two countries are also competing internationally in export of mangoes. Most Indian mangoes are exported to the traditional markets across Asia and Europe, especially Bangladesh, West Asia and parts of Europe. In newer markets like the United States, the standards requirements, like those relating to pest-mitigation, are stringent. Pakistan may fare better in the long run, despite the less costly Indian mangoes. But even more than that, Brazil and other Latin American and Caribbean countries could get a better hold than both India and Pakistan in the North American mangoes market. Thus, such economic scenarios need to be analysed so that bilateral cooperation can well be supported with competitive collaboration. The competitive nature of most of the products from both the countries in international market needs to be dealt with special focus, considering the level of complementarity in economic activities of both countries. The bilateral relations may be soured by economic rivalries in overseas markets. Almost a year down the line, much has changed in the approach of India and Pakistan towards each other on the trade front. Nearly a year ago, New Delhi argued against Pakistan the issue of concession on Pakistan’s textiles products by the European Union (EU), such as those given to LDCs. Earlier, EU was wanting to give concessions to Pakistan’s products by reducing tariffs because of the severe floods there. This would allow EU to remove tariffs on a list of more than 70 items, mainly textile products. This was seen as discriminatory by major textile exporters in India, Bangladesh, Brazil and Indonesia. However, India graciously back tracked on its opposition considering the current progress on bilateral trade relations. Both India and Pakistan can seek tariff concessions from the USA and also Europe by creating Qualifying Industrial Zones such as the ones which exist in Jordan and Egypt. In 1996, the US Congress authorised designation of QIZs between Israel and Jordan in 1999 and Israel and Egypt in 2004, which would have allowed exports to the US duty-free if the products contain a specified level of inputs from Israel. The purpose of this initiative was to support peaceful prosperity and stability in the region by encouraging economic cooperation. It has worked well. Other than third country issues, better cooperation between both would enable SAARC to function well. Thus far, many of the regional issues being discussed at the SAARC platform are mortgaged to the Indo-Pak relations and, therefore, the movement is either slow or negligible. For example, a good initiative like the SAARC Food Bank, an initiative which was approved during the 14th SAARC summit in Islamabad in 2007 with the aim ‘to adopt a common approach to collective food security of the region’. Though the food bank is functional, but more capacities need to be built to cope with disaster mitigation, as the region is prone to calamities like floods, earthquakes, etc. The 17th SAARC Summit in Maldives in November 2011 also called for resolving the operational issues soon so that its effective functioning can be ensured. Another pertinent issue of bilateral cooperation is the challenges of climate change. In fact, in February 2012, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and Heinrich Boll Stiftung (HBS) organised a Track-II Dialogue on Climate Change for Peace in which stakeholders emphasised that both India and Pakistan should work closely to address climate change challenges in order to achieve food and energy security and South Asian energy grid, among other areas for a sustainable livelihood. Considering the huge shortage of electricity power in Pakistan, there is also a proposal to buy it from India. Pakistan intends to import 500 MW of electricity from India to meet the increasing demand. Not that India has surplus power, but it is considering the supply seriously so as to build closer relations. Pakistan is also facing a huge shortage of natural gas, while India is badly wanting to buy natural gas from Central Asia and the pipelines will have to transit through Pakistan. Thus, it will be a win-win situation for both. The mantra of success for both India and Pakistan is simple — collaborate more both regionally and internationally so as to have a strategic depth in bilateral economic engagement. Pradeep S Mehta is Secretary General of CUTS International, Jaipur, India and Abid Suleri is Executive Director of Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, Pakistan
priority In a few weeks’ time, the government will present budget 2012-13 in the parliament. Vibes are that this time again the budget will provide ‘relief’ to the citizens. Apart from being a political gimmick the relief part remains mostly to a handful of citizens and a large number of people remain disappointed. There is a need to demystify ‘people’s budget’ and initiate a focused public debate on what should be a people’s budget and how national priorities should be fixed if we really wish to set the course of our development right. Budget is an important tool of national economic management. It is an important instrument to mobilise and allocate financial resources to priority activities geared towards achieving national development aspirations. As an important policy
document, it should set priorities for the government. In an ever-changing
world, we must constantly evolve and adapt to new and sometimes daunting
challenges. In the field of development, for example, war on terror,
globalisation, climate change, and, more recently, increasing oil and food
prices and several other challenges at domestic level, have altered the
