| 02 January 2004 | Friday | 09 Ziqa'ad 1424 |
Habib Bank sale
Celebrations under siege
General Pervez Musharraf has, as entirely expected, obtained a vote of confidence as president from parliament and the four provincial assemblies. The MMA, which agreed to the vote-of-confidence device as a one-time substitute for a presidential election in its deal with the government, abstained from voting while the ARD parties boycotted the proceedings.
The procedure adopted to gain legitimacy for Gen Musharraf's presidentship was not in accordance with the Constitution, and its validity was based on the 2002 referendum, which itself was flawed.
The best that can therefore be said about Thursday's exercise is that it is an affirmation by a majority of the country's legislators of the general's already de-facto position as president.
If the president feels that this has strengthened his hands, then he should have fewer problems in leaving his army office by the end of the year, as promised in the agreement signed with the MMA, or indeed earlier.
With the LFO now formally part of the Constitution and the president affirmed in office, the political crisis that had held the nation in thrall could be said to be over for the time being.
But that does not mean that the search for a democratic, accountable and representative political system has ended. It has just begun. Many of the LFO features added to the Constitution have diluted the parliamentary nature of the system embodied in the 1973 document.
The supremacy of the Constitution and the legislature has to be asserted and protected. Institutions are more important than individuals, but unfortunately in the past half-a-century, the trend has been for presidents and prime ministers to try to reinforce their own positions - at the cost of institutions, which have been weakened in all areas of public life.
In trying to rehabilitate our frayed system, the president will have to overcome his inclination to keep the rest of the opposition ostracized. It is not necessary that he should immediately sit down with the PPP or the PML-N, but the ARD parties' support among large sections of the people should be recognized and they should enjoy the freedom to work, and their advice should be sought on crucial domestic and foreign policy issues. There has been too much rancour and petty-mindedness in our politics: these need to be left behind.
And one of the ways to do this would be by letting parliament function as an independent body, without anyone trying to fix it. The government will need the ARD parties' cooperation also in tackling religious extremism.
The president and the PML-Q have got themselves into a bit of a bind by relying on the MMA to give them legitimacy. It is far from certain that by conceding some of the MMA's demands, they have neutralized the alliance's parties, whose sympathy for some of the "jihadi" tendencies is well known.
Past experience shows that concessions to the religious right have proved counter-productive. Successive governments and leaders have created a psychosis of intolerance and bigotry, and there can be no magic wand that would change this outlook.
It can only be done by building the widest possible national consensus. The president will require the help of all representative political parties in trying to move Pakistan closer to what he describes as a "moderate" Islamic state, and he should bend his energies to securing the largest possible measure of cooperation in this endeavour.
Habib Bank sale
This week's sale of the strategic stake in Habib Bank, the country's second largest commercial bank, is being seen as the first in a number of sell-offs the government plans for the year.
The Privatization Commission is understandably proud of this sale because it is stated to have met the minimum price target. However, some quarters have expressed their reservations over the manner in which the bidding process was conducted.
The senate is expected to hold a discussion on this although for all practical purposes the deal appears to have been signed and sealed. One aspect that needs to be looked into is the lack of bidders for what is one of the banking industry's most attractive entities.
Nineteen investors gave their expressions of interest of which the government short-listed only three. Of these three, one did not bother to even put in a bid. The timing of this sale at the year end and the fact that many of the big players in the market were missing from the final bidding process does not reflect favourably on the work of the Privatization Commission in attracting the right candidates.
Another broader issue is the government's overall approach to privatization. The privatization minister says that the exchequer is incurring a burden of over Rs90 billion annually because of loss-making units.
However, what we are seeing is that it is the profitable public sector entities that are being sold off in haste while the less attractive organizations remain unsold. The government's argument that the sale of the more viable entities will entice investors to the country to buy the less attractive options remains to be tested.
The privatization minister has also argued that the sale of state-owned units and the induction of the private sector would generate more jobs. In the decade of privatization that the country has witnessed, this has not happened. Instead, what we have seen are closures and retrenchments.
In conclusion, it can be said that the whole privatization process should not just be seen as a means for the government of the day to generate more funds and get rid of public sector entities. The general interest in terms of jobs as well as the prices of the goods or services these entities deliver should also be taken into consideration.
Celebrations under siege
Most countries take elaborate measures to facilitate New Year's celebrations for their citizens (in Berlin, for example, 800,000 people thronged the main city square on New Year's eve), but in Pakistan it is quite the opposite.
Government and police officials repeat dire warnings to remind all and sundry that no wild celebrations will be tolerated and that revellers must keep themselves within the "limits of morality".
One provincial government officially banned any celebration of the New Year and ordered video shops to close. Then, we have our fair share of elements who have taken upon themselves to be everyone else's moral guardians.
This year in Peshawar and Karachi, groups of self-styled vigilantes mobilized a so-called 'baton force,' threatening to beat up anyone who celebrated the New Year.
There can be no defence of hooliganism or disorderly behaviour, no matter what the occasion. But the kind of ham-handed tactics employed to prevent the possibility of rowdyism only put young people's back up.
Barricading roads and cordoning off areas inconvenience hundreds of people who may have nothing to do with New Year festivities. In Karachi, the zealousness of officialdom seemed to know no bounds and some major roads were blocked over 12 hours in advance, causing immense frustration among road-users in this season of weddings.
Such an officious approach only hurts law-abiding citizens who want to enjoy the night but have no invitations or tickets to private parties or charity balls. It is also about time that the government told the self-appointed custodians of our morality that threats to beat up revellers amount to taking the law into one's own hands.
Pakistan's official business and the personal lives of its citizens are governed by the calender we follow. If people want to see the old year out and the New Year in with a smile on their faces, why should anyone deprive them of this relief from the daily grind?