Price Of Power

The contrast between what the senate is supposed to represent and what it actually does indicates how democracy is being abused to suit the elite capture we have witnessed in our political system

That there is no free lunch in politics is understandable but that the lunch is extortionately expensive is unbelievable. Politics, in economic terms, is the game of imperfect competition. In democratic terms, those who enter parliament and the senate are people who represent the ordinary public and thus should be the true representative of the masses. When we look at the type of people who enter these august houses we find faces that, by no stretch of the imagination, resemble what the ordinary Pakistani represents except perhaps in one unfortunate aspect. The ordinary Pakistani is not educated and the same is the case with most of our political leaders, if we go by the generous amount of fake degrees being discovered amongst the assembly entrants. Ordinary Pakistanis can hardly afford two decent meals a day and live in abject poverty but our parliamentarians and senators live a life of abject luxury, ordinary citizens are being gunned down and bombed by mercenaries but parliamentarians ride in bulletproof cars with security people all around them to protect their precious lives, ordinary citizens, when sick, cannot find basic healthcare in public hospitals but politicians get millions of rupees in medical allowances to get healthcare in VIP hospitals abroad, ordinary citizens cannot find and afford decent education for their children but politicians go to conferences and programmes worth billions to the most exotic countries in the world and, of course, the ordinary citizen will pay huge amounts in direct and indirect taxes on his paltry income but politicians will hardly bother to register an NTN number in their name on their unlimited income.

That is why being a parliamentarian, senator or minister beats anything else as far as money, luxuries and power are concerned. That is why being elected in one of the houses is such a cutthroat and wheeling dealing business. That is why more money exchanges hands in elections than in a stock exchange. The business of elections follows the same rules of seeing how many buyers are there and is based on supply and demand price per seat formula. The current senate elections have also become a market place for the highest bidder with the starting price being so high that no ordinary man can dream of being part of this ‘upper house’. Again, the contrast between what the senate is supposed to represent and what it actually does indicates how democracy is being abused to suit the elite capture we have witnessed in our political system regardless of the form of government. The constitutional purpose of the senate is to provide a proportional representation of each province in law and policy making for the whole country. Senate elections take place in accordance with Article 59 of the Constitution. Each of the four provincial assemblies elect from the next senate election 23 members from their respective provinces that include 14 on general seats, four on seats reserved for technocrats including the ulema (clergy), four on seats reserved for women and one on the seat reserved for non-Muslims. Four members i.e. two on general seats, one technocrat including aalim and one woman, are elected from the federal capital whereas eight members are elected from the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) in such manner as the president may by order prescribe.

The senate is a permanent legislative body that symbolises a process of continuity in national affairs. The term of its members is six years. However, one-half of its members retire after every three years. A vacancy in the senate, caused by resignation, death, incapacitation, disqualification or removal of a member, is filled through elections by the respective electoral college and the member so elected holds office for the un-expired term of the member whose vacancy he has filled.

A person seeking election to the senate should not be less than 30 years of age and should be registered as a voter in an area or province from where he seeks election and should meet other qualifications prescribed under Article 62 of the Constitution. Constitutionally, the candidate’s character and background requirements are highlighted in the typical articles but politically the major requirement is just huge money and the right connections in the right lobby. Many politicians who have been denied a seat have come open with the facts that bidding price for the seat starts at Rs 250 million and can go up to three times this amount depending upon the number of aspirants for that seat.

The very fact that people have paid such astronomical amounts to enter this house makes their purpose very clear. They see this entry as a gateway to status, recognition and a high return on investment. Being a senator gives them access to the VIP culture that is extremely important for people having this great need for pomp and ceremony that elevates them politically and personally. Secondly, becoming a senator gives you the power of being at the centre of doing or not doing favours to industries, contracts and projects. That ability to influence a decision in favour or against projects worth billions makes the job of recovering your seat cost easy. Thus the desire to enter the upper house is aligned with the desire to have an upper hand at wheeling dealing billions through various lobbies and the desire to up the game of having the privileges and pleasures of a blue passport, a chance to be another head with heads of states, an opportunity to be in the limelight of the media. As far as desire to serve the country is concerned that is, of course, a very noble desire and should be versed in every public conversation but has nothing to do with the intent of most of these upper men of the upper house.