outlook of this country in the space of a few years. The government is required to manage new risks and seize new opportunities, while, of course, steering the country towards the development that ultimately make a difference to the lives of citizens. Unfortunately in Pakistan, budget-making has become a spiritless exercise and is mainly driven by a formula. It lacks a national vision, strategic direction, development priorities and futuristic investment preferences. The same formulas are repeated over and over again for decades with minor adjustments. Political governments have been using it for political gains with gimmickry of figures and clichés of pro-people or ‘friendly’ budgets but lacking in substance, planning and vision. For years, Pakistan has not gone into any strategic investment that could guarantee larger future gains. Caught up in running business as usual, and without exception of political party or military dictators, rulers have barely managed their day-to-day affairs, let alone providing solid grounds for future development. There can be several factors to this mindless and visionless exercise. The first, of course, is the country’s dismal resource situation. As has been said repeatedly, the country continues to slip in terms of collecting a reasonable amount of national income as taxes. Pakistan has one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world. It will be a bit more than nine per cent when the 2011-12 financial years’ closes. The budgetary tax proposals may push it up to few percent more but will not substantially change the outlook of economy. However, given the past record, even this modest increase may not be achieved. There are several unpleasant consequences of this. The most depressing of these is that the government does not have much left in its hands to pay for social services the poor need and deserve. It also has serious problem of developing its human resources. Pakistan has a dismal record of human development. Its’ population of 180 million remain poorly educated and in poor health. These conditions will not improve unless the public sector spends more on education, technical training and health. The other side of the resource coin is government’s non-development expenditure. It is widely known that there is an enormous amount of waste in the way it spends its meager resources. The other resource-sapping budget aspect is military spending that is constantly on the rise and trend has been unchanged for decades. Last year, PKR 495 billion, with an increase of PKR 53 billion or 12 per cent over the previous year’s stated budget of PKR 442 billion, were allocated for military. This amount was just over a quarter of country’s targeted tax revenues, though a careful analysis of the allocations suggests that the numbers understate the full costs of military spending. This, however, masks actual defense expenditures in several ways, including transferring military pensions to civilian expenses and counting ‘security’ operations separately. At the current level, military spending is over 2.8 percent of country’s GDP. Pakistan is ranked 33rd among countries who spend high percentage of GDP on military while the country is still ranked at 145th in the Human Development Index. Over the last five years, budgets were not people’s friendly as new taxes were imposed to meet growing expenditure of large administrative and government machinery. Though outlay for Public Service Development Program (PSDP) was always shown higher but the amount was substantially cut to meet other ‘pressing’ needs, including extra cost on military operations, additional requirements of federal ministries, rescue and relief operations in flood areas. and other expenses. For budget 2012-13, the leaders must rethink and set the course right for future. There are some measures to change the priorities and some political acumen needed to steer the country to substantive development. The difficult economic outlook on the eve of the budget is not very reassuring. The lethal combination of low growth and high inflation is accompanied by a high fiscal deficit, growing unemployment and a rising debt burden. The first milestone on the road to self-reliance is a decisive revival of the economy to accelerate the growth rate to five-six per cent in 2012-15 and beyond. The factors that have contributed to this slowdown are varied and complex, but the forthcoming budget must prioritise the revival of growth. One, accelerated growth in small-scale industrial and commercial sectors. Pakistan has 3.3 million economic establishments of which 90 per cent employ less than five workers and another four per cent between 6-50 workers. An active policy of support and budget allocation to this sub-sector through small and medium loans, technical education and vocational training can stimulate investment, growth and much needed employment. This can also convert large non-technical and unskilled workforce into a productive human capital. Two, a bold programme of incentives and policies for an export-led growth strategy. Special allocations for export-centred industry are needed. Attention to those industries that have large market in the region will be very fruitful. Bilateral trade with India and other neighbouring countries in South Asian region can open new avenues of investment and profit. Three, attracting foreign investment from the Middle East in agriculture and livestock sectors. Many of these countries need an assured supply of items like wheat, rice, milk, poultry meat, edible oil, flowers, fruit and vegetables and are ready to invest on the basis of longer-term supply contracts. Importantly, these measures to stimulate growth will not yield full potential unless the structural weaknesses responsible for the decline in the investment-to-GDP ratio from over 20 per cent in the early 1990s to less than 16 per cent in the past three years are addressed. This decline is partly due to the deteriorating security situation but also due to the shortage and high cost of energy, growing incidence of corruption and the rising cost of doing business in Pakistan. These negative factors must be addressed on a war footing to improve investment climate in the country. Set of policies are required to achieve economic self-reliance in the traditional area of fiscal deficit, inflation and monetary policy but through non-traditional policies. Measures to increase the tax-to-GDP ratio and to reduce non-development expenditures, no doubt, deserve high priority to narrow the gap between revenue and expenditure, but there is also a dire need to seek a judicious balance between growth and macro-economic stability. Military spending must be gradually decreased and brought to the maximum level of one per cent of GDP. That will allow the government to invest more in social sector, industry, trade and, most importantly, in human resource development. The government must also put a moratorium on debt and future loaning must be subject to parliamentary scrutiny. Economic self-reliance has become a political imperative which, if properly pursued, can overcome the sense of political and social anxiety which has descended on this nation like a dark cloud. What is needed is a message of hope that will rekindle the confidence and trust of the people and the interest and enthusiasm of local and foreign investors. The
