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Back to the Future, with Hope

Four years ago, despite the devastating floods of late 1992, 1993 had started with the hopes of a vast majority of the nation firmly rooted in the promise of economic Valhalla promised by then PM Mian Nawaz Sharif. The death of the COAS Gen Asif Nawaz in the first week of January set loose latent fears and ambitions putting into motion events that saw the exit, return and re-exit of Mian Nawaz Sharif as PM in the space of three months beginning April and ending in July 1993. The year’s end saw the contrived return of Ms. Benazir, the ensuing Zardari dominated nightmare running a full course till her exit as PM less than 60 days ago. In less than a month, the people of Pakistan are to go to the polls and while election fervour is muted because of the constant public refrain for accountability, the masses are gingerly hoping to pick up the threads of the economic aspirations lost four years ago. A crude and early rough poll shows the people’s mandate presently running clearly in Mian Nawaz Sharif’s favour. Having lost considerable ground economically as a nation since 1993, anyone who becomes Pakistan’s PM must first make the nation financially stable before energizing the various economic sectors to the same level as was obtaining then.

There are some plus factors over early 1993. Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari’s election as President was the first of two outstanding things done by the PP regime, the other was bringing peace to Karachi, the modus operandi notwithstanding. In contrast to President Ghulam Ishaq Khan’s (GIK) myopic, tunnel vision on most issues, Leghari has a refreshingly broad outlook for an ex-bureaucrat, head and shoulders above in the traits one aspires for in Head of State. GIK threw this nation into turmoil in the selfish attempt to elongate his Presidential rule, Leghari has risen above narrow petty political considerations for the sake of the nation and thrown his own personal future into doubt by sending the government of the party that vogued him into power packing on charges of nepotism, corruption and inefficiency. While the team selected as Caretakers could have been better chosen and drawn from a wider spectrum of the intelligentsia, one cannot doubt the sincerity of this honourable, patriotic man in trying to do his best for the nation within the parameters of the Constitution with the limited resources of quality of manpower at his disposal. Encouraged by outstanding judicial activism, the president has laid the groundwork of institutionalizing accountability, a recurring demand of a very frustrated (and impoverished) people of this resource rich country. While he has been the touchstone to initiate the process, the major burden of implementing accountability will fall on the elected government-to-be. Only a sincere commitment for broad reform to curb nepotism and corruption will set the foundation of a dynamic, prosperous Pakistan in the future. If Mian Nawaz Sharif should become PM, he will have to take a hard look at his own inner circle and set examples for the sake of accountability to emulate down the line, choosing loyalty to the State over loyalty to individuals whenever the two are in conflict of interest.

The year 1996 may have seen the culminating of the Benazir nightmare but one major event has not got the pride of place it should have. For the first time since our independence from British rule, we are truly on course to separating the judiciary from the executive. As a colonial power, it was a requirement for the British but for a democratic, independent nation such a despotic role has been an unnecessary yoke. People decry martial law because of the “Judge and Jury” syndrome i.e. in a travesty of justice those who are the prosecutors also sit in judgment on whom they accuse but nobody has ever really protested the “civilian martial law” we had to endure for nearly 50 years at the hands of a civil bureaucracy that under the facade of the rule of law has left military dictatorship far behind in absolute rule. The next elected government should bring the selected executive firmly under the controls of the elected representatives. It is far better to be misruled by those chosen by the people rather than the so-called “servants of the people”. Whereas it is bad enough that they are masters in the urban areas, in the countryside they are absolute monarchs. The Deputy Commissioners hold virtual power of life and death over the rural population, aligning themselves with one or the other local faction of the feudal class and perpetuating an evil dictatorship that has no parallel in this day and age. As much as God is in Heaven, our civilian bureaucracy behaves in the countryside as ain’t to God on Earth. The challenge for our elected representatives is to demolish this wall of evil incarnate and protect the masses from suffering the churlishness and idiosyncrasies that they have had to for the past five decades.

While the bureaucracy’s hold on government at all levels is far from being completely undone, their despotism is now under direct threat from an activist judiciary. The historic judgment on March 20, 1996 by the Supreme Court in what is now known as the “judges case” ensured that neither the ruling executives nor the elected representatives could in future pack the judicial benches with tainted favourites eminently malleable to their bidding. One must commend the indomitable will of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, because it is he who has provided the backbone for the resistance to the rule of the lawless that we had been subjected to during the Benazir regime. Despite threats, coercion and abuse, the Chief Justice remained steadfast, in the process exposing the previous regime to be the petty criminals they were. We have had Chief Justices in the past who have stood forth against considerable odds for the cause of justice, most notably (and in the immediate past) Justice Nasim Hassan Shah, but the incumbent Chief Justice stands tall in standing up for the rule of law as per the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

The future hope for this country lies in inculcating the merit system throughout the body executive, at each level in every spectrum of governance and discipline. It is necessary to keep only a minuscule quota of 10% for the backward, non-developed areas. We must reward merit in exclusion to region, race, religion or any other consideration. The touchstone success for this poor country lies in having the best and brightest at the helm at every level of governance. Without the merit system we are doomed to be like a family or a race that inter-marries constantly, every reproduction reducing the quality of the human being in mind and body. Instead of being a winner, merit is not only suspect, it is a disqualifier. How can one expect those who have benefited from nepotism to countenance those with merit? Unless we can honestly reverse this process, we are doomed to remain a slave nation economically and eventually politically. The future elected government has to create a climate of excellence that goes with a merit-oriented system. Merit being the dynamo that energizes entrepreneurship who best can define the parameters of such a change and implement it in letter and spirit than a successful entrepreneur like Mian Nawaz Sharif, given that he is the most likely leader come February?

As much as our democracy is imperfect without (1) a run off election between the first two candidates if someone does not get 50% of the vote in the first round (2) Proportional Representation (PR) to ensure that the Assemblies have a rough representation of all the people on the commensurate basis of percentage of votes cast and (3) Joint Electorate so as to do away with the inordinate weightage given presently to minority representation, the people remain the best judge of what they want for the future and adult franchise is the only way of expressing their will. The genius of the people is shortchanged in relation to democracy by our present imperfect system. Despite the uneasy travails since Nov. 5, 1996, what we have to ask ourselves is whether we are better off today than what we were 60 days ago? Since the answer is almost universally “yes”, we have reason to look forward to 1997 with hope. The President has bitten the bullet at great personal cost in reviving the nation from the dumps Benazir had taken us. Posterity can eulogize him for what he has done for the sake of this country in rising to the dictates of his conscience. Unfortunately having lived in uncertainty and apprehension for so long, our people have not yet begun to believe their good luck in being rid of the previous regime or begun to believe in the hopes manifest for a future without the shenanigans of the likes of Benazir and Asif Zardari.

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