The Perception of Impartiality
To end the political impasse that was rapidly bringing the country to economic apocalypse as well as civil war conditions, the COAS Pakistan Army Gen Waheed brokered an agreement between the President and the PM that accepted the demand of the Opposition for the conduct of free and fair mid-term elections. A significant part of the unpublicised agreement was that the COAS became the guarantor of the terms accepted by all the sides. The former PM felt that as long as the President was able to carry out extra-constitutional interference in the day to day running of the country, fair elections were hardly possible. GIK and the Opposition reciprocated this mutual feeling of distrust as long as the former PM called the shots in the Federal Government. As the ultimate compromise it was agreed that both the President and the PM would step down in favour of a generally neutral regime. The Army’s role as guarantor would hopefully restrict the propensity of the various security agencies to influence the results in the manner that they would deem fit.
The choice of Moeenuddin Qureshi to head the Caretaker Regime was motivated out of a genuine need to have an impartial non-controversial but effective person responsible for the affairs of Pakistan in the interim period. That the Caretaker PM is a man of some international stature and known integrity as well as a world respected economist was an additional plus point. There are those who decry his lack of experience within Pakistan but in the present state of extreme polarisation where anybody who is anybody has got involved in one way or the other with one side or the other, one considers that particular “inexperience” to be a necessary virtue. Spelling out his first priority as the holding of free and fair elections in Pakistan, Moeen Qureshi gave out the sorry state of our economy as his second priority. This dual capability is a bonus for Pakistan. On a brief private visit to Washington for a medical check-up, the PM kept up a busy schedule of official engagements arranged at short notice, primarily including US Vice President Al Gore and the major international finance institutions, the World Bank and the IMF. Before leaving for the US, Mr. Moeen Qureshi laid the base for the concept of impartiality by inducting into Cabinet office such eminent persons as are generally considered to be without any party affiliations, both in the Federal and Provincial set-ups. With respect to his choice, to his credit there has been no criticism as yet. A number of subsequent steps need to be taken to ensure that the concept of neutrality remains paramount throughout the election process and the capacity of those who are past masters of subverting a neutral process to their nefarious designs is restrained.
The continued occupation of the Presidential Palace by GIK on a mere bureaucratic technicality seems to be a negation of that neutrality. The whole process encompassing the dismissal of Nawaz Sharif, the Supreme Court-mandated restoration leading to the crisis which forced the resignation of an elected PM was initiated when the sanctity of the Presidential office was violated by people opposed to the former PM started beating a path to the sympathetic Presidential doorstep. This amounted to encouragement of anti-Nawaz forces, becoming a political cacophony that led to the Presidential action of April 18, duly declared malafide by the Supreme Court on May 26. Despite protestations of “honouring the verdict of the Honourable Supreme Court”, GIK quite flagrantly disputed the judgement. To vindicate his stand he resorted to orchestrating such action by the Provinces that almost brought the Federation to its knees. The Caretaker arrangement has given hope that the slate has been wiped clean and relative calm had been restored but we now see a return of the “visitors” with vested interest to the Palace. While Gen Waheed must be congratulated for having moderated the best possible agreement in the circumstances, GIK’s continued occupation of The Hill tends to embarrass the Army despite the fact that the Army has nothing to do with his continued residency. One gets the impression of a last bureaucratic sleight of hand by the past master of intrigue and deception, a sophisticated duplicity being perpetrated on the people of Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif’s forced resignation was a precedent Pakistan’s democracy could have done without but such a compromise was necessary in the supreme national interest. As long as GIK occupies the Presidential Palace the public perception will be that Ghulam Ishaq Khan is very much alive and well as President and continues to exercise his considerable influence. In such circumstances there can be no free and fair elections. The failure of acting President Wasim Sajjad to take Oath of Office would also seem to assume sinister connotations, the gullible would assume this to be a conspiracy in the furthering of a farce. God forbid that the people of Pakistan should start doubting the intent and sincerity of purpose of the Army-brokered agreement.