Power not only corrupts but also makes you addicted to control. The ability to buy people’s choices, influence national decision making and subjugate all men of rank to your way of thinking is a very heady combination that explains this almost insane desire to bid all for a mere seat. This then is not democracy but a form of distributed autocracy. In the autocratic system one man gains control through force while, in this form of democracy, a few people and their connected individuals through a high priced auction system ensure that power remains hoarded in a club whose membership fee makes the entry of the ordinary man impossible. When power is purchased but not earned it will never be used for the benefit of the masses. To ensure that those who truly represent the masses are the ones who enter these houses, there is a need to review the entire system of not only electing but screening candidates, for creating barriers to power pushing, for ensuring a level playing ground between power haves and power have-nots. Otherwise democracy will always be a deceptive ozone layer for power hoarders.

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Intelligence Unwanted

The poor owners had their factory burned, case registered against them and yet paid Rs 150 million to probably save themselves from target killing

If ignorance is bliss, deliberate ignorance is an abyss. Being human and being ignorant is not fair and being human and not wanting to know is almost criminal. However, the art of looking the other way and the art of pretending it never happened is what is referred to as qualities of a sensible and mature person. Does being sensible mean being insensitive to one’s surroundings? Does being sensible mean being indifferent to the obvious? With so much innovation, development in the world to connect and communicate with everybody at all levels, why has this knowledge and information era made us more unaware and inactive? Social media is the true boundary breaker in the communications world. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all sorts of chats have made messaging and talk cost-free and instant. Clickomania has overtaken face-to-face and telephonic conversations. One click and the life of the individual becomes bare and naked in front of you. With such advancement in technology, it is virtually impossible to hide under the excuse that information is hard to find, provided you do want to find it and, having found it, you want to do anything about it.

Here lies the dilemma of nations like ours where the proper usage of information is not being made to cruise along with more developing countries on the information highway. Lack of education and awareness is an almost inevitable feature of an underdeveloped country. However, the bigger crime is when information is turned into intelligence and deliberately suppressed or distorted to abuse the innocence of ignorance. It is this censor on the truth that makes countries become havens of crime and violence. What can be a bigger incentive for criminals to flourish than to see investigations leading to hardcore evidence being brushed away till it ceases to matter? This results in hardened criminality with multiplication of crimes to an extent where it is hard to distinguish who is and is not involved — exactly the reason for where Pakistan is today in terms of terrorism and law and order. With such a ‘distinguished’ record of investigative reports being pushed into the rubbish bin, one more report — on the Baldia Town fire — is just waiting to be shelved and become part of our bitter history. Why is there such an aversion to taking these reports seriously?

To answer the second part of the question, the best way to pacify the hue and cry of an aghast public is to order an investigation. It is legally and ethically the best immediate answer. Then you make it difficult for the report to be compiled and buy time so that by the time it is leaked or is debated, the events have lost their relevance and fury. Also, if those who commissioned the report have changed then it becomes easy to disown it and dismiss it. That is why, despite some really brilliant reports written on strategic level critical incidents, nothing has ever happened to make the whole effort worth it.

The most famous one was the Hamoodur Rehman Commission report. This commission was set up by the government of Pakistan to investigate the reasons and causes of its worst ever defeat by the Indian army and Mukti Bahini, a group that was involved in the freeing of Bangladesh from the oppressive control of Pakistan. The commission that was constituted on December 26, 1971 by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto submitted its report on October 23, 1974. It gave complete details of how moral, political and administrative failings were responsible for the surrender of the Pakistan army in East Pakistan. It also gave political reasons why the leaders in East Pakistan, including Mujibur Rehman, who was the president of the Awami League, were forced to resort to military struggle for the creation of Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujibur Rehman’s Awami League had won the election of united Pakistan held in 1970. The commission headed by the then Chief Justice (CJ) of Pakistan, Justice Hamoodur Rehman, held widespread atrocities, serious acts of human rights violations, other abuses of power by Pakistani generals and complete failure in civilian and martial law leaderships responsible for the loss of East Pakistan. The commission recommended stringent punishment for top army officials, including court martial for a number of them. The response of the man who commissioned this report was that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ordered that each and every copy of the commission report be burnt.

