Detached from reality?
Ali Ashraf
It is a well known fact that Pakistani rulers from day one were not
interested in education for the common man and it was in late fifty’s
that our Education Minister Mr. Abdul Hammed Dasti having said in the
cabinet meeting that Pakistan can not afford the luxury of Educating its
masses. From that day illiteracy and an overall low standard of
education commenced and is pulling down the rest of all the standards,
which provides a basis for development of a strong homogenous society to
develop, match and compete with other countries.
Otherwise in a situation like ours today, where adhocracy has promoted
mediocrity, where educated people also behave like uneducated, that our
capacity to distinguish between right and wrong has died, just think
about the act of imposition of an emergency order in the country on 3rd
November 2007, which deposed more then 60 Judges of Supreme Court and
provincial High Courts, issued with the signatures of Chief of Army
Staff, which is ultra virus, not provided in the constitution of
Pakistan, which fact General Pervez Musharraf has himself admitted while
talking on BBC TV that it was his big mistake. Later on principal law
officers Malik Qayum & senior advisor Syed Sherifuddin Pirzada absolved
themselves from having advised the president to dissolve the judiciary.
Mr. Mushahid Hussein Syed is on record having said that he accompanied
with Ch. Shujat Hussein had met the President a few days earlier, while
discussing the ongoing judicial controversy, had advised him not to
chose that option as his own case of eligibility to contest presidential
elections was being heard by their Lordships, which might be the idea
behind issuance of proclamation of emergency order under signatures of
the Chief of Army Staff, which was yet another blunder.
The Bhorbun declaration announced that all the deposed judges, who have
been removed unlawfully, would be restored on the position of 2nd
November within 30 days of formation of elected government. This
deadline ended on 30th April 2008 and later on as a result of Dubai
talks, which is reported to have been loaded with some foreign
influence, has now extended this deadline to 12th May, with formation of
a team of legal experts to finalize and draft resolution and reform
package, all these exercises are not meant to facilitate restoration of
deposed judges but more required to indemnify the unlawfully issued
emergency order by the then COAS, who issued a PCO declaring national
emergency, which is a clear violation of the constitution, that is what
the team of legal experts are now deliberating upon and it looks that
Mr. Asif Ali Zardari & Mian Nawaz Sharif have come under pressure and
confusing the issue in a bid to wriggle out from their earlier
commitment, which was in line with the wishes and aspiration of the
nation, who had rallied behind the judges like a wall of steel in their
movement for restoration of Judiciary. Shaheed Benazir Bhutto a few
weeks before her brutal assassination expressed her solidarity with the
deposed Chief Justice and declared to hoist Pakistan flag on his
residence after restoring the judiciary, which PPP leaders are now
ignoring to politicise the issue to support the status quo.
One major reason of the present miseries of the people of Pakistan is
due to the so called War Against Terror, which is erroding even our
sovereignty, we have earlier written in these very columns that, when
Texas oil cartel failed to reach an agreement with then Taliban
government representatives in their talks held in Houston on the
modalities of signing an agreement for providing safe passage for
central Asian oil pipeline passing through Afghanistan, but under the
table splitting profits for personal gain created a deadlock leading to
failure of talks, the siege of Afghanistan was the only alternate, that
was triggered with the plotting of 9/11 incident, which was hatched to
achieve this goal. What has been achieved as a result of these wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq is visible to every naked eye, oil which was sold
for around 10 dollars a barrel has touched $ 120 a barrel and may go
upto $ 200 per barrel, and as a result oil marketing companies, their
share holders and sponsors have pocketed tons of dollars as a
consequence of this unprecedented increase in price cum profit and
commissions, and windfall gains by military hardware suppliers.
While on the other hand cost of consumer items of daily use has risen
tremendously in the developed world as well as the Third World creating
a panic all around. Senator Hillary Clinton has also come out with a
bold statement on Sunday in a TV interview, when she publicly named
EXXON and Mobil oil companies as the main manipulators on behalf of the
oil rich cartels to have increased the oil price to touch these heights,
destroying the economic eqvilibrium of the world, while she said that
even the present world demand and supply position works out per barrel
price to be less then $ 50 and the rest is unnatural loading, which is
going to destabilize the world. Will this statement of Ms. Hillary
Clinton provide a reason for the champions of UN Human Rights
organizations to initiate investigation to find out the actual impact of
economic miseries, and loss to humanity due to this uncalled for
adventure of President George Bush, who has now blamed the middle class
of India for excessive consumption of food items thereby causing
shortage world over, what a crude joke with the people of third world
countries!
With the government and the parliament barely in place the by-elections
are rescheduled again to be held later next month - the people have had
their first lessons in democracy: daily rising prices of essential
consumer item with no sustainable counter policy in the offing, economic
managers of coalition partners have not yet met to streamline any policy
to arrest the increase of rising prices due to free market phobia in
vogue, continuing ongoing attacks from across the Afghan border on
Pakistani territory is the legacy of our past foreign policy, a newly
released Sufi Mohammed roaming freely around and propagating the
implementation of the shariah with no visible counter policy of the
government in place will soon be a cause of concern. Even the loudly
heralded re-instatement of the judges and the judiciary has turned out
to be unlikely now with the changing statements of Mr. Zardari who
appears to be viewing the issue with a different perspective.
Already today almost half of Pakistanis population is poor and living
close to or under the poverty line. And each day brings new surprises in
the form of prices growing more expensive, with more people losing their
jobs and incomes in a situation where rising energy prices and the
faltering supply of energy is not only making the lives of the public
unbearable, but is forcing industrial units to close down, infact more
then half of the industrial units have closed and the remaining ones are
demanding enactment of bankruptcy laws to protect them. The introduction
of new minimum wages for workers of Rs. 6000 per month is another proof
of the helplessness and haplessness of the government: Neither is a
monthly wage of Rs. 6000 even nearly enough to sustain a family nor can
many entrepreneurs pay it in this highly unstable and volatile economic
situation.
Given that this trend will go on and Pakistan is going to face yet
another security threat, the one of food and energy riots. Another most
disturbing problem is the volatile political situation. Though so far
the efforts for national reconciliation have resulted in the MQM joining
the ruling coalition in Sindh and in the center which will make the
situation in Karachi less volatile, the outcome of the London talks
between Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari about the re-instatement of the
judges is less encouraging. Visible from Mr. Zardari in his reactions
and especially his interviews after Dubai talks made it quite clear that
his interest is not in the re-instatement of the deposed judges in
general and Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry in particular. He has his own reason
that PPP had won the elections on Roti, Kapra and Makan slogans so he
has no national commitment on this issue, may be he doesn’t want to risk
the indemnity which the NRO is providing him. Here Mr. Zardaris
interests join quite comfortably with those of President Musharraf
claiming legitimacy to his unlawful actions. In addition, the current
Chief Justice be much closer to Mr. Zardaris heart by having stood so
far by the NRO and by removing the graduation condition which would have
been an obstacle for him if he wanted to contest the by-elections.
Mr Zardaris priorities are quite clearly different from those of Nawaz
Sharif who has committed with the people and won the elections with the
demand of the re-instatement of the judiciary. The two main coalition
partners seem to drift apart which is no good sign for the stability and
strength of this government. They will probably be in the coming weeks
and month more busy with power games than with the evolvement of
sustainable economic, social and political strategies for the permanent
resolution of the pressing problems of the general public. This is a
vicious circle working hand in gloves with free market operators and
there is no control or protections in their governance, which has to be
eliminated because it tantamount to gamble with the fire.
—Author is former Central Information Secretary of PML (Malik Qasim) |
