KARACHI: The decline of civil society in Pakistan and its impact was the topic of the lecture delivered by I.A. Rahman at the PMA House of Saturday evening. This being the third Hamza Wahid Memorial lecture was presided over by Prof Dr Aqeela Kayani, former head of the social welfare department at the Karachi University.
Dr Jaafer Ahmad, head of the department of Pakistan Studies compered the proceedings and briefly introduced the late Hamza Wahid and also I.A. Rahman, a senior journalist and director Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
I A Rahman in his paper observed that in Pakistan the institutions of checks and balances did not exist any more and sadly the civil society was not making efforts restore them.
He said: “Political parties, trade unions, lawyers, newspapers, intellectuals, educationists and professional bodies, all components of a civil society, should provide an alternative policy in the management of the state and allow every member of the country to show his/her talents.
The affairs of the state cannot be left at the mercy of governments institutions; the right to govern also belongs to those outside the realm of government.”
Dwelling upon the process of the decline in the civil society in Pakistan, Mr Rahman said that first came the loss of political will in political parties, which was followed by their total collapse. Different governments had also played their role in the demolition of the political structure. Politics was declared by certain sections of people as “un-Islamic”, and by others as ‘disruptive’ to the state.
The parties, said Mr Rahman, in later times were allowed to function only with the approval of the government. Political parties were made and un-made and alliances built and broken by governments and now governments were being formed with the approval of the state authorities.
To further weaken the civil society, the newspapers were controlled and taken over, the National Press Trust was founded and repressive press laws were passed. The smooth working of the trade unions was made difficult with disruptive and oppressive methods by employing state machinery and its resources. The Writers Guild was formed to control the minds of the thinking people and writers, and buy their loyalties in favour of the government.
Mr Rahman further said that what we needed now was an intellectual revolution in which every section of the civil society must play its role.
Pointing out the weakness in various social sectors, he said the lawyers demanded the revival of the constitution but were not making a joint struggle for its revival. The new labour laws had further damaged the labour class, but they were not united for action. Resultantly, the common people had lost confidence both in the state and the civil society. Mr Rahman made a fervent appeal to the political parties to play their role in the building of a vibrant political culture.
Dr Aqeela Kayani in her speech also urged intellectuals to play a positive role in the society.
Earlier, Anwer Ahsan Siddiqui explained the significance of the Ist of March as the date fixed to remember the services of late Ms Hamza who, throughout her life, remained committed to the cause of the labourers. Her recalled that it was on this day when in the year 1961 the police fired at a peaceful gathering of workers in the SITE area.—Hasan Abidi
