We are passing through ironic times. Each organ and department of the state seems to be pitted against the other, some using the constitutional and legal tomes, the others playing to the media-triggered public ethics, and still other capitalising on their political asset, inside and outside parliament. But none seems to be acting for the overall good of the country, patriotic rhetoric aside.
Thus, the prime minister is ‘defying’ the court on the plea that he is protecting the office of the president from being ‘mauled’ by foreign jurisdiction. Hence he is facing contempt charges that could cost him both his office and liberty. For all the court’s menacing edicts and observations, he sticks to his stand that he would never write the letter to the Swiss authorities purportedly to open cases against the president and his late wife, Benazir Bhutto. No wonder, the president is all praise for him, and so are most of the party jiyalas (loyal workers). But it is being utterly disregarded that the institutional tiff could cost the country its fledgling democratic system and constitutional order, causing economic losses, political instability and an undue advantage to the so-called ‘third force’.
Likewise, the Supreme Court also seems to be hell bent on ‘asserting’ its inherent power under Article 184 (3) to consider a ‘question of public importance’. And there is no doubt the court has done many a legal and constitutional correction, setting a new course of judicial activism. For example, it declared the NRO unconstitutional and illegal ab initio because it was discriminatory and class-specific. But the problem with judicial activism is that sometimes it stretches its limits and trespasses on the executive and legislative domains. For instance, appointing a judicial committee in Karachi to monitor law and order or challenging parliament’s right to amend the constitution, or aping the Indian jurisprudence, touched new frontiers of judicial power, putting the judiciary-executive relations to new strains.
In the same vein, the chief minister of Punjab has also publicly refused to ‘recognise’ the presidency of Asif Ali Zardari. He famously declared that he would never receive the president on his visit to Lahore, and he did not do so, absolutely ignoring the constitutional and politico-ethical implications of his recalcitrance. Predictably, the president paid in the same coin. He passed the most inappropriately personal remarks against the Sharifs, leaving a bad taste in the mouth of the listeners. Indeed, the PPP-PML-N spate has revived the terse memories of the 1980s and1990s when both parties went overboard to upstage each other. One thought that they would never resort to such vile politics again, more so because they had signed the Charter of Democracy, which promised a new era of political decency, but alas that wish remains to be fulfilled.
True to tradition, the defence department, commonly known as the establishment, continues to throw a spanner in the executive’s wheels. Its influence is visible in the way the new framework of US-Pak relations is struggling to evolve. Some even venture to believe that the establishment is using parliament and the political leadership as a fig leaf to cover its domination over the country’s security and foreign policy. It is common knowledge that US-Pak relations would only revive when the military leadership gives its assent to the civilian leadership.
As a result, confusion and concern loom large over the diplomatic horizon, and doubts persist as to whether the new configuration would really set a workable course of relationship between the two ‘allies’ in the war on terror. Controversial issues such as the elimination of militants’ hideouts in FATA and the US unilateral use of predator drones, would keep the relations at risk of another disruption, causing more and perhaps this time irreparable damage to the country’s international and regional interests.
In addition to the above patterns of confrontation, a host of other menaces exist. For one, the powerful lobbies representing the interests of industrialists, financiers, professionals, agriculturalists, stockbrokers, and wholesalers and retailers continue to avoid and evade taxation, with or without the government’s complicity. As a result, the tax-to-GDP ratio, which was already abysmally low, has slid further down to 8 percent. Thus the tax net is shrinking, causing approximately Rs one trillion of annual shortfall in terms of missed taxes. Obviously, the shortfall is bridged through regressive and inflationary indirect taxation, which puts an equal burden on everyone, regardless of his income. Therefore, real wages are decreasing by the day, reducing people’s purchasing capacity.
For another, a host of non-state actors ranging from multi-ethnic secessionists, feudal-tribal gangs, sectarian militias, common thugs to rogue security and intelligence apparatuses, are also gnawing at the writ and authority of the state, creating more uncertainty and fear among locals and foreigners. As a result, neither rural nor metropolitan life is safe, let alone thriving. While the common man lives at the mercy of these varied forces, the tiny class of rich and powerful people is safe, and that too by keeping private security details and building fortified houses. Lately, the affluent classes have increasingly invested in real estate abroad in order to keep their ill-gotten money and families in safe havens. Among others, both President Zardari and the Sharifs have settled their families abroad.
The above situation irks one to speculate: has the hour of accountability of all personages, departments and organs of state finally struck, or are the institutions being trivialised by all those who matter in politics, society and government? I tend to go with the latter when I see a middle ranking official of the Anti-Narcotics Force, a wing of the Ministry of Narcotics, calling for the list of visitors to the prime minister’s house to establish a nexus between the prime minister’s family and some persons allegedly involved in a multi-billion rupees drug scam.
The writer is a lawyer and academic. He can be reached at [email protected]