| 18 July 2004 | Sunday | 29 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Banning parties
Indian school tragedy
In moving a bill in the National Assembly for the amendment of the existing law governing political parties, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League has taken a regressive step. In its present form, the Political Parties Order, 2002, forbids a person holding a government office from being an office-bearer of a political party. On the face of it, the law is to be amended for the benefit of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who, despite being the Muslim League chief, has been made prime minister as a stop-gap arrangement.
An essential feature of parliamentary democracy is to keep the party separate from the government - and for good reason. As the people's representatives, parties serve the interests of the nation by suggesting policies and action to the government according to the promises made to the electorate. As the state's executive arm, the prime minister and his cabinet enforce these policies and try to uphold the mandate given to them.
However, every government has to act within certain economic and political limits which may not always make a faithful implementation of party policies possible. Besides, once in power, a government may tend to forget about promises made to the electorate and pursue policies according to its expedient needs. It is then that the party in power's role as a watchdog comes critically into play, for it is the party's job to keep the government in line. If the prime minister does not listen, the party has the power to throw him out of office and bring in someone else.
In Pakistan, this tradition has not been consistently followed. The Muslim League often had the prime minister as party chief. This enabled the PM to control the party for his benefit. Consequently, the Muslim League, which started with the advantage of being the party that created Pakistan, weakened to a point of becoming the prime minister's handmaiden.
It thus failed to perform its key role - that of serving as a check on the abuse of powers by the government. Another abominable feature of the parties has been the absence of an elected structure. Most political parties are run by people nominated by party chiefs, who themselves happen to be there without an election.
One obvious result of the weakening of the political parties was the deterioration of the political system itself. This not only enabled the Bonapartists to seize power from time to time; they later usurped the Muslim League either directly or through their cronies.
The PPO, 2002, is a fine law and needs no amendment of the kind proposed in the bill. Looking at the situation a couple of months from now, will Mr Shaukat Aziz also be the PML chief? Hardly cut out for a party role, Mr Aziz would do well not to assume that role. Let Chaudhry Shujaat run the party.
In that case, why change a sensible law for transient reasons? Let Chaudhry Shujaat hand over the prime minister's office to Mr Aziz after the by-election is over but retain his party post. Maybe, in that case he could be of some use to the country. It is ironic, however, that the bill moved in the National Assembly on Friday seeks to amend the PPO because its article 9 is "creating a problem and complications ... in strengthening the democratic process".
Banning parties
Is this talk of banning the Jamaat-i-Islami part of a propaganda war between that party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, locked in a struggle for political domination in Karachi, or is there something more serious behind it? On May 13, the Jamaat had made a demand for a ban on the Muttahida and promptly on May 15, the call came from the latter for a ban on the Jamaat, both accusing each other of involvement in "terrorist" activities. For the past couple of days running, Governor Ishratul Ibad has made vague statements about the possibility of a ban on the JI being examined.
To be fair to him, his remarks came in reply to questions from reporters and he did not make the suggestion on his own. On Friday, according to a news agency report, he said all aspects were being looked into and a decision would be taken in the light of past experience. If experience is any guide, the banning of political parties has always been counter-productive - in Pakistan as in other countries where it has been tried. The outlawing of the National Awami Party by Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto must rank as one of his bigger political follies.
In the past couple of years, a number of sectarian and militant organizations have been banned, but for reasons that do not apply to accredited political parties. In any case, some of the militant outfits, which were promoting and were engaged in sectarian extremism, reemerged under different names. They were banned again, but the militant tendency remains entrenched and flourishes in different garbs.
The federal government has said nothing on the exchange of invective between the MQM and the Jamaat. The Sindh government has also been silent. Dr Ishratul Ibad too, as governor, should resist the temptation of sounding partisan. The MQM itself has been a victim of state repression in the past, and should be the last to suggest punitive action against any organization.
Political parties have only one option - and that is to counter each other politically through informed debate and gain acceptance for their views from the general public and the electorate. Any other course will amount to embarking on the path of mutually assured destruction and provide comfort to non-political actors.
Indian school tragedy
The death toll in Friday's terrible school-fire tragedy in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu is now 90 - all but one children aged six to 13. The police have arrested five people, including the school's head teacher, for negligence on their part which led to the tragedy. A number of school directorate officers have also been suspended for failing to ensure that proper safety measures were in place at the ill-fated school. But the two measures can never be a consolation for those who lost their little ones to the flames.
The fire started from the school kitchen and spread to the third floor where classes were being held under an illegally raised thatched roof. The school had no fire-fighting equipment and only a narrow staircase for exit out of the top floor. Many children were suffocated to death in the smoke-filled staircase as they tried to escape the blazing fire.
Only 110 of the 200 children present were able to escape death, with 36 of the survivors sustaining serious burn injuries. Surprisingly, no staffer was among the casualties; the only adult to lose his life was a professional fire fighter rescuing the trapped children.
This is not the first time that a tragedy of this nature has occurred in a developing country. Instances abound in South Asia where schools and children's recreational facilities are overcrowded and often left without adult supervision, having no emergency exits, first aid facilities or fire-fighting equipment. The death by negligence of a schoolboy at a Karachi theme park last month was but one such incident.
The tragedy in Tamil Nadu should serve as a reminder for authorities in Pakistan and elsewhere in the developing world of the dangers ill-equipped school buildings and recreational facilities may pose to young people. The need for enforcing proper safety measures at all such places cannot be overstated.