Similar was the fate of the Abbottabad Commission report and the more recent Model Town Joint Investigative Team (JIT) report by Jusitce Najafi. The original JIT report by Justice Najafi stated that Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif, then Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, then Principal Secretary of the CM Dr Tauqeer Shah and other senior police officers were directly or indirectly responsible for the killings of at least 14 Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers and injuries to over 100 people when police clashed with PAT workers on June 17 in front of Tahirul Qadri’s residence in Model Town. The CM suppressed the report and withdrew it by saying that it was not complete and accurate, and then ordered another one under the supervision of the same people who were incriminated in the event.

Thus, when the Baldia Town report came out after two and a half years its delay was no surprise. But its findings are shocking. That 289 poor men, women and children were burnt alive as punishment for refusal of extortion is indigestible and unforgivable. The arrested target killer had recounted to interrogators how the factory was set on fire when its owners refused to pay extortion of Rs 200 million. Upon the refusal of the factory owners, Rehman Bhola and his unknown accomplices hurled chemical substances at the factory, which caused the inferno.

After the incident, a former provincial minister who belonged to the same political party got registered a case against the factory owners and, subsequently, used his influence to cancel the bail of the factory owners when they approached the court. However, the factory owners paid extortion money of Rs 150 million under duress for disposal of the case. Imagine the poor owners had their factory burned, case registered against them and yet paid Rs 150 million to probably save themselves from target killing.

This report is the true test of political parties, the state, media, civil society and public. The burning alive of 289 people is the biggest terrorism incident in recent history, bigger than Shikarpur and bigger than the Army Public School (APS) Peshawar, and with full intelligence available and criminals caught. Even if the politicians do the disappearing act, can we as human beings let something worse than Hitler’s gas chamber extermination of innocents be forgotten because we are too terrorised or cynical to challenge this tyranny? Time for some introspection and time for some action.

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Comfortably Corrupt

Any talk of the lesser evil being also bad is considered unrealistic, bookish and misplaced idealism

A degree is a degree, whether fake or original. This classic quote by one of our top leaders best defines how corruption is viewed in our society. The definition of what being honest, right or lawful is has undergone a tremendous change in the last few decades where it has become difficult to classify people as being respectably wrong or wrongly respectable. The general understanding is that any transaction in which a tangible and provable financial coup is made by an individual or organisation is what gets classified as corruption. That is why tags like Mr 10 percent are so easy to understand and become a standard to be compared to others. Such obvious corruption unfortunately only forms one percent of the massive wrongdoings that have beset the world today. In Pakistan, the ability to get away even with murder has mostly been considered political acumen, strategic maturity and conniving intelligence. What is more disturbing is that many of the acts that are equal to corruption and may cause much more financial or legal damage are now no longer a matter of debate as they are not considered unlawful. Not paying taxes, getting loans written off, ruining institutions by appointing unfit people and taking advantage of your position or office are all normal, everyday routines that are acceptable to the public in general.

Human beings are creatures of habit and the human mind gets used to most with the passage of time. Over a period of time, the belief system of our society has changed by seeing so much happening in an unprincipled manner yet nobody being able to do anything about it. Most people do a mental withdrawal and accept it as an inevitable part of living in a country that they have long ago given up upon. When a society starts assessing things on what is the degree of wrongness rather than on what is the degree of rightness then it will keep on lowering its threshold of tolerance and adopt the lesser evil attitude. Any talk of the lesser evil being also bad is considered unrealistic, bookish and misplaced idealism. Such a belief system manifests itself in frustration and random cynicism where it is easy to mock and dismiss any attempt at fighting for what is right. Such talk is categorised as immature insanity. This creates spiritual bankruptcy, causing people to go through the motions of living without really fighting and striving for better.

