Posts Tagged TI

State accountability

21 June 2010
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My piece published in The Friday Times (June 18 issue)
Leaving aside the political debate on the results of the recent Transparency International (TI) survey, the results are pretty damning for the masters of our destiny. The issue is not about which province is least or most corrupt. The fact that the majority of respondents hold the Police as the most corrupt department since the last eight years is a matter of grave concern. It is even more troubling, given the current security scenario where Pakistanis are facing a crisis of public safety. Markets, shops, and highways are not safe. If there is a respite from the terrorists, then the criminals are there to make hay while collapsing administrative and policing structures struggle to manage their operations. Let us not forget that security of the person and their property is a fundamental right of the Pakistanis.
The party-based and ethnicity-oriented feuds on TI survey are meaningless as the Police is a provincial subject and TI’s surveys have consistently shown that there is something deeply rotten in how the security apparatus works at the subnational level. The causes for such a crisis of governance need to be highlighted, regardless of which party we vote for or where we live. What could be more telling than the events of the recent past?

How instability is garnered

8 February 2010
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My latest analysis published by The News

We continue to bemoan the failure of democratic norms to take root in our governance culture. True, that the repeated extra-constitutional interventions and direct or indirect military rule have rendered democratic governance as a distant and seemingly unattainable goal. In addition, the emergence of non-state actors, sometimes more powerful than the state itself has also led to formidable and multiple centres of power. In such a milieu, achieving the sustainability of democratic process is a Herculean task. Whilst the intentions of our unelected state institutions and their overt and covert non-state partners are clear, the behaviour of the political elites is confounding.

Not unlike the past, the divisiveness of Pakistan’s political elites has entered into a decisive phase. Fissures are apparent in the post-2008 political accord that led to the unanimous election of the Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani. The first cleavage, now a recurrent pattern, has emerged in Sindh where the coalition partners — the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) — are pitted against each other for political control of urban Sindh. The latest skirmish is rooted in the evolving arrangements for the local governments and who will end up controlling the third tier of government. However, there is an ethnic dimension to it as well. Karachi remains besieged by sectarian, provincial, and linguistic ghosts that apparently are alive and kicking.

The second disruption in the political compact that led to a transition towards representative rule is unfolding in the shape of a brewing discord between the ruling PPP and the opposition Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz). The PML-N rules the Punjab and thereby has a stake in the system and power matrix but it is also striving to maintain its ‘opposition’ status. This is why a dual strategy is evident where a few firebrand leaders of PML-N take a hard line against the federal government and the President Asif Ali Zardari. The party does not want to rock the system it says but also considers ‘options’ that lead to a mid-term election or even the premature exit of the President from the office in the wake of Supreme Court rulings on the National Reconciliation Ordinance. (more…)