| 11 January 2005 | Tuesday | 29 Ziqa'ad 1425 |
A vote for peace
Tax reforms
Two isolated incidents in two distant regions have rocked the country. One was the gun battle in the Bugti area in Balochistan on Sunday; the other was Saturday's sectarian violence in Gilgit on the fringes of Central Asia.
Though unrelated, the two cases serve to highlight some ugly truths, not the least of which is how little people know about the simmering discontent and lurking violence in parts of their own country.
Elsewhere in the country, bomb blasts targeting mosques or attacks on processions have not led to sectarian riots, but in Gilgit the abortive attempt on the life of the religious leader touched off violent riots, with the repercussion also felt in Skardu.
This is something alarming and points to the poison spread by religious fanatics. Traditionally, the people of the Northern Areas have been non-violent; different sects there have lived peacefully, inter-married and even joined hands to improve their lot on a self-help basis.
This spirit was reflected in the commendable degree of progress the Northern Areas have made in education and health without state funding. However, the activities of religious militants in the wake of Pakistan's involvement in the Afghan war and the rein given to religious groups have vitiated the atmosphere.
The gun battle in the Bugti area points to some other malaise. It concerns the grievances of the Baloch people, especially their province's economic backwardness, and successive governments' inability to come to grips with it.
There is no denying here the Baloch sardars' own way of looking at things. Their biggest failure is to articulate Balochistan's problems and grievances in a political idiom that the rest of the country could understand and appreciate.
Instead, tribal feuds and battles have tended to hurt the Baloch people's interests. They have also provided the government with the excuse that development projects often fall victim to tribal feuds.
The acts of violence in both Gilgit and the Bugti area remind us of the damage done to Pakistan by the absence of a genuine democratic and constitutional mechanism for solving national problems.
Like the Ziaul Haq government, this military-dominated regime, too, has done no service to the nation by persecuting the PPP and the PML-N. These two mainstream parties may have their own leadership problems, but they are national in outlook and orientation.
Their eclipse has left the field open for particular interest groupings to operate freely. This is evident from the sectarian violence in Gilgit and the way things are developing in Balochistan.
Administrative measures alone cannot control this sort of violence. Parliament has been reduced to little better than a rubber-stamp body. The supreme policy-making agency is the military-dominated National Security Council, where the leader of the opposition is conspicuous by his absence.
There is no understanding between the ruling party and the opposition on any of the major issues, and the president's decision on uniform has accentuated the confrontation between the two.
This is hardly the way to defuse the dangerous situation symptomized by the Bugti and Gilgit events. The parliamentary body on Balochistan has made no progress, and the Baloch leaders continue to grumble.
If the government does not want things to deteriorate, it has no option but to seek the cooperation of all political parties and elements. Only a national consensus can lead to the evolution of long-term policies and develop a political mechanism for a solution of national problems in a democratic ambience.
A vote for peace
The thumping victory for Mr Mahmoud Abbas in Sunday's presidential election means that the Palestinians in occupied territories and East Jerusalem have voted for peace.
The way the poll was conducted under the watchful eyes of over 500 American and European observers - with no violence reported from anywhere - has belied those in Israel and elsewhere who believed that democracy did not suit the Arab genius.
Mr Abbas has secured over 62 per cent of the popular vote as against 19.8 per cent bagged by the closest of his six rivals, Mr Mustafa Barghouti, who has conceded defeat. The turn-out was 66 per cent, according to preliminary official results, with polling held in a free and fair manner.
This is despite the fact the Islamists led by Hamas had boycotted the poll but promised not to obstruct the process. Former US president Jimmy Carter and Senator John Kerry were among the international observers present in Palestine to monitor the election.
Mr Abbas went to the press on Monday morning, urging Hamas and other militant organizations in the occupied territories to lay down arms and refrain from attacking Israeli targets.
It is heartening to note that Hamas was quick to respond to this request, saying it would cooperate with the popularly elected leader. By voting for Mr Abbas, the Palestinians have put the ball firmly in Israel's court.
It is now the responsibility of the US to ensure that Israel does not drag its feet with regard to restarting the stalled peace process and that it begins a dialogue with the elected Palestinian leader. To begin with, Tel Aviv must be asked to withdraw its troops from Gaza and parts of the West Bank immediately.
Tax reforms
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's promise in a recent statement to continue reforming the tax collection machinery is reassuring. He said that the tax collection system could be made more efficient and transparent through reforms.
However, these reforms should include simplification of procedures, automation of the tax system and restricting the contact between taxpayers and tax officials for them to be meaningful.
The move coincides with the government's plans to double Pakistan's current tax base to 2.4 million taxpayers. However, any move to widen the tax base must also include giving autonomy to the CBR in respect of its financial and administrative functions so that it can carry out its own recruitment, postings and transfers and devise its own policies.
An integrated approach should be adopted in this working of the CBR, making it more efficient and effective. A broader tax base can result in reducing the tax rates as well as withdrawing surcharges from utility bills.
The limited number of taxpayers has meant that the government has increasingly relied on indirect taxes to raise revenues in the past. However, the idea of generating revenue through customs duties and tariffs is fast dwindling globally.
This is as a result of lower tariff rates as envisaged by Pakistan in recent years. The present government tried to increase tax revenues from other heads but this has not yielded much.
While tax rates have been reduced and rationalized, a massive drive was launched a few years ago to enlarge the tax base and contain tax evasion but in the face of massive resistance from shopkeepers the objective failed to materialize.
Neither was the tax base significantly widened nor tax evasion effectively prevented. This may well be because the core of this problem lies not in the taxpayers or in the tax system but more in the tax collection machinery, the CBR, which must be reformed and strengthened.