The Moeen Qureshi Administration has done well by choosing new Chief Secretaries and Inspector Generals Police for the Provinces. To be so chosen in the present circumstances is quite an honour for these gentlemen, a green badge of honesty and integrity in trying times. In turn the Chief Secretaries and the IGPs have to ensure the shuffling/removal of key bureaucratic appointments rabidly favourable to the governments that have been removed. The Chief Election Commissioner and his associates can supervise and conduct polls, it is the local Administration that is the real key to the right of free exercise of adult franchise. The local civilian bosses have the means to coerce and intimidate sizeable segments of the population, particularly in the rural areas, and influence their voting preferences and if this does not succeed, then to prevent them from actually voting on one pretext or the other. As a measure of last resort, even to create law and order problems. Choosing civil servants and police officials of integrity and character down the line will be a particularly difficult exercise in Punjab and Sindh, given the level of politicisation.
The request to do away with ID Cards has bad faith manifest in it and must never be agreed to. The production of ID Cards is a necessary means to prove identification. As regards elections to both the NA and PA on one day, this needs looking into but one feels it will create a logistical nightmare as well as a certain amount of confusion. While our masses are sensitive to their democratic right, most voters vote on the basis of election symbols because of the high percentage of illiteracy. The voter must exercise his/her first preference for a particular individual and subsequently dovetail the choice for a political party, otherwise why do we bother to have candidates at all? To have elections on one day would mean that the symbol-influenced voter is being coerced to vote for the Party rather than the candidate of his own choice for the NA as well as the PA. Symbols should in fact be awarded on individual rather than party basis. Local Bodies must be done away with for the period of the elections. These form the grass-roots of democracy and can well influence the voters in a particular constituency because those holding Local Bodies appointments control the civic facilities as well as the money to provide logistics at the basic democratic level.
While there are many other procedural matters that can be straightened out to minimise the chance of voter fraud and/or rigging, one believes that we are minimising the impact of money on the political market. The Caretaker PM has indicated that the effect of drug money will be minimised. While we know that this would be well nigh impossible, why not put a man of the stature of Air Marshal (Retd) Nur Khan, who is quite vocal on the control of drug mafia, as Chairman of a Commission that will coordinate all active drug-eradication measures, a sort of a concerted war without parameters. It is also within the powers of the government to prevent money obtained as credit from banks from being misused to gain political control through the election process. In this respect we should blacklist anybody who has had loans written off or are defaulters, these people should not be candidates in the elections. One must, however, clarify that rescheduling of loan and credits on the basis of performance and authentication of necessary collateral must be accepted as a part of routine business and as a commitment to repay outstanding loans. Lists of those who have had their loans written off or have been declared defaulters must also be publicly displayed along with the respective defaulting amounts. What is the logic and reason for maintaining their confidentiality? The State Bank insists that they do not have lists of defaulters, if so how was/is the State Bank exercising control over disbursement of credit to the crooked and the non-deserving?
The media acquires a very significant role, both the electronic media and the Press. While Pakistan TV over the past week has been much more neutral than at any time in its history, this trend must be continued. It was shocking to read about the plots awarded to many journalists by Wattoo and Muzaffar Shah in the last days of their rule. The gentlemen used to proclaim that they belonged to the people and then proceeded to give away public property to their favourites like chewing gum, something which was not theirs to give in the first place. Is there no one to take account of this blatant corruption? As far as journalists are concerned, the genuine among the Press corps will certainly feel relieved if the consolidated list of those who have acquired favours through plots or hard cash for the past several years is published quite prominently. This should include those on the payroll of the ISI and the MI Directorates as well as the IB unless these agencies can certify to the Caretaker Cabinet in individual cases that whatever compensation had been given out was due to the supreme national interest and in the external rather than the domestic circumstances. The print media can influence elections in a decisive way, if their integrity can be compromised and they can be bought and directed to a particular election strategy, it undermines the concept of impartial elections.
The Prime Minister has said that the elections must not only be free and fair, they must be perceived by the public to be such. Unless he addresses key issues, some of which have been aforementioned, the perception of impartiality will be a misnomer as far as democracy in Pakistan is concerned.
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