| July 20, 2002 | Saturday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 9, 1423 |
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Intrusive and unwise
Silencers for rickshaws
THERE are welcome indications from the government side of flexibility on the proposed constitutional amendments. On Thursday, delegations from the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement called on President Musharraf and conveyed their parties’ reservations about the amendments. However, no indication from the president’s side was available, but Muttahida leaders later claimed that the government seemed flexible on “all the issues” except the National Security Council. A Muttahida leader said the government was even prepared to do away with the graduation condition for parliamentarians. More forthright, however, was the federal information minister. Talking to reporters, Nisar Memon said the president was not “a rigid person” and that he (the president) believed certain proposals could be withdrawn. The information minister said the discussion in the press and the opinions of experts and politicians had served as a useful feedback for the government and that this would help achieve a consensus on the Basic Law. What the two delegations and the information minister made clear was that “principal amendments” would not be “touched” and that the reforms process would not be compromised. The Muttahida delegation also made it clear that, while the government was open to suggestions, it was not ready for a compromise on the NSC.
It goes without saying that the very concept of an NSC is incompatible with democratic norms. Democracy means people’s rule through their elected representatives. Elected to parliament, the prime minister and his colleagues represent the people’s will and have the sovereign mandate to serve them. To subordinate them to a non-elected body, which will have the right to dismiss the prime minister and dissolve the assembly, is to negate the very basis of democracy and constitutionalism. Similarly, the proposal to give the president the right to nominate any MNA as prime minister irrespective of the party position is a gross violation of the norms of parliamentary democracy. The proposals seeking to give the president power to appoint the chiefs of services and some other offices further erode the prime minister’s powers. All this goes against the president’s claim that he merely wants to introduce checks and balances in the exercise of power at the apex level. Instead, taken together, the two packages seem completely to alter the parliamentary system of government as envisaged now with one that is presidential in all but name.
This is not to deny, however, the inclusion of some welcome suggestions — like increasing the number of seats in the federal and provincial legislatures, reducing the terms of the assemblies to four years, and having a joint electorate instead of separate electorates. Similarly, reviving article 58-2b in a modified form is not a bad idea. Enacted by Ziaul Haq, it gave the president the right to sack the prime minister and dissolve the national assembly. As has been generally suggested, in a modified form this clause could authorize the president to dismiss the prime minister without dissolving the assembly and asking the House to elect a new prime minister. On the other hand, there are proposals that are plainly absurd — like giving every senator two votes, banning a person disqualified under Article 63 from holding a party office, or barring a person from becoming prime minister a third time — perhaps this could be changed to mean ‘three consecutive terms’. In any case, it is gratifying that the generals seem to be listening. One hopes that the final package will be in the form of a consensus, and that it will be left to the parliament to decide on it.
THE US decision to isolate Yasser Arafat while calling for a radical overhaul of the Palestinian Authority has created a bizarre situation on the ground in the Middle East. On Thursday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell identified two senior members of the Palestinian Authority — Interior Minister Abdel Razak al-Yahiyeh and Finance Minister Salam Faiad — as figures that the US could do business with. Praising the men for their role in pushing for reform, Powell stated that they could fill the power vacuum and hinted that the Palestinians should elect a leadership in their mould. Acting in unison with the US in this policy of selective empowerment, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has already met the Palestinian finance minister and is set to shortly meet the interior minister. This is an unprecedented state of affairs and constitutes a gross interference in the internal affairs of the Palestinians. The US cannot simply wish away the reality of Yasser Arafat being the elected head of the Palestinian Authority and deal with his subordinates by bypassing him.
Washington’s resort to such tactics is a direct result of its misguided policy of trying to undermine Arafat while still trying to maintain contacts with the Palestinians in order to push the reform process forward. This flawed line of action was first enunciated by President Bush on June 24, when he echoed the anti-Arafat obsession of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The Palestinians, he imperiously demanded, must get rid of their leader and mend their ways of governance if they wished to achieve even a nominal kind of statehood in the future. Washington’s anti-Arafat line is not shared by any of its allies in Europe or the Arab world. All the other members of the ‘quartet’ pushing for peace in the Middle East, which includes the US, Russia, the EU and the UN, have bluntly told the US that ditching Arafat was not the best way forward. The Bush administration must realize that picking and choosing the leadership it can — or cannot — do business with is not Washington’s prerogative but that of the Palestinians.
THE Karachi traffic police have done well to take the initiative in developing a new autorickshaw silencer in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency and a local silencer manufacturer in order to reduce the traffic-generated noise level on the city roads. Unveiling the new silencer, which is now available at an affordable price, the Sindh inspector-general of police has given autorickshaw owners six months to comply with the new traffic police regulation making the installation of this silencer mandatory for all autorickshaws plying on the Karachi roads. This is a step in the right direction and speaks of a good move on the part of the Karachi police to reduce the defeaning noise given out by all manner of vehicles, particularly autorickshaws. At the same time, there was talk of making the autorickshaws eventually free of the bane of excessive emission of smoke which their two-stroke engines cause and which pollutes the air. The Karachi traffic police are also examining ways to help develop compressed natural gas kits that could replace the petrol tanks in rickshaws.
That the city’s traffic police have finally decided to play a people-friendly role and taken some initiatives in relation to problems that affect the quality of life in the city is admirable. The current approach is the right one and if implemented properly, it would help restore the public confidence in the traffic police, while also relieving the citizens of the strain, discomfort and health hazards of noise and air pollution caused by noisy and smoke-emitting vehicles. The same spirit of active interest and efforts is also needed to bring some order out of the utter chaos that characterizes traffic in the city, which is becoming worse by the day in the absence of proper regulation and control.