• Home
• Video
• Books by Ikram Sehgal
• About

Elections or Accountability?

The great debate about whether elections should be held first or accountability should precede elections is on. Having swiftly enacted the Ehtesab (Accountability) Ordinance, the Caretaker Government have also appointed as Chief Ehtesab Commissioner, a respected non-controversial retired Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Mr. Ghulam Mujaddid Mirza. Both the President and the Caretaker PM Malik Meraj Khalid have repeated the intention of the Caretaker government to have the February 3 elections as scheduled. Given the enormous task of holding a whole slate of people accountable since January 1, 1986, it would seem logistically impossible to complete the accountability process in the next 70 days. How then do we reconcile this great divide?

The arguments for accountability are very cogent. This nation has been looted in the name of democracy under the flimsy cover of the Constitution. Given the enormous wealth in the hand of the looters they could conceivably buy their way back into power and thus frustrate the accountability process. We have seen how Ms Benazir, without a mandate from the people, was manipulated into power by a combination of power and intrigue in 1993. Conceivably money and intrigue could play a part in foisting the likes of Zardari on us again. Even in first world countries like the US, an election campaign war chest is important to winning elections, in Third World countries where voters are mostly illiterate or ignorant on a relative basis, an enormous election fund is more than likely to ensure victory. To add insult to injury, the looters will use a classic “Judo play”, using money looted from the national treasury to influence the voters so that once in power they can proceed to loot the nation even more, inflicting more torture on the populace. By itself, this makes for good enough reason to delay the elections until the accountability process is complete.

On the other hand, what about accountability at the hands of the people? Given that Zardari has acquired a huge war chest to ensure that he can frustrate the accountability process, do we hold the genius of the people in such low esteem that we accept that he would be able to buy off the loyalties of the whole nation? If that argument should hold then the whole process of adult franchise comes into question. Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s Basic Democracy was formed on the assumption that given the illiteracy and ignorance among a majority of the eligible voters one could not expect a rational choice from them and the election of the President and the legislators should be the choice of an electoral college, by themselves voted for by the electorate. This argument defeats itself at its basic premise, if the electorate is good enough to elect the electoral college, what stops it from using that same genius for electing the legislators and the President? Moreover would not an electoral college be more vulnerable to Ms Benazir’s often repeated remark of “chamak” (flash of money) than the masses? The ultimate accountability must be at the hands of the electorate, the masses must decide who is good or bad for them.

Any delay in the electoral process will undercut the credibility of the President and the Caretaker Government, it may well hamper their ability to govern in the turmoil that will surely follow. While the Ehtesab Ordinance gives January 1, 1986 as its first day of purview, one believes that it would be in the fitness of things to start the process backward in time i.e. first take in the Benazir Government, then Moeen Qureshi’s Caretakers and so on till we reach the period of late Junejo’s Government post-1985. Accountability should start with Ms Benazir’s three years of misrule and blatant corruption where her husband has left indelible marks of his greedy paws through the length and breadth of this nation on every institution but the Army. The potential of those who have amassed illegal wealth to influence the electoral process must be emasculated. Zardari cronies are well known and have been listed in numerous media reports, to all accounts he was very generous to his friends, not many people get to play “monarch” with unlimited wealth and power at his disposal as Zardari could, without the responsibility to match. A crude but effective establishment of a Patron-Client relationship was seen even in influential social circles where this almost illiterate person held sway as would a Mafia Don, the mythical “Godfather” in whose image he had moulded himself from the almost penniless Grandee that he was when he married our “Princess”. Unless the Caretaker Government brings to book his concentric circle of influential friends (particularly the bankers), who have not only helped Zardari acquire vast amounts of illegal wealth but remain free to funnel that wealth in his support, their vested interest will ensure Zardari returning to have nuisance value in the portals of power.

