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The untouchables

Fernando Collor de la Mella found himself voted out of a job recently by the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. Thus suspended as President till his trial for corruption by the Senate in the impeachment proceedings against him, he had the grace to leave office without kicking and screaming. There was a certain irony in his departure, he came to office on a slate of a clean government, the first directly elected Brazilian President in 29 years, he also became the first head of State or Government in the democratic history of the world against whom an impeachment process has been successfully applied. While his conviction by the Senate may not be a foregone conclusion, that the system of accountability inherent in any democracy worked, serves as an example (and hope) for the rest of the world.

Pakistan and Brazil have a lot in common, the political and socio-economic conditions having a remarkable similarity. Like Pakistan, Brazilian democracy has been interspersed with military rule. The idea for Islamabad as a capital was a direct copy of the concept of Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, though one daresays we were much less adventurous. Brazil had a President who quit office in the 60s after having a nervous breakdown. In the 50s, we had a Governor General who wouldn’t quit office though he was literally quite mad (he was eventually eased out at the “appropriate” time once vested interests had squeezed the last drop of his nuisance value from him). Like Fernando Collor, our first elected PM in many decades, Ms Benazir Bhutto, was voted into office on a wave of popular adulation, promising a clean, corruption-free government. Unlike Collor she did not benefit from the in-built Constitutional cover of a no-confidence motion being successfully applied. She was brought down by Presidential fiat, an action that in hindsight seems increasingly partisan (and now frail) as the charges brought against her principal Achilles heel, her husband, fail to register and he is absolved of charge after charge by the courts of law. That failure puts accountability to shame and makes it more important than ever that we should have a better system of accountability for those in power.

Unfortunately in Pakistan, the Constitutional route has become seriously flawed because of the perception that the votes of elected representatives are up for sale. Corruption has reached endemic proportions because the whole system of accountability has become a farce. As we have seen in the Army’s raid on Karachi Central Jail, the threat of punishment has become a joke when the type of luxuries and liberties available in our prisons would put a five-star hotel to shame. On the contrary, it reinforces the perception among the intelligentsia and the masses that crime pays, the bigger the malfeasance, the more convenient it is for you to get away with it. Our whole system has degenerated into the sorry premise that the more money you possess, howsoever you may acquire it, the easier it is for you to purchase respectability. The list of drug smugglers in Pakistan, as compiled by our intelligence agencies, reads like a Who’s Who of the country. It includes owners of five star hotels, newspapers, MNAs, Senators, MPAs, etc, etc. Even if the government had the will to bring them to justice, it would be as hard put to provide evidence (as against Asif Zardari) and have little or no chance of success!

The process of accountability requires that the individuals and agencies required to conduct enquiries must not be themselves prone to malfeasance. Unfortunately, this is not so because some of their actions are personally motivated and thus their credibility is open to question. The recent flood catastrophe mainly because of the delay in opening Mangla Dam’s floodgates was certainly an aggravation due to human error, the cover-up of the man-made disaster has been as expeditious. While the National Assembly has appointed a Committee to hold an enquiry and the Minister of State for Water and Power, Raja Nadir Pervaiz, is one of the most honourable of men in politics in Pakistan today (and one who will certainly not shirk responsibility), the WAPDA bureaucracy will ensure that the whole process will die a natural death. One may well ask, whatever happened to the Ministerial-level enquiry at the root cause of the Ojhri Camp disaster? Were the Army officers in ISI directly responsible for the grievous lapse in security (over 1000 dead, multiples more injured) taken to task? Because of the silent nature of the covert operation to help Afghan Mujahideen, the cover-up must have been much more easier and nine times out of ten, those concerned must not only have been absolved they were probably promoted and put into more sensitive appointments. The maximum such men can do is to unleash a personal vendetta from time to time at the State’s expense. 51 Wing Bhitai Rangers started a raid of the Karachi Central Jail at 3 a.m. on 06 October 1992, nine hours later their search revealed a total of 25 weapons, cash about Rs. 4.60 lakhs, 38 bottles of liquor and two unregistered motorcycles besides Prize Bonds worth about Rs. 43000. Most of it was recovered from the official residences of senior Prison officials like the DIG Prisons, Ukash Ahmad Shaikh, Supdt of Jail, Jamaluddin Marri, etc. One of the star state prisoners, involved in heinous and bloody crimes besides RAW-inspired terrorism, Dr. Qadir Magsi, who should have been kept under special observation, had as much as Rs. 28380 in cash on him! He was only one of 17 prisoners with various amounts of currency on them. Two weeks later, what action has really been taken against the recalcitrant prisons staff? Without punitive measures, particularly in light of the evidence revealed by the Army’s raid, the criminal element among the jailers will only be encouraged that they now have virtual immunity to go further berserk.