writer is Deputy Chief of South Asia Partnership Pakistan and Global
Campaigner irfanmufti@gmail.com
Diplomatic
droning Islamabad may have tried to bring the country’s foreign policy under the legislature’s ambit, but it is unlikely to stop Washington from carrying out drone strikes inside Pakistan’s territorial borders, as sought by Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS). Unanimously adopted by the joint session of the parliament, the 14-point recommendations seek an immediate end to drone strikes on Pakistani territory and an unconditional apology from the US on air strikes at Salala check posts last year. The recommendations
include (i) The cessation of drone attacks inside the territorial borders
of Pakistan (ii) No hot pursuit or boots on Pakistani territory, and (iii)
the activity of foreign private security contractors must be transparent
and subject to Pakistani law. The committee also argues that drone attacks
are counter-productive, cause loss of valuable lives and property,
radicalise the local population, create support for terrorists and fuel
anti-American sentiments. Washington is yet to formally respond to these recommendations, but media reports suggest that behind-the-scene efforts are aiming at repairing ties that had witnessed many ups and downs for the last one year against the backdrop of Osama bin Laden episode and the air strike at Salala check posts. US officials, as reported in the media on different occasions during the last week, prefer to be more diplomatic when it comes to the future of drone strikes. At a news briefing last week at the State Department, spokesman Mark Toner was asked if the United States would also discuss the drone issue in talks with Pakistan. “No, I can’t talk about any intelligence matters from the podium,” the official replied. But “we have very robust counterterrorism cooperation.” On April 16, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar held a meeting with US Ambassador Cameron Munter. A statement from the Foreign Office quoted Khar telling Munter that the new policy framework offered both the countries “a unique and unprecedented opportunity to establish a deeper relationship based on shared values, mutual interests and benefits.” It is yet to be seen how these interactions are going to shape the future engagement of Pakistan and the US in the war on terror, but many believe immediate halt of drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas will not be possible at this stage. Khalid Aziz, a Peshawar-based analyst who has been writing on the US engagement in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s tribal borderland, argues that drones are the most useful and time-tested weapon for the United States and abandoning its utility seems impractical. “The statements of US officials reflect that the United States is just calculating the negatives and positives and if drone strikes fit into its priorities, it will resume it any time,” Aziz tells TNS. Drones were originally designed for battlefield surveillance and reconnaissance. Since 2001, the United States has been employing it to identify and kill human targets. In 2001, Predators were equipped with Hellfire missiles and were deployed from Pakistan and Uzbekistan to launch attacks inside Afghanistan. Statistics compiled by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a London-based non-profit organisation, suggests that from 2004 to 2012, 320 drone strikes were carried out in Pakistan. Of these, 268 strikes were authorised by President Obama. According to the reported strikes, 3097 people have been killed of which 811 are reported to be civilians, including 174 children. Over 1281 people got injured. According to statistics recorded by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies under its Pakistan Security Report 2011, drone strikes in Pakistani tribal areas in 2011 had killed four operatives and leaders of al-Qaeda, five leaders of Haqqani network and 29 men of local Taliban groups. Key al-Qaeda and Taliban members killed in drone attacks during this period included Atiyah Abd-al-Rehman, Abdul Ziad A Iraqi, Ilyas Kashmiri, Hafeez Salahuddin and Omar Hazrat, says the report. Drone has been the most effective weapon for the United States in military context because it carries limited cost and no human casualty risk and the United States seems unlikely to compromise on its utility, argues Tanveer Ahmad Khan, Pakistan’s former foreign secretary. “Some of the PCNS recommendations are implementable, but frankly speaking cessation of drone strike seems unworkable in the current circumstances,” Khan tells TNS, saying the PCNS report is an effort to bring the country’s foreign policy under the umbrella of parliament. Aziz also holds identical views, saying “the PCNS report gives a vision, but that cannot happen unless we put our house in order.” According to him, article 40 of principals of policy envisaged in the 1973 Constitution defines the country’s role in international peace and security and being a member of the international community Pakistan has to play its due role. “The important thing to understand is that if we are fretful about our sovereignty then we have to be concerned about others’ as well. If we knowingly allow certain groups to challenge the sovereignty of other countries, then we have to face the consequences,” argues Aziz. The PCNS report, he explains, represents the public sentiments, but it ignores this aspect of contributing to the international peace and security. Brig (retd) Mehmood Shah, a defence analyst, terms drone a cheapest way of waging wars by the United States. “It is cost effective and carries no risk to its ground forces and that is the reason for its utility in Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan and elsewhere, although it violates the international laws,” Shah tells TNS. Terming the United States’ drone strategy completely flawed, he says it has not contributed to the stability of Afghanistan. “Indiscriminate killing of suspected militants by drone attacks in Pakistan cannot be justified because these attacks do not discriminate between militants and innocent women and children,” Shah opines. The drone strikes may have killed a couple of al-Qaeda or Pakistan-based militant leaders, but at what cost? Shah questions. “Using drones is counterproductive as it helps militants in their recruitment process which keeps going the cycle of violence.”
