Daily Times

What Pakistan has so far suffered from is the lack of good governance. The evaluation of the governance of the bureaucratic-military and the elected rulers from the inception of the country to this day leaves much to be desired. Their rule could not be categorized as good governance withstanding the constitutional, democratic and egalitarian scrutiny. These regimes, at best, were autocratic, undemocratic, unresponsive, incompetent and corrupt and culpably liable for the violation of the fundamental human rights of the electorate to education, healthcare, protection of life and property, security of employment and livelihood, rule of law, equality before law, merit and equal opportunity for progress and prosperity within the society. Au contraire, these regimes were immersed in favoritism, cronyism and unequal distribution of resources of the country among the populations of the four federating units.

The blatant violation of the existing systems governing the inter-provincial affairs within the federation cost us the bigger half of the country in 1971. Our persistence in bypassing the constitutional mechanism for the distribution of jobs, resources and development schemes among the federating units has gone a long way to create a sense of deprivation in the smaller provinces. Their representatives in the National Assembly squander most of their precious time in highlighting the instances of injustices meted out to their people which otherwise they would have utilized in legislation. The State is like an affectionate father and is supposed to maintain equilibrium in his generosity to his sons and daughters to have a sound and happy family. All the social welfare states around the world are governed by this simple and golden principle.

Given the promises made by Prime Minister Imran Khan on the trail of his election campaign, we did not expect him to cleanse all the debris of the misrule of long decades within a year or so and start running streams of milk and honey in the country. What was generally and ardently hoped for is that he would form a small, clean, efficient, well conscious and well responsive cabinet of great doers which, following the constitutional mechanisms and the rules of business and judicious exercise of power as counseled by discretion, justice, meritocracy and public accountability, would set instances of good governance, dispense with cronyism, accelerate the process of accountability across the board and bring the looters and plunderers of the national wealth into the grip of law. We are conscious of the compulsions of a coalition government particularly in a third world country where sights are invariably riveted on power and pelf. With the multiple pressures and demands of coalition partners, good governance is yet possible if the restrictions imposed on the exercise of power by the constitutional and democratic norms are respected and adhered to. This is found grossly wanting in the PTI rule too – resulting in the government biting the bullet in many instances.

The people of KPK are smart enough to force their will into the governmental structures to save their rights from being trampled upon or being usurped by any power

The stabilization of the economy is a long haul requiring at least two years to start showing improved indicators. What is the problem in following rules of business in dispensing with cronyism in filling the vacant jobs in the federal administrative ministries and departments? The Railway under the Federal Minister Shaikh Rashid adopted the novel system of inductions by balloting in jobs of grade 1-5 in the clear contravention of rules and regulations. The superior courts rightfully declared over 800 such inductions null and void on the first hearing of the petition filed by the Railway Employees Union. These inductions not only violated the prescribed process of filling the jobs in any federal department but also reflected the mindset of the Minister to ignore merit and the quota of the smaller provinces as determined by the Constitution of the country.

During the One-Unit, as young students we used to hear our Bengali fellow students complain that Pakistan was Punjab and the Punjab was Pakistan at the cost of East Pakistan and the other smaller provinces. We never took them seriously without realizing the heat of the larva boiling beneath the calm and stable political surface, and the result was the famous six-points of Awami League which fired the Bengali nationalism humbling and humiliating every other party in the elections of 1970 and leading to the tragic loss of the bigger part of the country. Ironically, we have never learnt a lesson from our historic debacles. This debacle also has faded from our national horizon into obscurity without leaving a trace of remorse on our brow. It is tragic that we have again started hearing this murmur from Sindh and Balochistan that Pakistan is Punjab and Punjab is Pakistan. The people of KPK are smart enough to force their will into the governmental structures to save their rights from being trampled upon or being usurped by any power. This murmur or loud complain from the two other provinces has been fueled by the audaciously unjust distribution of jobs, resources and federal development schemes among the federating units of the country.

Who should take the Minister for Railway to task for the violation of the rules of business in filling the vacancies in his Ministry which is not his fiefdom like Lal Haveli? Rather it is a public property jointly owned by all the peoples of the Federation. According to a credible report, there are presently over 200,000 vacancies of various grades in federal departments which, most probably, would have been filled by the absurd and unconstitutional method of balloting, had the superior courts not rescinded the repulsive action of Shaikh Rashid. Mind it Mr. Prime Minister, Sindh and Balochistan have their respective constitutionally mandated share of 19% and 6% in these jobs and nobody in his sanity can deprive them of their right. No need to have novel methods in filling these vacancies. Only transparent compliance with the established system of recruitments on merit can save the government from another humiliation and deprive its detractors of a convenient mantra of misgovernance it is being charged with every day – and not so unjustifiably.

The writer was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books