Showing posts with label Army Rule. Show all posts
Stronger Institutions for Better Pakistan
Stronger Institutions for a Better Pakistan
Written by Hadeed Sher
General elections are over and now the political system has entered in a steady state condition. It's high time that we all demand our representatives for the development of strong institutions. It is a long established fact that since the creation of Pakistan only army has proved to be a strong institution. Their strength due to their institutional structure urged them in the past to coerce the majority through dictatorships and Marshal laws. The absence of any strong political force in general and the lack of institutional discipline in particular yielded to the corrupt bureaucracy and a fragile democratic structure in Pakistan.
Consider the case of natural calamities in Pakistan. During the first decade of the 21st century the establishment of Disaster management authority was intended to rehabilitate the areas stuck with natural disasters. The lack of institutional discipline costed us nothing but the poor performance at the cost of corruption. Every two or three years flood across the country demonstrates the ineptness of NDMA. In case of any disaster the government sees no ways out except to call the army. The presence of army in such conditions is not a big deal in democratic countries, but here in Pakistan it is. People here feel that if every work has to be done by ARMY why the hell civilian institutions are here. May be it is because a huge amount of budget allocation makes them capable of conducting such rescue operation, or may be the ineptness of government officials is the reason. I opt for the second reason, because most of our rulers established new departments and institutes not for the public service but to reduce the unemployment rate. Instead of making the officials of department strong enough so that they can establish the writ of the state they are appointed to pretend a public friendly government. The hiring of people on political grounds drastically degrades their performance. Similarly the development of public works projects on political grounds needs to be halted at the earliest.
The failure in establishing institutes is evident from the fact that departments with a very tough bottleneck now have countless top notch officers enjoying just perks and privileges. How come it is possible that a gas worth 1 billion PKR is being stolen in an area without acknowledging the local staff members. The lack of any disciplinary action actually permits such events. It is indeed good that the authorities took action but why they failed to locate it earlier. Isn't it because it is a department not an institution ?
The activism of the executives of the provincial government is also a proof in this regard. The heinous crimes are neither reported nor the culprits are arrested before the CM arrives at the spot. The theft of electricity and gas is not possible without the help of ground metering departments. The same is true for those involved in land grabbing of Railway and other government properties. The collapse of proper institutional mechanism is actually sinking the state of Pakistan. Now is the high time that instead of hunting for fancy headlines and a lush looking photographs of social media pages, our politicians actually go for building stronger institutions, because institutions last people die.
Swerving the trial of Musharraf
Swerving the trial of Musharraf
It was 1999 when based on the rhetoric of the plane hijacking case, the constitutional government of Pakistan was crushed under the heavy boots of the army upon the orders of dismissed general Musharraf. On that very awful night the DEAR COUNTRYMEN were advised to stay calm and to support the armed forces in reinstating the law and peace in the country. Later on following the natural jungle law of might is right, the elected Prime Minister was sent to an unknown place along with his family members and close aides. The military coup by Gen. Musharraf was warmly welcomed by all the opposition parties. Although, this gracious welcome can not be considered as the right of way for the General, yet the clangor of this act still accompanies the majority of then opposition parties. Soon after the coup in order to gain “moral” grounds Gen Musharraf met the majority of the leaders of opposition parties, some of which are now a days frenzied after the military coup in Egypt.
This onslaught on the constitution of Pakistan was then given constitutional indemnity through a well fabricated and engineered National Assembly. But the question was, how long people can live in a suffocated environment, after all Gen Musharraf was not a clout. He was a military dictator whose presence as sitting army chief as well as the president of Pakistan was a sheer embarrassment to this nation. During the time he was ruling Pakistan, the nation first heard of the Missing Persons . It was later revealed that the missing persons are detained in the custody of security forces without following the due legal procedures. After the petitions of the missing persons as well as the judicial activism in the other areas, it was evident that the choleric General will not temper it for a long time. And then he decided to impose emergency plus in the country. On his orders the CJP was house arrested with 60 other judges of the higher judiciary. After all what else is more COMESTIBLE than the constitution of Pakistan.
This violent attack on the judiciary was so shocking that it acted as a cistern of anti Mushraf movement. The democratic forces of the country put hands in hands with the bar associations and councils of the country and a massive movement was erupted on the streets across the country. The pressure within the army ranks forced Gen Mushraff to hand over the commanding stick to Gen Ashfaq Parvaiz Kiani. It was clearly seen that Gen. Musharraf cannot bear the pressure anymore and will step down as the President. On May 12, 2007 amidst movement to restore the judiciary, riots erupted in the financial capital of Pakistan, Karachi. During those riots dozens of vehicles were burnt, hundred of people were wounded, killed and arrested most of them were political workers of opposition parties. The same night the self conceited person sitting in the presidency called it a SHOW OF PEOPLE’s POWER. Later on during the election campaign the chairperson of Pakistan People’s Party was killed in a bomb blast in Rawalpindi. After the elections 2008, Gen Mushrraf resigned and left the country.
During his stay in London, he formed a new political party and named it All Pakistan Muslim League and announced that he will return to Pakistan before general elections. However, he was nominated in several high profile cases including the gruesome assassination of Former Governor and CM Balauchistan Nawab Akbar Bughti. He was disqualified for the elections and later on house arrested for legal cases filed against him.
On 24th of June 2013, the newly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced in the National Assembly that Musharraf will be tried under article 6 of the constitution of Pakistan for violating and abrogating the constitution twice. This policy statement was widely hailed by the democratic forces present inside and outside the National Assembly.
The point that Pakistan as a country has been under military rule for most of its life and that military dictators were never punished nor they felt any regret for the coercion of the “bloody” civilians is indeed shocking. These military rulers as well as their institution never commiserate on imposing martial law , in fact they always defended their occupied rule in Pakistan and portrayed it as a fascinating lifetime for Pakistanis. The order of first governor general of Pakistan to invade the forces in Junagarh and Hyderabad Deccan was disobeyed. We lost Kashmir, we sold our rivers to the Indians, we faced a humiliating defeat in the East Pakistan. The fiasco of operation Nusrat, Gibraltar and then the operation grand slam were enough to show their incompetency within their own field. The skilled army generals who consider themselves as the best administrators and the best to safeguard the interests of the country also portrayed their levity during the misadventure of Kargil war. This is the time that those who want to destabilize the democratic process of Pakistan must be tried for high treason. We as a nation should welcome this decision of trying former military ruler Musharraf under article 6 as this will certainly be the end of the compunction of Pakistani nation as a non democratic force.
Written by (Hadeed Sher)