Controlled campaigning

THE government’s decision to restore political activities from September 1 is welcome. This will give political parties 39 days for campaigning before the October 10 general elections — not very much time, but perhaps enough if the parties have done their basic homework such as preparing their manifestoes. The government’s decision has clearly been made grudgingly. Once it had agreed to hold parliamentary elections, there was no way it could avoid giving parties and candidates room for campaigning. But its conviction that the whole electoral process should be carefully managed is reflected again in the conditions that it has laid down to regulate political activities.

On a crucial aspect of electioneering, the government has overruled the election commission, which had issued an elaborate code of conduct just a week ago. The code permitted political parties to take out processions and hold rallies, provided certain formalities meant to preserve public order were fulfilled. The government has now rejected this, and said “rallies and processions on roads, streets, railway stations, etc.” shall not be allowed. This is extraordinary: the government will now have an even harder time trying to justify its position that the election commission is an independent body. If the commission’s considered views can be dismissed on such organizational matters as the mode and method of campaigning, many will wonder what will happen when the commission has to decide on more contentious electoral issues. It will be under pressure to reach verdicts that are acceptable to the rulers. Secondly, why at all ban rallies and processions? What is the government afraid of? The possibility of a degree of disruption in daily life is always there, of course. But the election commission’s code of conduct had specified several measures to minimize unnecessary trouble, and its recommendations should have been accepted. Political rallies serve to ensure popular participation and mobilize the electorate: they also have a role to play in the political education of the people. Even if there is some disruption in day-to-day life, it should be endured for a month or so.

We are hardly a very disciplined or efficient nation anyway, and a few days lost to elections can make little difference to our low productivity. If the time taken up by traffic stoppages caused by VIP movements on our roads is added up, it will surely be more than what we could lose in 39 days, and lose for a better cause. Elections are not held every day; in Pakistan, even less frequently than in most other developing countries aspiring to run democratic systems. When they come along, political parties have a right to campaign freely and reach as much of the electorate as possible. The special mention of the ban on rallies and processions as also covering railway stations is a patent attempt to block the train march by one political grouping and other such efforts by others. The government would be well advised to have enough confidence in itself — and in the good sense of political parties and individual candidates — to freely face the hurly-burly of an election campaign and refrain from making the whole exercise anodyne to an extent where the people may feel too bored and indifferent to turn out at all to vote.

Cooperation with Kabul

THE just concluded visit to Pakistan by two high-ranking Afghan ministers was a reassuring sign that relations between the two neighbours are back on an even keel following the fall of the Taliban regime. While in Islamabad, Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and finance minister Dr Ashraf Ghani held talks with a number of officials, including President Pervez Musharraf. They stressed the need for the two countries to boost cooperation in their efforts to stamp out terrorism and rooting out drug trafficking. President Musharraf offered his government’s full cooperation in the reconstruction of Afghanistan’s infrastructure, which has been badly battered following years of war, fratricidal fighting and strife.

Despite the occasional glitches in their relations, the two countries must turn their backs on the bitterness of the past and realize that they are inextricably linked to one another in a number of important ways. Not only do they share religious, cultural and tribal affinities but also have important economic linkages. Most importantly, landlocked Afghanistan depends on Pakistani ports for its sea trade. Islamabad too has a number of economic interests in Afghanistan. Pakistan, for example, could benefit greatly if it plays a major role in any future reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in that country. Pakistani machinery, manpower and expertise could play an important part in any future rebuilding effort, and its ports and transport sector could receive a major boost. Islamabad also has an interest in seeing the current government in Kabul headed by Hamid Karzai extend its writ over larger parts of the country. If Karzai can tame the warlords who wield vast power in the northern parts of the country, Pakistan would benefit greatly because it would then open up the land route to oil- and gas-rich Central Asia.

Islamabad has signed an agreement for the construction of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan, which could bring major economic benefits to all the three countries involved. The other issues on which the two countries could fruitfully collaborate is controlling smuggling. The Afghan ministers stated that they would be happy to discuss the issue and find a mutually acceptable solution. The Afghan transit trade has been a source of smuggling on a massive scale and has adversely affected Pakistan’s manufacturing sector and produced serious distortions in the economy. The visit by the Afghan ministers to Pakistan was a welcome step towards further improving relations between two countries that have everything to gain by boosting their political and economic ties.

Unjustified resistance

THE news of a potentially dangerous stand-off between Wapda and the Khyber Agency tribesmen over the installation of electricity meters in the tribal area is worrisome. Earlier, a number of local jirgas ruled that they would not pay electricity charges owed to the power utility as it was their right to have free access to the power being generated in their area. This, Wapda rightly insisted, could not be accepted, as power consumers living elsewhere in the country have to pay for use of the utility. Wapda had to suspend the power supply to the area on Sunday after heavily armed tribesmen threatened to blow up its installations if it went ahead with its decision to install electricity meters and bill the consumers. Just goes to show how far removed from reality are the people inhabiting the tribal areas, where the demand for payment for power is considered wholly unacceptable — an affront to their privileged status which they are prepared to resist by violent means if necessary.

The political agents from Khyber Agency, who act as designated intermediaries between the government and the tribal jirgas, seem to be in a quandary in the face of the threat posed by the armed tribesmen. The prevailing situation, thus, calls for a cautious approach to settling the issue of power billing. Meanwhile, the government would do well to engage the tribal leaders so as to gradually begin the process of extending the writ of the state to these federally administered areas, which, for all practical purposes, regard themselves as autonomous entities.