home While the housing uniform assistance subsidy project (HUASP) for the militancy-hit people in Malakand division is nearing completion, it is still a long way to go in Bajaur and Mohmand agencies, particularly in the latter where not a single penny has been given in housing subsidy despite the lapse of around three years since the millions of internally displaced persons returned to their homes. According to an HUSAP
official, who does not want to be identified, as of March this year, 4919
of the completely damaged and 9500 of the partly damaged house owners have
been disbursed Rs3.5bn — Rs0.4 million for the totally damaged and
Rs0.16mn for the partially damaged ones — in the five districts of
Malakand division — Swat, Buner, Shangla and Dir upper and lower and the
federally administered tribal Bajaur and Mohmand agencies. While only around 400 owners of the fully destroyed and 1000 partially damaged houses remain to be paid in Malakand division, over 4200 of these categories are yet to be paid in the two agencies. In Bajaur, Rs1.44bn have been paid to 5389 owners of the 2437 and 2952 in the two categories respectively with over 3100 yet to be paid there. But none of all the 1092 owners of totally damaged and 2 owners of partly damaged houses from Mohmand agency have been compensated as yet apparently for its distant location and security concerns. “The verification and registration process is under process there, through slowly as some areas are yet to be cleared of militants. But these people will also be released their compensation amount as soon as the verification process completes,” the official tells The News on Sunday. The programme is being undertaken by the provincial reconstruction, rehabilitation and settlement authority (PaRRSA) with financial support from the United Agency for International Development (USAID). It was originally to be financed by the World Bank but it wanted to pay money in instalments rather than in one go and had conditioned the release of the subsequent tranches to verification whether the earlier amount had been utilised for the purpose or not. WB had opted out of financing the project after authorities went for an owner-driven reconstruction and payment to the affected people uniformly in one go without establishment of an “assistance and inspection” regime. Later, the USAID agreed to the work-plan of the PaRRSA and became its financier. Rationalising the amount, another official of PaRRSA tells TNS that according to the census of 1998, the average size of a house is 575 sq ft in Malakand region, in which each unit includes two rooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. “Per square construction rate in the region is around Rs700 per sq ft and the estimated cost of Rs0.4mn and Rs0.16mn for reconstruction of the completely and partially damaged houses respectively has been derived by multiplying 700 with 575, which is the amount of compensation being made. The reconstruction cost included the brick, stone and block masonry and the rate is also adjusted for better standards and disaster resilience features,” he adds. To a question about delay in disbursement of money, he says, “The compensation has been delayed as they are either to be verified, have no bank accounts of their own, or their forms are misplaced or they are out of the country when physical verification was being made or the house that has been damaged is jointly owned or they have mistakes in their names/addresses or have double entries due to which their payment is blocked.” With an overall outlay of Rs6.58bn for total compensation, the damage and needs assessment (DNA) survey conducted by World Bank and Asian Development Bank for the government of Pakistan in 2009, had estimated that 11755 housing units were completely and 11738 partly damaged in the area. But later, the figure was slashed to 7024 for completely damaged and increased to 13039 partly in the two areas for reasons officials could not explain. As per the DNA, the grants had to be released in tranches based on stages of construction with technical assistance. The proposed mechanism was to be a cash grant-based, owner-driven model but with close monitoring of reconstruction process. The mechanism was changed later to cash payment in one go but change in mechanism was against the experience and decreased the chances that the money would be utilised for its head. For example, in the reconstruction strategy after Kashmir earthquake 2005, Rs0.175mn was provided to each affected family in instalments along with house designs and technical assistance. At the end of 2009, 95 percent of the destroyed houses were rebuilt with 97 percent of these according to the standards and hence safer. But in the case of the 2008 Balochistan earthquake, the affected people were given one-time cash grant of Rs 350,000 and Rs50,000 for completely and partially damaged houses respectively but without any technical assistance or required reconstruction standard. The quality of reconstruction, according to UN-HABITAT engineers, was very poor. There are rumours the money hasn’t been utilised for the purpose. The PaRRSA official says it is not true, “People adjust their incomes and expenses prioritising their needs. Most have built their homes before the compensation began on borrowed money. Now they can utilise the cash to return their debts they had taken for the purpose or divert the money to fulfil their other needs,” he adds. The official says the damaged houses included luxurious bungalows as well as mud houses and their reconstruction cost was different. “But with our mechanism, the poor benefitted more. The government has only provided the well-off with token money in return for their sacrifices as it had no resources to provide Rs10 million to a rich person for building his destroyed luxurious house,” he says. People from Swat also allege nepotism, political interference and corruption in the nomination of affectees and payment of compensation money. Tariq Khan from Miandam says the process became defective when the civil administration and the patwari culture got involved. Militant control and subsequent military campaigns displaced and destroyed shelters and livelihood of hundreds of thousands in other federally and provincially administered tribal areas — Kurram, Orakzai, Khyber, South and North Waziristan and other areas but apart from relief support, no worthwhile rehabilitation support has been given to the affected so far.
