Caretakers for polls

WITH amendments made in the relevant law, the stage has been set for government officials to replace district and city nazims for holding local government elections throughout the country. Local government being a provincial subject, amendments have been effected through ordinances after the federal government had approved of them. The aim behind the amendments is to ensure fairness of the local body elections due some time this year. Given the history of manipulated elections in Pakistan, no one should object to this change. Most nazims belong to one party or another. Even though the polls held in 2001 were on a non-party basis, the voters knew which candidate owed allegiance to which party. The government fears that the existing nazims could use the official machinery to manipulate elections. This could take several forms, ranging from stuffing ballot boxes to intimidating rival candidates. There are some sensible provisions in the amended laws. For instance, the caretaker officials will not undertake any new development plans. Even though the money spent on development is public money, the caretakers could launch a new development scheme in a given area mainly to influence voters. Similarly, the amendments forbid caretakers from transferring officials from one department to another. This is designed to ensure against a government official misusing his position as caretaker to influence the electoral process.

There is, however, a flaw in the scheme. What if the caretakers themselves indulge in favouritism on their own or at the bidding of the provincial government? There is no guarantee against this not happening. The responsibility will then fall on the provincial election commissioners to ensure that the caretakers behave. The manipulation of an election does not take place on the day of polling alone; it is a process that begins much earlier. It should, therefore, not be difficult for the provincial election chiefs to detect who is betraying the people’s trust by failing to provide a level playing field for all candidates. For that reason, election commissions should keep an eye on the conduct of the caretakers from the moment they take over and initiate action against those acting in a partisan manner.

Logic demands the caretaker concept be taken to the provincial and federal levels. General elections in Pakistan have often been rigged. Invariably, the party or the general in power has queered the pitch for political opponents. To make it worse, the election commission has either sided with the rulers or lacked the courage to act while the government apparatus went about working as the ruling party’s campaign machinery. This dishonesty attained new heights whenever a general held a referendum. Invariably, the result was little short of a cent per cent Yes vote. To ensure against a repeat of this scenario, it would be ideal to have a neutral government in power in Islamabad and in the provinces a few months ahead of the next general election. This is not something extraordinary. In Bangladesh, elections are held by an interim government. There is no reason why Pakistan cannot do the same. Immediately after the assemblies are dissolved and a date is set for elections, chief justices of the supreme court and the high courts should become heads of interim governments with the sole object of organizing a free and fair election. In such a system, the election commission will be able to act without fear or favour and, thus, ensure free, fair and impartial polls.

Plan for creating jobs

SEVEN million new jobs are to be created under a five- year medium-term development framework (MTDF). It is intended to bring down unemployment from 7.5 per cent to four per cent and reduce poverty levels by 30 per cent by 2010. While the weakening of the trickle down effect of growth does not offer much hope that the stated objective would be achieved, the policy-makers appear to be to responding to widespread public concern about poverty and unemployment. As evident from the current trends, increased production has neither stabilized prices nor reduced unemployment. State intervention on this score is weak. The incomes of the middle classes may be increasing but there are scarce opportunities for the poor to access employment in the absence of a distributive policy.

About 70 per cent of the labour force is employed in the informal sector where the wages are low and working conditions poor. The bulk of labour-intensive small enterprises are in the informal sector because the cost of doing business in the formal sector is prohibitive. No doubt, by reducing the corporate tax to 20 per cent and more emphasis on bank lending, the government is trying to lure small industries into the formal sector but the outcome remains unpredictable.

Another venue for creating jobs is the public sector development programme (PSDP) which is being enhanced rapidly. But a major portion of the PSDP goes for improving infrastructure and creates only temporary jobs. Even promised employment oriented schemes like lining of canals have not yet been undertaken in Sindh as stated by the Sindh Agriculture Chamber. The performance in social and skill development areas is dismal, though these are vital for job creation needed for a diversifying economy as well as in promoting self-employment. Agriculture, which employs 43 of the total labour force, has not been accorded the priority it deserves. Though the labour-intensive construction industry is picking up, it has yet to acquire the needed momentum. The MTDF is targeting growth rather than economic development — a policy which makes job creation far more difficult and needs to be changed to get positive results.

Homeless and exploited

ACCORDING to the Rail-way Police Help Centres in Lahore, they have caught 1,357 children wandering about at different railway stations across the country in the last two years and have also traced 793 missing children and successfully reunited most of them with their families. This highlights once again the growing number of runaway children in various parts of the country. Analysis shows that children run away from home for various reasons: poverty, hostile situations at home where they are abused or neglected and corporal punishment at schools. Girls often run away from forced marriages, sometimes to men twice their age. Children cannot, of course, fend for themselves in an increasingly apathetic society. They are often victimized, abused or forced into begging, hard labour or prostitution to survive. That police busted a gang in Sialkot in May and recovered obscene CDs which contained child pornography involving street children is one example of the dangers they face. Various NGOs have set up shelters to provide them with a safe haven but the existence of such shelters is few and far between. A seminar held in Karachi on the issue of street children made it known that more than 12,000 children between the ages of 10 and 12 were living in the streets and even more harrowing was the fact that 95 per cent were drug addicts.

The government should be reminded that Pakistan is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires it to provide a secure environment for children to harness their full potential. While trying to provide free education, it needs to do more to address their well-being in a holistic spirit. It would be wise for the government to start an awareness campaign to teach society the importance of treating children with due respect, care and attention so that their exploitation is minimized.