Accountability should also apply to a sense of proportion while in positions of responsibility. People should not use their appointments for self-aggrandisement. The purchase of the Boeing 737 for the President and Prime Minister is a sorry case of a lack of proportion. Did we really need to shell out almost US$ 30 million at this stage when our economy needs to conserve every penny of foreign exchange? This was a terrible decision, made in bad taste at a bad time, in the backdrop of millions of our countrymen affected by floods who need every sustenance they can get. To compound the issues, the choice of aircraft was badly exposed when the PM went on a State visit to China. The limited range of the aircraft meant that we were back to Square One, a PIA Airbus had to be converted temporarily for VIP use. The VIP aircraft is surely a high-profile exercise in self-indulgence that our rulers could have best avoided at this time.

We are not alone in being mired in a welter of corruption. The first-world Japanese Government has been rocked repeatedly by scandals about bribery at the top level, at least two PMs were directly affected and had to resign. Even now, one of the grand old men of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been hauled up on charges of accepting bribes. While the system may be rotten, at least it works inasfar as the accountability (in whatever measure) is sustained. Despite that fact, a serving Japanese Army (called Self-Defence Forces) officer, Major Shinsaku Yanai, has set off a political storm by writing in a weekly that, quote “History has shown that a military solution is the only way left when democracy does not work properly and justice is not done. It is now impossible to right the wrongs legally through elections, the basis of a democracy. What paths can we take to get rid of this? There is only coup d’etat or revolution”, unquote. While Yanai, a veteran intelligence officer and now an instructor of military strategy and history at Japan’s Military Academy, got a sharp reprimand from the Defence Minister for suggesting a coup to oust the corrupt power brokers in the ruling LDP, his basic integrity reacted because of the token (and laughable) punishment meted out for corruption. While nobody suggests that the Pakistan Army should now take to that high road on moral grounds, one understands to an extent the urges of those who tried to capitalise on such frustrations by instigating an Operation like “Midnight Jackals”, the attempt to stage-manage the ouster of a democratically elected government by skin-deep constitutional means because of perceived corruption within the elected Ms Benazir government. The shoe is well and truly on the other foot now, a famous list of the 72 Untouchables of Sindh has been bandied about quite a bit, failure to haul them up may have somewhat eroded the credibility of the Army, it has shot the credibility of the already shaking Muzaffar Shah Coalition to oblivion. One can, therefore, understand the Army’s reaction as evidenced in their recent contention that within the running room allowed to them the mission given to Operation Clean-up is complete. While we must contend that the Army has a higher responsibility to the nation than becoming a Praetorian Guard for the lifelong corrupt, one commends the military hierarchy for maturity and patience for staying within democratic parameters. One also sincerely perseveres with the hope that idealistic Yanai-types further down the pecking line do not decide that enough is enough.

The Army did the nation a superb service in that exclusive raid on Karachi’s Central Jail. Major General Malik Saleem Khan, Comd 5 Corps Reserve, unearthed a can of worms when troops under his command broke down the walls of one of the prime citadels of crime in this country. While the Army in Sindh may have done exceedingly well in accomplishing its mission, one of the root causes of crime in Sindh (and Pakistan) was thus exposed for the masses to see, the incarcerated convicts were criminals of a much lesser degree than those responsible to guard them. This Catch-22 cycle needed to be put on public display to highlight the limits of frustration of anybody engaging in the ridiculous exercise of accountability in Pakistan. It also highlights the main reason why the Army, despite politically created obstacles, has had success in Sindh against criminals. From the Commander 5 Corps, Lt Gen Nasir Akhtar, downwards, the Army in Sindh is served by upright, professional no-nonsense soldiers who do their job without fear or favour. In a perverse way, one must thank God that the Bhalwal incident came so early in the game!

Major Yanai may have touched a raw nerve in Japan by asking for a coup, very few diehards are desirous of that drastic modus operandi in Pakistan, especially because the FAIL-SAFE point has not yet been crossed. There is a constitutional way in bringing accountability into the body politics in Pakistan and in that the Army plays a definite (though unwritten) role despite its own reservations, misgivings and limitations. It has to apply quiet pressure and one does not doubt for an instant that that is the correct route that the COAS, the Pakistan Army’s prime representative, should keep following.

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