Constitutionalism
is the only remedy “A judge is to apply the Constitution according to the principles intended by those who ratified the document” — Robert H Bork, who failed to win confirmation as a judge to the US Supreme Court in 1987 Advocates of the theory
of ‘original intent’ adamantly argue that judges should follow the
letter of law and not make law, which is the exclusive domain of the
legislature. In the name of interpreting law, they contend, judges cannot
be allowed to apply their own ideologies and preferences to the decisions
they call upon to reach — such actions lead to “judicial anarchy”. The critique of Church of Holy Trinity v United States (1892) by Justice Antonin Scalia as “nothing but an invitation to judicial lawmaking” came under attack by the anthropologist Vincent Crapanzano who pointed out that “original intent does not offer a fixed standard that can serve as an inoculation against interpretation but in itself an interpretation, one with its own, often divisive and partisan, view of the decisions judges ought to be taking”. The debate about ‘original intent’ versus “judicial lawmaking” has assumed great relevance in Pakistan as prevalent judicial activism — considered by many as a remedy for all ills — is perceived as threat for democracy by many, including the government. Unelected judges, politicians in power claim, have no authority to “impose their will on the Parliament — rather on entire nation as a whole”. Decisions of courts, as Bork puts is, “might be made subject to modifications or reversal by majority vote of the Senate and House of Representatives. Alternatively, courts might be deprived of the power of constitutional review”. Bork’s ideas about curtailing the powers of judiciary, elaborated in detail in his book The Tempting of America: The Political Solution of the Law, go the extent that “an elected official will one day simply refuse to comply with a Supreme Court decision”. What Bork visualised has exactly happened in Pakistan where the Prime Minister has simply refused to implement the following instruction of the Supreme Court of Pakistan given in the famous NRO case titled, Dr. Mubashir Hassan and others v Federation of Pakistan (2010 PLD Supreme Court 265: “Since the NRO, 2007 stands declared void ab initio, therefore, any actions taken or suffered under the said law are also non est in law and since the communications addressed by Malik Muhammad Qayyum to various foreign fora/authorities/courts withdrawing the requests, earlier made by the Government of Pakistan for mutual legal assistance; surrendering the status of civil party; abandoning the claims to the allegedly laundered moneys lying in foreign countries including Switzerland, have also been declared by us to be unauthorized and illegal communications and consequently of no legal effect therefore, it is declared that the initial requests for mutual legal assistance; securing the status of civil party and the claims lodged to the allegedly laundered moneys lying in foreign countries including Switzerland are declared never to have been withdrawn. Therefore the Federal Government and other concerned authorities are ordered to take immediate steps to seek revival of the said requests, claims and status”. Refusal to implement the above part of the Supreme Court’s judgement and ongoing contempt proceedings against the unanimously-elected Prime Minister have serious ramifications for well-established constitutional scheme of trichotomy of powers. Since the bizarre episode of March 9, 2007, there lurks a continuous tug of war between the proponents of cronyism and advocates of rule of law. Cronies of establishment want a free hand to plunder the wealth of the nation, subjugate their own people, deny them human rights and ensure that there is no room for radical judicial activism in this society as a means to empower the have-not. This is why the radical judiciary is a threat to both corrupt elected-members (sic) and military-civil complex thriving on State resources. The ruling classes cannot afford radical judiciary (so-called independent may be) for obvious vested interests — the present judicial structure is part of status quo and not a catalyst for change as wrongly assumed by many. Advocates of rule of law rightly argue that dispensation of justice for the poor is not possible unless a competent and efficient judiciary replace the existing one. Justice at grass root level alone can establish a responsible government and an equitable social order, which is sin qua non of constitutional democracy. It is now the sole responsibility of all democratic forces to galvanize and mobilise people to enforce constitutionalism in Pakistan. We have one of the worst court systems in the world. People are dying of hunger and courts are busy in what they call “interpretation of law”, which itself is mockery of rule of law. Political questions cannot be resolved in the courts, yet our apex court is pursuing this Sisyphean task. Since our judiciary in the past endorsed military take-overs, the entire society is