| January 3, 2003 | Friday | Shawwal 29, 1423 |
Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)
A racist ban
Hasty reaction?
THE process of changing over from the dispensation that prevailed in the country during the past three years to a more representative system continues to unfold itself in bits and pieces. Since the October general elections, governments have been formed at the centre and in the four provinces. Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali has won a vote of confidence in the National Assembly, but the legislature is still incomplete because elections to the Senate have not yet been held. It has now been announced that these will be conducted next month, much later than they were scheduled to take place. This means that a full-scale legislative review of the many fundamental decisions made during the period of a military-led government, including several drastic alterations in the Constitution, will not be possible for some more time to come. Laws pertaining to the Senate polls were held in abeyance when the Constitution was restored following the general elections, along with Article 63 (A) prohibiting floor-crossing, which, according to news reports, came into effect again on Wednesday. Without the article’s temporary suspension, it would not have been possible for Mr Jamali to establish his majority in the assembly. Now that the purpose has been served, the article can be revived to forestall the possibility, although extremely remote, of defecting legislators going back to their parent parties before the Senate elections.
The article has an interesting history. It was incorporated in the Constitution as the 14th Amendment by the Nawaz Sharif government in July 1997. Mr Sharif was worried about dissent within his party and sought to block any move by disaffected legislators to break ranks. However, the amendment was welcomed also by the opposition and enjoyed unanimous passage through parliament. Many independent observers had pointed out at that time that while the tendency on the part of MNAs and MPAs to switch loyalties should be discouraged, the new measure went much beyond that and sought to stifle all dissent, with a prohibition even on abstention from voting. It was said that this would curb freedom of thought and action in areas of social reform where legislators might want to vote according to their conscience. Few bothered to pay heed to such criticism, and the issue has now come to haunt us again.
The article’s incorporation in the Constitution was not motivated by considerations of higher morality in politics; neither was its suspension by the Musharraf government. In the first instance, it suppressed — but did not eliminate — fissures within the PML that eventually helped the military to craft the PML(Q). In the latter case, it has ensured that electoral politics in the country has started off on unprincipled lines. Some 20 MNAs have been lured away by the PML(Q), enabling Mr Jamali to get 188 votes in his favour. But this has led to groups being accommodated in the federal cabinet far beyond their parliamentary strength, and this in turn may breed dissatisfaction among members of the PML(Q) and its partners. The allurements advanced and the pressure employed to win over the defectors must remain a subject of conjecture, but an unhealthy practice, which carries the seeds of instability, has not only been revived but has been reinforced in the name of establishing true democracy. The argument that the legislators acted according to the dictates of their conscience rather than for any other reason does not hold water. It is painful to observe the distortions and deviations made necessary by the original refusal to go to the electorate with an open mind.
NOTHING highlights the racist nature of Israeli democracy more than the ban on an Arab party, Balad, from taking part in the January election. The decision has been taken by the Israeli election commission, which has accused Balad of supporting Palestinian fighters. The ban will strengthen right-wing blocs in the Knesset, because the Arab MPs have traditionally sided with the Labour Party. According to Israeli political analysts, the ban will lead to an Arab boycott of the polls. Since Israeli Arabs constitute 20 per cent of the population, their boycott will go to increase the Likud’s and other right-wing parties’ strength in the Knesset, making it impossible for Labour to be part of any coalition government without the support of Arab MPs.
The election commission’s decision serves to underline the country’s racist character. Israel is also the only “democracy” in the world where there is press censorship. There are periodic elections, no doubt, but the trappings of democracy cannot hide the fact that Israel practises unabashed apartheid. Like Nazi Germany, it has zones exclusively for the herrenvolk, where Arabs cannot own houses. As rightly observed by some Middle East watchers, Israel is the only country in the world which is not a state of its citizens but a state for the Jews wherever they are in the world. Tel Aviv would also like to expel all Arabs from Israel and the occupied territories, including Al Quds. The aim is to strip Palestine of its Arab-Islamic character and to complete the Judaization of the entire Ottoman sanjak of Palestine as it existed at the end of World War I. Israel’s backers, who would like to strengthen democracy and human rights in Iraq and Afghanistan, should first ensure the observance of human rights and basic democratic values by their own protege.
THE circumstances leading to the reported US air attack on a madressah in South Waziristan are not clear. Apparently, the attack followed an exchange of fire between American troops hunting for Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives across the border of Afghanistan and Pakistani security forces posted on this side of the frontier. An American serviceman was injured, and subsequently an air strike took place on a building where the Pakistanis involved in the firing on US soldiers were said to have taken refuge. The building turned out to be a religious seminary; fortunately, there was no one there at the time it was hit. A proper investigation of the incident should provide useful lessons for the future.
The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan continues to be unstable. Groups of anti-coalition fighters still at large are said to be active in some areas despite heavy interdiction. No trace has been found so far of either Osama bin Laden or Mulla Omar. There is bound to be a sense of frustration among coalition troops operating in Afghanistan and Pakistani security personnel guarding the frontier on this side, and frustration easily leads to frayed nerves. There is also widespread resentment among the Pakhtoon population in the NWFP against the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan, which was reflected in the outcome of the October elections. It is quite possible that the feeling is shared by some hotheaded members of the border guards. In these conditions, any misstep or hasty reaction can have serious repercussions. There is need for rational rules of engagement and a code of conduct to ensure smooth working between Pakistani and coalition forces and prevent jurisdictional trespasses. If such arrangements had existed, the Americans would not have acted precipitously when this week’s fracas took place and would instead have asked their commanders to contact the Pakistan government.