| December 21, 2001 | Friday | Shawwal 5, 1422 |
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Executive magistrates
Salik in a cage
THE World coalition against terror notwithstanding, the Bush administration continues to display distinctly unilateralist tendencies. The US decision to unilaterally withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty is likely to alarm world opinion and may well trigger a new arms race. Signed during the heyday of the cold war, the arms control treaty had the symbolic virtue of giving the Russians an illusion of parity with the US, even after the world had dramatically transformed following the break-up of the Soviet Union. The move will be seriously embarrassing for Vladimir Putin, who is already under attack domestically for his increasingly pro-US stance since the events of Sept 11. His hard-line critics at home are likely to depict the American move as a deliberate attempt to humiliate Russia.
The ABM decision reflects the growing isolation of the multilateralists within the Bush administration, such as secretary of state Colin Powell, and the growing strength of the hard-line unilateralist lobby. It has long been an article of faith with right-wing Republicans that the US should move ahead on a number of important issues according to its own perceived interests rather than wait for a wider global consensus. The decision to unilaterally withdraw from such an important international treaty is not surprising given the Bush administration’s recent record. In the span of a year, the US has systematically scuttled a number of international agreements, including the Kyoto protocol on global warming, the UN move to limit the proliferation of small arms, and the Geneva conference to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention. The withdrawal from the ABM treaty is now likely to pave the way for the Republican right’s favourite obssession — the proposed National Missile Defence plan.
The ambitious multi-billion dollar programme has, in one form or another, been championed by a string of Republican administrations. In the eighties, Ronald Reagan was an ardent advocate of an earlier incarnation of the NMD, the Star Wars. The NMD is meant to shield the US from long-range missile attacks, a theme that may well find acceptance in a traumatized post-Sept 11 US. President Bush recently championed its cause by playing on such fears. He argued that if a handful of hijacked planes could cause such havoc in the US, imagine the damage an attack by nuclear-tipped, long-range missiles could wreak. However, critics have questioned the need for such a shield and raised eyebrows at its massive cost. They have also claimed that such a shield could allow the US to intervene as it pleases across the globe without fear of any significant reprisal. If the US does go ahead with the rapid development and deployment of the missile shield, it is likely to meet with considerable global opposition even from America’s staunchest allies. While the Russians and the Europeans are bound to react with concern, China is likely to be the most alarmed by such a move. Fears are that any attempt to go ahead with the NMD will prompt Beijing to respond by developing more sophisticated offensive weapons. If good sense does not prevail in Washington, America’s go-it-alone policy could well trigger a new and highly debilitating nuclear arms race.
THE Punjab government’s decision to seek the powers of defunct executive magistrates for the officers of the district governments points to inadequacies in the enforcement mechanism of the new set-up. Obviously, if the local government system is to be effective, it must have a proper machinery to get its decisions implemented. This it seems to be lacking which, prima facie, is a major flaw, calling for speedy redress in the interests of smooth official working. The judicial magistrates, whose services were hired to control prices during Ramazan, could not deliver the goods, because they only awarded sentences to violators produced before them by the police. In this regard, the meeting chaired by the provincial governor in Lahore noted that the past practice of executive magistrates checking any violation through surprise raids was more effective. But even otherwise, the district governments were facing hurdles in implementing policies on simple matters like the removal of encroachments without the executive magistrates.
No system of government can work properly without an effective enforcement arm. The district coordination officers and their teams of executive district, revenue and forest officers apparently lack the requisite authority to get government decisions enforced. Although powers earlier vested in executive magistrates were transferred to the judiciary, the latter was greatly overburdened by additional workload. Even though some 300 executive magistrates were transferred to the judiciary, the government has still been facing difficulties in implementing its policies, particularly on law and order. Reportedly, no DCO is willing to handle the issue without a legal and administrative cover. Even the government decision to make the district police officers answerable to the Nazim through the DCO mainly for the maintenance of law and order could not fully motivate subordinate officers to take part in the exercise. However, the ultimate effect of it all has to be borne by the people, adding to the frustration over the inadequate district government performance and implementation of the devolution plan. It is, therefore, necessary to remove hurdles in the way of an effective functioning of the local governments and provide a credible mechanism for carrying out their decisions in a satisfactory manner.
Julius Salik’s decision to stay a further eleven days in a ‘cage’ — to raise awareness about the growing drug use among young people — is a novel idea. Mr Salik, a former minister in a PPP government and elected to parliament by the Christian community more than once, has been in self-imposed incarceration since November in what basically seems to be a steel cage the size of a jail cell. In newspaper pictures, it often looks like a cage in a zoo or a circus. He lives in it, sleeps in it and eats in it, insisting he does this to express solidarity with Muslims in the holy month of Ramazan. While in the steel cage, Mr Salik was taken to Lahore, Sargodha, Gujranwala and Faisalabad, so that people could see this display of solidarity for themselves. The former minister is no stranger to such antics. He served in the last Benazir government and, when it fell, made much show of leaving the capital for his hometown near Lahore. He loaded all his belongings on a camel train and set off for his village, and as expected managed to get media attention.
One suspects this time, too, he has managed to do just that. The sentiments of the members of the Christian community are indeed welcome. One hopes the majority community will reciprocate in some way now that Christmas is approaching. But, might we add that there are surely other, perhaps better, ways of showing such solidarity than locking yourself in a cage and being driven around half the country. Drawing public attention to drug abuse is something worthy, but perhaps a better way might be to link this to a money-raising campaign. Maybe Mr Salik could get philanthropists to donate a certain sum of money for each day he spends in the cage. He might be surprised by the amount he manages to raise.