facing devastating effects of perpetual undemocratic rules — military and civilian alike. We must realise that at the heart of the concept of constitutional democracy is the assurance for citizens that their inalienable rights are going to be respected and implemented by the people elected by them. In a country where establishment controls all the institutions, there can neither be democracy nor a constitution. It is high time that the parliament should work for the supremacy of constitution and rule of law. In a democratic set-up, the electoral process ensures dominance of the people over those who hold political offices. In Pakistan, forces of status quo want to determine it through a leadership lacking support of the masses. This brand of ‘democracy’ is unknown to students of constitutional law anywhere in the world. It is only bound to frustrate the people’s verdict, forcing them to believe that the entire electoral process was just a farce. Military rulers have always posed themselves as saviours of the nation, whereas the reality is that under their rule, we lost one part of the country, economic and political independence, elected politicians (hanged, killed or exiled) and innocent people (missing or killed in suicide bombings). Civilian rulers, following in the footsteps of military dictators, have also deprived citizens of fundamental rights of access to free health, education, and dispensation of justice. The only remedy left for the masses is to resist all kinds of undemocratic postures and work for constitutionalism. All the State organs must discharge their functions within strict parameters and powers laid down in the supreme law of the land. This is the only way to sustain democracy, establish responsible government and protect rights of the masses guaranteed in the Constitution. Legislature is sovereign but the supremacy of constitution is above everything— legislators in fact exercise delegated powers given by the people within the framework of the Constitution. We need a Pakistan where the people of Pakistan are truly represented by elected members. Pro-democratic forces, with the people’s strong support behind them, must wage an all-out war for establishing a constitutional rule. A responsible media can play a vital role for effective accountability of all. The
writers, tax advisers and authors of many books, are members of Adjunct
Faculty of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)
development The Chief Justice of Pakistan has taken notice of the fact that the present democratic regime in the country is not so much democratic about the local governments. After listening to the provincial chief secretaries on April 12, our lordship directed the provincial governments to submit election schedule by April 30, 2012. The political mood of the stakeholders, barring the obvious few, is quite averse to institution electoral process for local governments for various self serving reasons. But no champion of democracy can retain that title after denying existence of the basic nursery of electoral process and creation of respective institutions on representative footings. There is no denying the
reality that the local government systems have been supported by dictators
for their own vested benefit but this truth does not undermine the
intrinsic worth and opportunities inbuilt in it. Foremost in this respect is the growth of a lawful avenue for leadership development. In an arena where dynastic and aristocratic claims to leadership overstake merit at every end, the only option which can enable future political leadership to emerge is local government. There are hundreds of case studies pertinent to ordinary councilors, women/labour councilors, union council nazims, town/tehsil/taluka level leaders and district level representatives who were able to win their offices purely on merit and later proved their popularity through re-election. In the most dangerous locations of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, these public representatives made diligent efforts to address critical problems related to education, health, social welfare and area management. Some of them were even devoid of any political affiliation and had to face the wrath of both right and left wing parties. Examples from the local elections during Musharraf era proved that enthusiasm was more than visible amongst ordinary persons despite many incidences of violence. Real political culture cannot be nurtured without frequent practice of voting process along the party cadres, local, provincial and national assemblies. It is disappointing to note that the parties that demand for promotion of democracy are probably the outfits closest to dictatorship. No internal elections are held with any credible process. Party heads nominate committees of handpicked faithful who are termed as working or executives committees. Thus, the common people have little or no capacity to make inroads into this well guarded enterprise. Fractured governance and breakdown in the service delivery system is not desirable under any system. It may not come as a surprise that whispers have begun about the sinking performance of the present regime in comparison to the previous government. People need an efficient service delivery mechanism and complaint redressal system for their routine affairs. General services such as attestation, verification and certification of various kinds are examples. Local institutions and their elected members are normally forthcoming in such tasks. Small scale development schemes, maintenance and repair projects are also important works that require immediate attention. If the decision-making apparatus and concurrent actions are centralised in the provincial headquarters and in the person of chief