The Master and the Servant

Even the court of law is forced to comment on the government style as the old colonial British system of “it is for the master to order and the servant to obey”. The recent unceremonious dismissals of the head of NADRA and PEMRA has irked all who believe in the rule of law. While the court is focusing on the process, the government is focusing on the person. That itself is the telling difference in those who believe in systems and those who believe in positions; those who believe in force  and those who believe in empowerment; those who believe in merit and those who believe in power. It is this diametrically opposing thought processes that is making a mockery of hire and fire practices seen by the government in their six months reign.

 

The normal definition of corruption is understood as illegal financial gains. Unfortunately, the unmeritorious appointments of people are never given its due status in mega corruption scams. If we combine the losses accumulated in public sector enterprises due to wrong appointments, this amounts to Rs 500 billion. If these are not mega scams then what is. PML N government had rightly criticized Zardari government of nepotism and cronyism in appointing all major heads of institutions. They had also promised that they in turn will make all appointments  on merit and in a transparent way. However what has happened is absolutely to the contrary. The commission that was supposed to be doing this recruitment exercise has faded in the past and people are being hired and fired at the will and behest of the “masters”. The first sign of this was the appointment of Shujaat Azeem, as an advisor to PM for PIA. His merit was that firstly he was the brother of Tariq Azeem aside from providing 6 star Jet chauffeuring duty to the PM during the election campaign. That his company Royal Air Services was a contractor for PIA was just a happy “coincidence” and not a conflict of interest. Despite hue and cry by all he continued his “flying” advice to the PM till the Supreme Court took a Suo Moto and his flight was offloaded.

Since then it has been a tragedy of errors. NAB head, Chaudhry Qamar uz Zaman has been a controversy from the beginning and has been sent on long leave to get off the media radar. The government takes the word “Government servant” literally. So all whose positions are tied to the government’s whims and fancies are just a stroke away from being or not being in their jobs any more. The famous case of Tariq Malik’s removal where he was told by Rana Sanaullah “do what we say or”…is continuing in this agonizing serial episode of autocratic democracy. Chaudhry Nisar has gone to great pains in emphasizing that since Tariq Malik’s termination letter was delivered at 1.30 am in the morning he was not removed at night but at dawn. Such is the paucity of defence.

The political fiefdoms are not only busy wielding their power on “servants” but preparing their heirs to the throne as well. If Maryam Nawaz becomes the Chairperson of the Youth business Scheme, Hamza Sharif is spearheading the Youth Business festival. Not to be outdone, Bilawal and Bakhtawar lead the Sindh Cultural Festival. Each scheme is going to be using billions of rupees of public money. What are the qualifications and merit of these people heading these programs? The explanation given by relevant authorities is that these programs are their “brainchild”. In reality the only qualification is that each one of them is the child of the rulers, and as was the case in kingdoms, only the sons of the masters can be the future masters.

Lip service democracy will always flounder. People will lose faith over a democracy that claims to be for the people and by the people but practices for the powerful by the power brokers; a democracy that makes claims of decentralization of power but hoards power at the highest level; a democracy that promises rule of law but exercises rule of the ruler. The irony is that they claim to be doing all this to “save democracy”. The struggle for this country is for freedom from such mindsets that preach democracy and practice autocracy.  Without this change, it will be more of the same.

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