The President and the Governors should not be given immunity under the Ehtesab Ordinance. Since the President has voluntarily offered himself for accountability, let there be an amendment thereof to the Ordinance with certain safeguards, to prevent misuse thereof out of mischievous design rather than fact. As regards the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and High Courts and Judges thereof, they necessarily have to be kept under the purview of a separate procedure as otherwise their capacity to render judgment can be emasculated. The Supreme Judicial Council is a fit enough forum for this. There has also been criticism about not including the Defence Services within the ambit of the law, there are cogent national security reasons why their dirty linen cannot be washed in public. At the same time, the Armed Forces maintain that they have an adequate military judicial system, the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG’s) Branch which, as seen recently in both the Arshad Jameel/Tando Bahawal case and the Gen Abbasi conspiracy case, performs much better than comparable prosecutors in the civilian legal system. The main civilian accused in the Tando Bahawal case has yet to be brought to justice while Arshad Jameel has been executed. Several general officers have been sent to jail over the years while no comparable civilian officer has ever been incarcerated for corruption, etc. The military does have a point. On the other hand, let us take the case of two incumbent Chiefs of the Air Force and the Navy, both of whom were promoted over the merits and claims of very deserving officers. The Air Force’s Air Marshal Shafiq Haider and the Navy’s Adm Khalid Mir lost out because of their integrity and professionalism, merit became a disqualifier. While prima facie controversy exists about Khattak in the Mirage-III deal, the Naval Chief Mansurul Haq has much to answer for in the scandalous purchase of submarines from France as well as a host of other Zardari-related events, the Navy was being made over in the Zardari image. The propensity of our intelligence community to settle personal differences and obtain personal financial benefit must also be reined in. Possibly the worst perpetrator was the present Federal Secretary Science and Technology Lt Gen (Retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi who finessed this into a fine art, particularly in furthering his own career by defaming those in competition with him. A mechanism must be put into place to take into account such misdemeanours without subjecting the military to public cynosure and, therefore, compromising their ability to fulfil their national mission. As for other Armed Forces in the developed world, why not have an Office of the Inspector General Defence Services (IGDS) for Ehtesab purposes, the Inspector General (IG) being a retired officer of not less than three star rank appointed for a period of at least 5 years? Necessarily the IGDS must be a non-controversial and widely respected officer with adequate powers and resources to take on suo-motu cases of nepotism, corruption, etc at the rank of Lt Col (and equivalent) and above. At present serving officers have the capacity to influence the outcome of any enquiry. Khattak and Mansurul Haq must be given the option to seek early retirement and if they do not, they must be compulsorily retired forthwith and the remainder of their terms served out (so as not to upset the seniority/promotion career planning) by recalling retired Shafiq Haider and Khalid Mir (still on active service). Why should they suffer just because they had integrity and more merit than the present incumbents?

We have to have elections as per schedule but must also carry out accountability, working out a pragmatic formula that will strike a reasonable balance. While having the Feb 3 elections on schedule, the Assemblies should not be called into session for at least another 90 days so that the accountability process of at least the electoral candidates should be completed. If in case, the due process of accountability about a particular candidate is not completed by the time of his/her elections, this can continue post-elections. If the elected representative is found guilty by the Ehtesab Commissioner then bye-elections can also be held under the aegis of the Caretaker Government, which can then complete the process of cleaning of the Parliamentary Aegean stables. This 90 days post-election period will also act as a restraint to political parties in putting up such candidates who they know will never pass the acid test of Ehtesab. At the same time the Assemblies that finally come into being will have a clean chit i.e. their members will be cleared of any history of wrong doing, as such will be more effective in the business of legislation. Some legal technical corrections may be necessary, this can be either referred to the Supreme Court for adjudication as per Article 254 of the Constitution which allows some flexibility in time under the “doctrine of necessity”.

As much as Ms Benazir screams herself hoarse from every pulpit that she wants elections, she retains enough sanity to know that in the coming electoral process she is certain to face massive defeat. This is also the refrain of others who have no real hope at the polls. Her salvation lies in scuttling the electoral process and then calling out to high heaven that she has been “denied” success at the polls, Ms Benazir is fairly liberal with the truth. The PPP has split along the seams, the “King’s Party” as she keeps claiming may well come into being not because of any effort made by President Farooq Leghari but by her own effort because the PPP rank and file is very upset at the shenanigans of her husband and herself. The original PPP seems to be coalescing around the forces of integrity and sobriety after being on the receiving end of a host of accusers because of the nepotism and corruption practiced by the leaders foisted on them because of the Benazir-Zardari marriage. The only way to make the odd couple accountable to the nation is by forcing them to bow before the verdict of the electorate. Let us not demean the genius of the people, they can be fooled some of the time but not all the time.

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.