Brig Naseem Akhtar Khan (R)
GOVERNANCE in Pakistan which has been a mix of political and military rules since partition, is unfortunately, a sad tale to discuss. This write-up is a follow-up of another article that I had written about two weeks back under the caption,” Governance in Pakistan, aren’t we getting late?”. It was mostly a critical analysis of the performance of successive governments since Gen Ayub Khan’s era, as President of Pakistan. The purpose of that article was to draw attention of people as to how, under the cover of democracy, a complete elite capture has been deliberately and formally inducted as a political tool of governance in the country. The contents, however, did not suggest any way-out of the situation. I, therefore, thought it necessary to follow it up with another article that includes certain recommendations which could possibly, be a solution to the prevailing mess. So here I am with a new write-up, as a food for thought.
A bird’s eye view of the history of governance in Pakistan indicates that, barring the decade of Gen Ayub Khan’s rule, which could be called an era of industrialization, stability and international prominence, the rest has been an ordeal of monopolization of wealth and authority, under the cover of so called “parliamentary form of governance”. While the politicians continued their game plan of loot and plunder, the army rulers were trapped time and again, seeking legitimacy for their rule through a democratic cover. The ultimate loser in this whole game was the state and its institutions. Unfortunately, political system in Pakistan which produces the people with power to put plans and actions into effects, has been the root cause of these consequences that we face today. Most of the representatives chosen, are feudalist and industrialists, enjoying complete monopoly over their constituents. After getting elected, they have their own agenda of fleecing development funds and exhorting benefits from the Prime Minister’s candidature and his subsequent running of the government. As a result, our Parliament has become a farce with parliamentarians acting as power brokers. What we are left with is an institution that no longer represents ‘the will of the people’ and in fact, has been the stumbling block in implementation of the rule of law.
With the sliding standards of the governance, the governmental institutions suffered tremendously over all these years. Besides, being politicized, most of these lost their merit and authenticity. Is not the recent case of PIA where more than 30% pilots were identified with doubtful credentials, a shame and disgrace? Wasn’t it because of political gambling during successive political governments? Police is another serious victim of the system which is continuously being misused as a political tool. Similarly, take any other institution, we will have a plenty of similar stuff to confront. Unfortunately, our judicial system also falls much short of the proclamation of equal justice for all. New norms have set-in through a deterrence of contempt of court proceedings, to avoid any sort of criticism or accountability. Taking suo motu notice on cases of self-interest and ignoring cases of heinous crimes like extra-judicial killing of dozens of people by police here and there, reckless lawyers attacking a hospital, killing dozens of patients, is a big question mark. Their over enthusiasm into involving themselves in running the affairs of the government often, disturbs the constitutional balance of power and paralyzes the governance.
Despite all odds, Army as an institution, has always lived up to its reputation and without mincing words, remains the centre of gravity for the country. Having said that, it should never be considered as an option for the governance of the country. At the same time, it must also not be forgotten that in today’s era of globalization, security of a state has become an overly complex issue, with too much inter-linkages between various kinds of security challenges that a country confronts. Military diplomacy has become an international norm, perhaps as important as the geo-political diplomacy at strategic level. Resultantly, the armies of today, have an especially important supporting role to play and therefore, must remain strongly associated with the governance mechanism, less we fall in any kind of international trap. In nutshell, with kind of political system we possess and crippled institutions, Pakistan’s assignation with rule of law has been a never-ending ordeal and that signifies our collective failure. The net result is that we are stuck in a status quo and getting deeper in the quagmire. Now, if there is no hope in the existing parliamentary system, no more army take overs, than what is our best hope? A presidential form of government, with a balanced and strong national security council….a food for thought ….!!!Presidential system with an honest leader as its head, can pave the way for good governance in countries like Pakistan and remove the existing bottlenecks in the administration. It can provide us with a chance to clean up the swamp of cronyism and nepotism that has eaten away the fabric of our society. With irrevocable fixed terms for executive and legislature, the political mafias would be unable to threaten the stability of the government by holding a gun to its head.
We must understand that the fallacy of Pakistan facing serious challenges of a divided society, based on ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural differences is a baseless story, intentionally enacted by vested interests to ‘divide and rule’ under cover of the parliamentary system of governance. With presidential form of governance, we can also hope for the rule of law that reflects our society’s ethical, moral, and social needs. Pakistan is a great nation and possess all potential to look for a great future. We had enough of roughing out all these years and have lost crucial time to move towards a much brighter future that we so richly deserve. We need to act and act fast.
— The writer is Security Management Professional, based in the UAE.
