| April 18, 2002 | Thursday | Safar 4, 1423 |
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Good beginning
New Delhi at it again
THE question of limiting the number of political parties has again cropped up, with interior minister Moinuddin Haider hinting at possible constitutional moves in this direction. Speaking to Nazims and Naib Nazims at Hyderabad, the minister said the government could limit the number of political parties through the political reforms it has in mind. It is not clear why the number of parties should be the government’s — or anybody’s — problem. It is true that Pakistan has an unbelievably large number of political parties — 100 is a fair guess. They range from two mainstream national parties to those which have a narrow provincial and ethnic base. Many are aptly called “tonga parties”, and many exist for no reason other than a leader’s refusal to be number two in his party. This has often led to a fragmentation of parties, with many splinter groups identifying themselves with the same name. The last two decades have also seen a mushroom growth of religious leaders and parties. Many of these leaders and parties did not start on a political platform; they were confined to the religious realm. However, as they realized that they were getting attention from the public, their ambitions grew and they switched over to a political role. Many political parties also have some roles cut out for themselves: they merely support the government in power and that way extract certain privileges for themselves.
Yet, amazing as it may sound, the people of Pakistan have shown extraordinary maturity when it comes to choosing their representatives. If the seven general elections since 1970 are any indication, the people have voted for mainstream parties. While regional parties have also sometimes got their quota of votes, the choice of the people has overwhelmingly been in favour of two mainstream parties. Many religious parties, for instance, are federal in the sense that they have a presence in all the four provinces. But still they have always been losers at the hustings.
Ultimately, let us accept, it is the political process itself that will limit the number of parties. For instance, in the last general election held in 1997, only seven parties could make it to the national assembly. Many parties simply did not have the necessary money and manpower to fight an election. It should be noted that all political parties — even those on the lunatic fringe — serve a certain purpose. By articulating every kind of political thought and philosophy, they bring to the fore whatever is there in the people’s minds. Fascists and extremists at one end of the political spectrum and ultra-liberals and utopians on the other tend to cancel each other out. This strengthens moderate and middle-of-the-road parties and politicians. Ultimately, the people reject extremists of all kinds. In Pakistan, as the last four general elections have demonstrated, a two-party system was in the process of evolution before the coup of October 1999 disrupted it.
In some countries, parties getting less than a given percentage of votes are barred from sending their candidates to parliament. But this happens in countries where there is proportional representation. Pakistan, given its literacy rate, is far from that state of sophistication. For this country, let the political process itself serve as a sieve. The high number of parties harms no one; rather it serves to broaden and enliven the political landscape. Those who have no useful role to perform will find themselves sidelined in any case. Let not the government worry itself on this score unnecessarily.
THE much-awaited disinvestment of the oil and gas sector has begun, with the Privatization Commission receiving bids worth over $176 million for government shares in nine fields. This is a welcome but belated development. The events of Sept 11 had seriously disrupted Pakistan’s privatization and disinvestment programmes and the country seemed to have lost almost six months as a result. Investor confidence in Pakistan now appears to be coming out of the ‘wait-and-see’ mode. The latest development signals the end of the waiting season. The bids offered seem to be on the low side. Market analysts believe that if the Privatization Commission pushes the highest bidders a little, a fairer deal can be clinched. Financial advisers are reported to have assessed the actual value of the shares on the block at about $200 million. It is also estimated that the total amount of the bids offered was less than three years’ profits from the fields, at an average of $60 million a year, calculated according to current profit trends.
It is hoped that the PC will do its best to finalize a deal which would serve as the standard to be followed in all future disinvestment and privatization deals. Some of the bidders already have minority stakes in the fields they have offered to buy, and if they win their bids the government will become a minority shareholder in these fields. A good number of these are foreign bidders. A successful disinvestment process in the oil and gas sector could, therefore, end up delivering a major portion of the sector into foreign hands. At one level, this would be a welcome development. It would ensure the inflow of foreign capital and technical and managerial expertise which we seriously lack in this particular sector. This would also improve the chances of more discoveries and the development of a larger number of fields. At another level, however, this may not be such a welcome development. Unless necessary safeguards are built into the final deal, Pakistan’s strategic assets could well fall into foreign hands.
ONCE again a Pakistani diplomat has been manhandled to the point of torture by India. On Tuesday at least a dozen Indian security men whisked away Ali Abbas to a secret location where they then proceeded to physically assault him. The torture to which he was subjected included electric shocks. This is the fourth case of its kind this year alone. In the three previous instances, the Pakistani diplomats were later declared personae non grata and asked to leave India. One can expect this to happen in this case too. Though no allegation has yet been made, going by past experience one can expect that the roughed-up official will be accused of indulging in “activities incompatible with his diplomatic status”.
The continuing attacks on Pakistani diplomats go against the spirit of the Vienna Convention of 1961 on Diplomatic Relations as well as the bilateral code of conduct signed between the two countries in 1992. Such actions do not help much in easing tensions between the two nations. Even if India feels that certain diplomats are acting in a manner that goes against their diplomatic status, it can follow a more civilized approach. It can inform the Pakistan High Commission, if it feels it has evidence, that an official has acted in a manner that violates his diplomatic status, then declare the official persona non grata and ask the embassy to repatriate him within a stipulated deadline. Perhaps such incidents, and their alarming regularity, are the natural outcome of the hauteur India displays in dealing with its smaller neighbours. Needless to say, such incidents only serve to cast India — and not its victims — in a bad light. New Delhi would do well to take some positive steps to improve its image, which, going by whatever has been happening in Kashmir and Gujarat, is far from humane.