Even the most factual science theory states that the mind dictates actions to the body. Thus, the inaction that we see in many suppressed countries is due to the mental subjugation to this belief that we can only get worse. This is precisely what Pakistan is going through. People in positions of power are now accepted as being corrupt and incorrigible, and the scandal and scam tolerance level associated with them is almost unlimited. Though financial scams are the ones that take the eye, it is positional abuse that takes the cake. For example, the last government had this huge scandal associated with the prime minister of rental power plants being commissioned at almost Rs 200 billion. This case became a symbol of big leaders and big scams. In comparison, the present government has always claimed that it has done no corruption. However, the financial decay caused due to breaking laws and the Constitution, and appointing people of no merit is much more devastating financially than the figure stated above.

Consider this: in 2013, the financial year’s circular debt retirement amounted to Rs 480 billion. A large amount to pay this off was procured by printing money that caused inflation to jump and billions of rupees to lose value, sending millions below the poverty line of living on less than two dollars a day. Also, there is a constitutional requirement of doing a pre-audit before sanctioning it, which was not adhered to and thus the allocation was made to the IPPs on the whims and fancies of the minister of finance, who has been asked to do a transparent audit and explain where the money went but, to date, no audit is forthcoming. This has resulted in circular debt rearing its ugly head again, now crossing Rs 300 billion. To make up for this paid yet not paid circular debt, the government overbilled consumers to the amount of Rs 70 billion and then put surcharges and taxes on consumers again, without getting them through parliament, worth Rs 300 billion. With simple math in just one area, this amounts to Rs 850 billion. This figure is more than three times the rental power scandal but has not been perceived so because it is being packaged as being emergency measures to overcome the crisis; the explanation given by the finance minister is that if a few deviations are being made it is at best just being legally illegal or illegally legal. This creates enough complication and confusion for the ordinary masses. They keep on giving the benefit of the doubt to the government as they cannot assign a solid, big, quantitative chunk being taken as commission on a notorious project. Add the cost of hiring incompetent cronies and paying them phenomenal salaries plus the many cronies that they in turn hire that bleed the organisation to death.

The Pakistan State Oil (PSO) head, who was finally axed, had in 18 months earned a salary of over Rs five million per month that amounted in just cash terms to Rs 90 million. If a rough calculation is made of such appointments and the salaries given to them, it will easily surpass the Rs 200 billion that gave such shocks to the public when the rental power plants were brought to court. Take any institution, be it the police, electricity, public enterprises, gas, oil, etc, and we will find such invisible yet invasive corruption going on routinely. This is known as viral corruption; it is all around us but its bacteria is not identifiable and catchable, yet the damage to the system is lethal.

We all rue the obvious losses of robbery, embezzlements and bomb blasts, etc, but the real loss is losing the sense of loss. It is amazing how indifferent we have become to the news of 10 or 15 people dying daily on roads and in blasts; we fleetingly feel sorry but then move on. It has to be a number like the 140 children at the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar to move us to emergency action. Similarly, corruption of a few billions is taken for granted and is acceptable; it takes a scandal of hundreds of billions of rupees in one go to come to the fore to make us aghast and undertake some action. This is what we call being comfortably numb and it is this state of mind in a society that encourages wrong to become right.

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Out Of Global Context

Considering that the US is a major strategic partner in trade and the war on terror it is amazing how little vision we have of evaluating whether it is a true partnership or just a tag of convenience for Pakistan to show off to the rest of the world

The World Economic Forum (WEF) holds a meeting every year of all those who matter in business, economics and politics, and debates the direction of the world in the coming year. For 2015, the theme was ‘In the global context’. While 2014 was a tough year with slow growth, outbreaks of Ebola and high costs of energy, 2015 has been predicted as a year of higher growth, a more robust financial sector and lower costs of production due to falling oil prices. The BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, China, India) remained outstanding for weathering economic storms better than the EU and US. The Brazil and Chinese governments are now ready to gear up investments locally and globally, and India, after the change in government, is aggressively wooing and pursuing investment from countries all around the globe. Where in this context is Pakistan and how does it need to position itself to overcome the danger of being left out of the global context?