minister, very little progress can be expected. Similarly, the expectation from bureaucrats alone to be sympathetic to the issues faced by the population is distant from reality. A well-functioning local government system in urban and rural domains has to be strengthened after removing the various handicaps that it has faced. Continuing problems identified during the past eight years include poor quality of human resource, paucity of operational budgets, lack of control over police force, and inability to generate development finance for local works. One finds more developed cities like Karachi struggling with shortage of funds to strengthen vital services such as fire fighting. Many other contexts are even worse in service delivery outreaches. At many instances, local political interests also outweigh decision-making and implementation mechanisms. It may be beneficial for the political masters of the country to try local government tier as a tool for consolidating democracy. This can only be achieved after removing the anomalies and handicaps that exist in the system. Capacity building in the local service delivery; notification and inaction of bodies such as public safety commissions, citizen community boards or finance commissions; development of municipal services as specialised cadres; launch of appropriate taxes to generate local revenue and the acceleration of mass contact to stretch the outreach of this tier are some basic steps. Recently, a major political party demanded to hold local elections on party basis. The argument is quite logical as non party based elections have been held in theory only. Party affiliations and support become too conspicuous to be ignored. The elections to the local bodies must be held on party basis subject to a strict code of conduct. The matter must be taken upfront as a core policy issue. To generate a debate, it may not be out of context to suggest a multi-stakeholder conference to deliberate the matter in an open ended manner. The experience sharing and option forming approach may be applied. Besides, too much experimentation is also a counterproductive exercise. The pointless debate of reincarnating local bodies to the status of Local Government Ordinances of 1979 may be dealt with caution. Improvement of the current must be focused instead of complete rejection without a fair logic. This requires frank dialogue with all concerned parties. It must be remembered that a democratic government will do the greatest injustice to itself it if does not engage with its constituencies on a continuous basis. Some objective minds within every political party will do well to their platforms by mustering support for this people friendly tier of governance, closest to common folks.
Now
it goes… “I had an exam today but I could not perform well due to continuous load shedding of electricity almost the whole night. Again, during the exams, it was also suspended for two hours, says Haris a young student of grade 10. “The only source of my earning is a photocopier machine and I am the only support of my family. In the current situation, I as well as my family, is suffering a lot. Due to electricity failure, I could not earn enough to support my family and sometimes we have to sleep hungry,” says Muhammad Ali, a photocopy machine operator. These are the few voices
representing millions of the people of Pakistan who are suffering due to
power shortage. The prolonged energy outages have created anger and
desperation among people from all walks of life. Power shortfall has
paralysed commercial life. People have no option but to react. A protracted power shortage in the country has crippled the economy, as it has almost brought the industrial wheel to a standstill. Resultantly export targets have not been met. Thousands of industrial workers are jobless now. The unpredictable outages of electricity have not only affected industries but also businesses. The energy crisis occurred due to lack of proactive approach, poor power policies in previous regimes and ignorance of sustainable options in the corridors of power. Poor governance and regulation on the part of regulatory authorities is another factor exacerbating the situation. Furthermore, there is no particular framework for standardizing the performance of power plants in terms of efficiently, consuming the fuel while generating electricity. The current generation mix of the country is composed of 62 percent from thermal power plants, 32.3pc from hydro and 5.5pc from nuclear and other resources. The electricity shortfall has increased up to 4000 MW during the last week. Let’s have a look on the outages in different areas of Pakistan, talking especially about Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. The province and tribal areas are powered by Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) and Tribal Electric Supply Company (TESCO). The region’s power distribution companies receive only 16 percent of Pakistan’s total production. There are longer power outages in rural areas as they face outages of 12 to 14 hours and urban areas face 6 to 7 hours of outages. At this situation, the PESCO Chief Executive Muhammad Wali said last month, “Ending load shedding is impossible without taking measure to save energy. The government will launch a campaign to raise awareness among people on how to save energy.” This shows the government’s seriousness about solving the issue. Finding the solution of the prevailing energy crisis, a National Energy Conference was held under the supervision of Prime Minister of Pakistan in Lahore on 9th of April 2012. In the conference, it was concluded that the power shortage would be equally distributed throughout the country to redress Punjab’s complaints that it was being subjected to