18 July 2004	Sunday	29 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, July 17: An almost two-hour dialogue between the legislators and the representatives of civil society to discuss the role of the civil society in budget making process was absorbing and engaging but proved to be an aimless exercise.

Legislators were more than blunt in pointing out their redundance in the budget-making process which still remains an exclusive prerogative of what was identified as the 'establishment'. A vague idea to counter the system came from an MQM minister Kamal Mustafa who stressed the need for legislators from all the parties to come together and assert their constitutional role.

What can be called a supreme irony, the dialogue on strengthening the legislative governance in Pakistan was organized by a USAID funded organization the "Pakistan Legislative Strengthening Consortium". The United States can appropriately be identified as a villain to Pakistan's democracy and legislatures for propping up one dictator after the other, right from the beginning. That persons in uniform have now become indispensable for Pakistan, parliament reduced to a mere rubber stamp and the parliamentarians-graduates or non-graduates-are no more than jokers in the game, the credit goes to Washington.

An NGO-Civil Aviation Group-is organizing the dialogues in all the provinces to implement the programme of the Pakistan Legislative Strengthening Consortium. It organized the dialogue on Saturday in Karachi and the proceedings were conducted by Aazar Ayaz.

Syed Murad Ali Shah, of the Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians in Sindh Assembly set the ball rolling by expressing ineffectiveness of the elected representatives in the provincial legislature or in the local bodies.

His assertion was that budgets are prepared by the bureaucracy and legislators at any level have very little role to play in allocation of the resources.

His party comrades Shazia Marri and Nuzhat Pathan, by and large, endorsed the views expressed by Murad Ali Shah. "We did shout in the last budget session," Shazia remarked to express her helplessness. Her assertion was that opposition in the assembly has no role in making or unmaking of any budget.

"We will continue to shout and make noises whenever we feel the government is taking measures against the people," she declared but pointing out at the same time that shouts and noise do not deter the government from pursuing the path it is treading on.

Syed Mustafa Kamal, the MQM minister in Sindh sounded a bit realist when he conceded that legislators are finding difficulties in carrying out their constitutional duties. "Yes, I am elected as a legislator to make laws and budget," he said but spoke of "ground realities". "My office is swarmed with hundreds of people everyday if not thousands," he informed the participants. Each one of these persons has some complaint against government department and wants water, electricity, sewerage or some facility in his area. "Instead of legislating or giving a serious thought to budget-making, I am bogged down under the pressure of demands from my constituency," the minister said.

He challenged the People's Party to tell how much opposition was effective in legislation or budget making "when you were ruling" the province and the federal government.

But then he said that "we are all victims of the circumstances" and went on to explain that it was the "system" born out of frequent interruptions of the political and democratic systems that has rendered legislators helpless.

"Let us all the legislators from the treasury and opposition benches realise our constitutional obligations towards the people and the power and authority we enjoy and assert these in the best interest of the people."

Dr Saeeda Malik, the Pakistan Muslim League minister in Sindh urged the participants that legislators were a part of the civil society and so long as "we enjoy the support and confidence of the civil society we will strive to do our job."

What apparently emerged from the two hours discussion was that legislators and civil society organizations should gear themselves to involve in budget-making for the next fiscal year from October when initial exercises are taken up.

What the participants and particularly the legislators failed to realise was that they have a role to monitor the implementation of the budget. The house committees should be activated to keep a close watch on the budgetary performance of the government and let the people be kept informed.