Pakistan has been ideally placed for the last so many years to take advantage of the shifting global interest. Southeast Asian countries have long become mature in terms of growth and market dynamics as well as labour costs. The natural spillover of investment is South Asia. While the rest of the world is growing at hardly 3.5 percent, South Asia is growing at six percent with countries like India and Bangladesh projected to grow seven percent plus in the coming few years. This makes them an automatic choice for investors around the world. However, in this set of choices Pakistan is not in the consideration box of the big players of the world. Foreign investment in Pakistan in the last few years has trickled to insignificance and exports have stagnated at $ 25 billion, which is not really reflective of the potential of this country. A typical example is the usage of GSP Plus status that was awarded by the EU to Pakistan. GSP Plus reduced significantly the duties imposed by EU countries on Pakistani products. This was supposed to bolster the extremely low level of exports by at least 15 percent and add at least $ 1.5 billion to our export receipts. However, the exporters have lamented the lack of availability of gas and electricity and cost escalation as major reasons behind why this opportunity has gone abegging.

This raises the major question of the search for an investment and trade policy that shows the way forward. In the absence of the way forward, there is only one way to go and that is backwards. Considering that the US is a major strategic partner in trade and the war on terror it is amazing how little vision we have of evaluating whether it is a true partnership or just a tag of convenience for Pakistan to show off to the rest of the world or for the US to use as a ploy to make India tentative. While the global context is clearly stating that economies, societies and issues are going to demand more equal treatment to maintain the status of a reasonable player in the world, Pakistan is ensuring exclusion and isolation by marketing itself as a state that can only help itself get back into bygone eras rather than be part of the great opportunity that is coming the way of being in a region that is naturally an heir to the world investment throne.

What is the understanding of a “global context” in terms of our present government? If it means the Prime Minister (PM), with his near and dear, going on foreign tours and making breaking news by being seen with his entourage shaking hands with the who’s who, then Pakistan is heading this global context. With over 20 foreign trips under his belt in almost 18 months he is definitely globetrotting more than any other leader but the question really is what sort of investment these trips have generated. A comparison with the Indian PM is definitely due. Narendra Modi has made about nine trips to foreign countries and has made each trip with a purpose and profit for his country. His trip to the US was extremely important as he needed to change his image of a man inclined towards the non-liberal right and get Obama interested in the country as a strategic partner in trade and the war against terror. He used the card of common distrust against Pakistan on the war against terror and common interest in rejuvenating the US and Indian economies through trade as a great platform for both countries. President Obama has not only come to India but has announced four billion dollars worth of new initiatives aimed at boosting trade and investment ties as well as jobs in India, and has opened up a whole new source of financing for social development ventures in the country through a new Indian Diaspora Investment Initiative. The four billion dollars deals include two billion dollars of leveraged financing for renewable energy investments in India through the US Trade and Development Agency and one billion dollars in loans for small and medium businesses across India through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).

Normally such MoUs are just fancy promises but the seriousness of the commitment was visible when the US president also announced the creation of a high-level US-India strategic and commercial dialogue to monitor progress on the pacts and vision statements laid out by PM Modi and President Obama. The mechanism, he said, would hold the bureaucracies of the two countries accountable for translating the vision of the two leaders into reality.

The sadness of the situation is that not only are we going out of the global context but that we are also going out of the local context. Governor Sarwar’s resignation is symbolic of not just a disagreement on issues but also a disagreement on values. His main reason for resigning was his admission of how overseas Pakistanis, who have invested in land and other areas, feel insecure at the hands of the land mafia who are beyond governance and higher than the law. If diehard overseas Pakistanis feel that their own assets and investments are prone to be taken over by anybody in power or close to power, how can we ever expect foreigners to put a vote of confidence in response to our appeals for Pakistan being part of the next investors shopping destination? Neither is being subservient to the US the solution nor is being anti-US the remedy. What is needed is being pro-Pakistan and protecting the rights and obligations of every citizen living inside and outside this country. What is needed for that is governance independent of the whims and fancies of the government? Without the government being governable themselves, governance will remain an item on the wish list.

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