Five Decades as a Republic
Pakistan chose not to become a republic till March 23, 1956. Five decades on (and 35 years almost to the day the “First Republic” came asunder), we must take stock of where we are today, and where the “Second Republic” will be in the future. One may take lessons from the past, it is no use lamenting the many mistakes made, they are the stuff of history and fortunately, despite our best efforts we are still in existence. Predictions range from dire pessimism to the optimistic “feel good” churned out by the establishment’s propaganda machine, it would be in the scheme of things to hold that the truth is somewhere in-between, but would that be true? Most developing nations without access to windfall oil revenues (or some cash resource along that kind) face problems of varying magnitude and are coping with them. There have been some gains and some losses. Simplistically stated, the gains are mainly in the economic field, the losses mainly political. Defying the laws of nature, we are geo-politically stronger than ever before, due (with some individual credit to Pervez Musharraf’s decision-making) to favourable circumstances than our own abilities and performance thereof.
Private Security
For many years, successive governments have tried to reform the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in Pakistan. For the past decade they have also been trying to regulate private security companies which first came into operation in Pakistan in 1984 but really started proliferating since 1986. While this government must take credit for enacting Ordinances to purpose, no individual deserves more credit than the present Federal Minister for Interior, Lt Gen (Retd) Moinuddin Haider, who broke the bureaucratic logjam and kick-started the process five years ago when he was Governor Sindh under the PML (N) regime. Credit must also go to Mr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, present Sindh Finance Minister, who in the space of one short meeting erased most of the difficulties the draft Ordinance posed for a couple of years. Private security has made a solid contribution to nation-building as a significant support to the LEAs in maintaining law and order and reducing their workload. Moreover employment has been provided to khaki collar workers who would otherwise find it difficult to get jobs once they were over their service with the Armed Forces.
In a historical sense, private security has come a full circle. In a feudal society the concept of private security has not changed in thousands of years, in today’s modern world the same principles apply. Tribal chiefs, clan chiefs, etc paid private bodyguards out of their own pockets, it is the same today. Private security as an organized commercial entity came to Pakistan in the early 80s with a Joint Venture (JV) between a Pakistani and a US company, known primarily for its Cash-in-Transit (CIT) services. Between 1984 and 1986, there was a virtual monopoly of all private security in Pakistan by this one entity. As per the law of nature, the absolute domination of one single person over private security in Pakistan faded and despite his desperate underhand efforts through use of bureaucratic influence, by 1987 other companies had started to come on-stream. Today that foreign company is history in Pakistan. The number of letters this despicable individual wrote to government agencies against his competitors was not only crass commercial malfeasance but must be a world record in character assassination.
Rule in Sindh – The First Few Weeks
A cross section of the citizens of the city were invited by the Governor to get their reaction as to (1) the promulgation of Governor’s Rule and (2) how to make it effective. All the 20 odd or so people assembled in that room spoke for the imposition of Governor’s Rule, they lauded the Federal Government.
The other day the Governor Sindh, Lt Gen (Retd) Moinuddin Haider, invited at short notice Government for taking the bold step and “saving the city”. As regards making the rule effective, a few did counsel focussing on macro issues but the majority were more concerned with micro issues. The Governor cannot do everything, he has to conserve his energies and authority. This is possible by concentrating on the macro factors in order to re-build the institutions that have been destroyed over the past several years, at least to the level of their original potential.