| November 12, 2001 | Monday | Shaba’an 25, 1422 |
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Nothing wrong with the system
Under scrutiny again
THE World Bank has promised to provide, over a three-year period, 200 million dollars in loan to Pakistan for the specific task of restructuring the country’s tax collection machinery. The proposed restructuring is also aimed at making the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) completely autonomous in the matter of its budget and administrative policies and in respect of the recruitment and training of its personnel. Under the proposed plan, a ‘supervisory council’ equal to the status of a cabinet committee is also to be set up within the next three months. The council will approve the revenue target, CBR’s budget, its human resource development policy, compensation, delegation of powers to the CBR and the exercise of federal authority. The council is proposed to be headed by the federal finance minister, as its chairman while its members would include the minister of commerce, secretary-general of finance, deputy chairman, and chairman of the CBR. The members to be co-opted would include minister for science and technology, law secretary, the president of the FPCCI and a panel of three private sector members.
There are of course a number of logical reasons for making the CBR as autonomous as possible. Since the Board at present functions under the direct supervision of the finance ministry it is constrained by the budgetary needs of the finance ministry in fixing the annual revenue targets and more often than not it would find itself agreeing to a target which may be wholly unrealistic in the context of the economy’s revenue-yielding potential or which may be arbitrarily fixed by the finance ministry. Also because it works as a department accessible to every one connected with the government, including the intelligence agencies, it becomes very difficult for the CBR to operate independent of the needs of other departments which again, more often than not, work in direct conflict with the objectives of the revenue collectors. So the lack of adequate freedom to act has constrained the working of the CBR all these years and undermined its ability to perform to the best of its ability. Its dependence on the regular government channels for recruitments, promotions and placements has also over the years worked against its interest in the sense that the CBR has come to be manned overwhelmingly by officers not well grounded in the intricacies of finance and revenue generation.
So, there is a persuasive need for making the CBR autonomous. But the make-up of the proposed council to be headed by the finance minister is such that what is being proposed to be given with one hand may well be taken away with the other. The finance minister and the members of the council would do exactly what they are doing now with the CBR. They would continue to burden it with targets that fit the immediate expenditure parameters of the government rather than let the CBR develop a revenue strategy keeping in view the potential of the economy in terms of scope and its limitations along with the overall current fiscal and monetary ground realities and the future objectives of the national economic plans. What is happening now is that the cabinet comes up with new revenue proposals whenever the annual budget comes under pressure from new expenditure needs or unforeseen revenue deficits, and the council, because of its composition, dutifully endorses these proposals. Therefore, it would be more logical if the CBR is allowed to work independent of the finance and economic ministries — within, of course, the broad parameters of overall national economic philosophy which could be reviewed every five years or so.
THE Sindh health department and the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) have both come in for some criticism after a test conducted by the institute (on behalf of the department), for admission to medical colleges in Sindh, mistakenly contained questions that had already appeared two years ago. The test, which took place on October 28, has now been cancelled after the IBA admitted that there might have also been a leak, and a new date for the test has been set. Parents of candidates are understandably upset by what they see as a case of mismanagement and a lack of proper handling of setting of question papers. However, the criticism that the test adversely affects applicants’ chances of admission or calls for the scrapping of the system itself does not make sense.
Standardized tests are the norm for students applying to many of the best universities in the world, and are widely used in evaluating academic achievement. It is in fact a good thing that educational authorities in Pakistan — first in Punjab and now in Sindh — are moving toward this kind of assessment. This kind of testing mechanism minimizes chances of nepotism or manipulation of the result and hence is a major improvement on the current system of grading and examination. The way forward is not to dispense with testing but to eliminate flaws and loopholes that creep up in the working of the system.
PAKISTAN’s meteoric fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar is in trouble with the cricketing authorities once again. For the third time in two years, match officials of the International Cricket Council have filed a report questioning his bowling action following the recent Champions Trophy in Sharjah. Incidentally, Akhtar, believed to be one of the two fastest bowlers in the world, had been cleared of similar charges only a few months ago and seemed to have regained both his fitness and form at Sharjah. The ICC action has provoked a war of words between the Pakistan Cricket Board and the International Cricket Council. The ICC has appointed the legendary West Indian bowler Michael Holding to work with Shoaib on his action for a couple of months. If the controversy-prone Akhtar is reported again in the next 12 months he could face a one-year ban from international cricket. Earlier, Akhtar had undergone extensive tests at a prestigious Australian institute where it transpired that because his bowling arm was abnormally flexible, an illusion was created that he was ‘chucking’ the ball.
Incidentally, the same institute had also cleared Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan on exactly the same grounds after he was banned for having a suspect action. However, the ICC has ignored the findings of the same specialists in Akhtar’s case. The ICC, meanwhile, argues that just because a player has been cleared once does not mean that he will not resort to chucking in future. The PCB has also refused to put Akhtar under the tutelage of Holding and even hinted that it would back Shoaib if he decides to take legal action against the decision. It is time to put an end to this controversy that has increasingly dogged international cricket. Perhaps the answer is to take a hard look at the rules governing illegal bowling action and make them a little more realistic and flexible. As some cricketers argue, if umpires go strictly by the book as it stands, a large number of top cricketers would constantly fall victim to similar bans. In that case, the game of cricket is likely to be the real loser.