step-motherly treatment with longer periods of power outages than in other provinces. Instead of advancing the clocks by one hour, office timings would be adjusted to minimize use of electricity in summer season. As a short-term measure all government offices would work five days a week and Punjab which had earlier refused to accept the decision now agreed to it. The step would help conserve 700MW of power. People have rejected this new burden to take. President Punjab Forum, Mr. Baig Raj is of the view that, “The National Energy Conference is an attempt to deceive the masses dejected over prolonged energy outages. The outcome of this useless conference will not be different from previous conferences that concluded with big talk but contributed nothing towards reducing the shortfall.” He further adds, “There is no hope that the federal or provincial government would do something practical for resolution of crisis except tall claims and controversial short-term measures”. Every Pakistani has lots of questions and wants the answers from the policy makers. For how long Pakistan’s economy will suffer due to these crises? Does anyone have the answer? The
writer is a consultant at SDPI and can be reached at
umar.adnan83@gmail.com
Hope
for the industry Pakistan’s Industry is in a crisis due to a host of factors such as bad governance, corruption, bureaucracy, police, load shading of electricity and gas, etc. And there is another reason — pessimism. I was saying such things
in front of my industrialist friend. He was smiling. I controlled myself
and said, “My anger is based on solid ground. You should be angrier then
me”. He took a long breath and said, “my friend; criticism and
pessimism destroy families, undermine institutions of all kinds, defeat
nearly everyone, and spread a shroud of gloom over entire nations”. I was stunned and said, “I am unable to understand”. He replied, “My dear friend I agree that today is the worst time for industries Pakistan ever faced in 68 years. But there are exceptions and quite a few. I am still doing well in my business and not alone there are many more like me who are doing business across the board and producing jobs even”. One might think how a rich man like him could understand hunger of the poor. He said, “I am convinced that Pakistan still can compete with China and India even in this condition. Do you know what the reason of my success is?” I said “no”. He continued, “I faced many ups and downs in my life, I belong to the poorest family but I was never overwhelmed by pessimism” I controlled myself and questioned, “Do you have a single reason to defend what you just said”. He laughed saying, “You are just like other media addicted people, my friend read a report (Doing businesses in Pakistan) written by James Caroline. Pakistan is still one of the largest exporters of surgical goods, sports goods, finished leather products, handicrafts and bag pipes, etc, even in this condition”. “6.8 million dollar export yearly means biggest piece of cake in the world, do you know why?” I moved my head. He smiled and said, “because of skilled labour, but yes, we don’t have electricity, leadership, honest government and funds but we have hands which must be utilized. We are 1.8 million, why don’t we evaluate our self, why don’t we learn, un-learn then re-learn, doing something at least better than begging”. I was listening consciously. He asked, “do you know unskilled people is the biggest destruction for this country, do you know when we hire any fresh graduate or masters degree holder, we spend 6 months on him to brainwash what he learnt then spend 6 months to teach what is our requirement and after 1 year when he is able to perform something he leaves us because someone offers him more than us? Then he starts his career and the reason is shortage of skilled labour”. He points out that “people are crying for jobs and industrialists who have jobs are searching for suitable persons. They cannot install new machinery; they cannot even upgrade their system because of unavailability of skilled labour. This vacuum must be filled”. That was a new angle for me. Why I didn’t realize that before. I returned, “But I am still unable to understand how could we compete with China and India?” He looked into my eyes and said, “My innocent friend capitalism is still alive, multinational companies are still competitor of China and our hopes. Mostly people have mindset that it is not possible but it is. A big population must have the potential to play its part for the generation of foreign revenue. Strengthening skilled employment is the last option for Pakistan to get foreign investment and multinational company’s contracts. If the government creates liaison between industrialists and institutes I have no fear to say that we will be on the road to success”. That short conversation changed my way of analyzing the situation. Imagine you divided everyone in the world into two psychological groups. You put all the optimists on one side and all the pessimists on the other (let’s leave the realists aside for now). Amongst the optimists the conversation would all be about fantastic plans for the future and how things can get better. Meanwhile, the pessimists are having what might seem to the optimists like a depressing discussion. Far from working out how to make their dreams come true, they’re worrying about the things that might go wrong. They’re worried that even the things they have would be taken away from them by some twist of fate. To the pessimists, though, the optimists may be out of touch with reality, may be they are deluding themselves but at least it gives a reason for living. Nothing is end of the world, there is always a hope. |
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