Legislators’accountability

IT appears the much-touted accountability process has all but been forgotten. The reminder by the Chief Election Commissioner on Wednesday that all legislators must file statements of assets and liabilities by September 30 each year serves only to strengthen this belief. The CEC’s statement said those who failed to declare their wealth by the appointed date would have their membership of legislatures suspended. This suspension would continue until they complied with the requirement. Since the CEC’s reminder came on October 1, a day after the expiry of the date, one wishes he had told us how many of the over 1,000 legislators had filed their statements.

Under the Representation of the People Act, 1976, and Section 25A of the Senate (Election Act), all legislators must file each year statements showing not only their own assets and liabilities but also those of their spouses and dependants. Declarations filed by MNAs, MPAs and senators would show whether there has been any disproportionate increase in the family assets of a given legislator. A large number of legislators are ministers in the federal and provincial governments — besides an army of non-elected advisers — who not only control levers of power but also enjoy wide-ranging financial powers, including the power to award lucrative contracts to Pakistani and foreign firms. Experience shows that this has been a major source of corruption among elected and non-elected ministers and government officials. The scams surrounding the motorways, yellow cabs and independent power producers are still very much fresh in public memory.

Unfortunately, accountability drives in Pakistan lack credibility because they often appear politically motivated and the relevant laws are applied selectively. All military governments, including the present one, have chosen the shibboleth of accountability to persecute the regime’s known opponents. During Ziaul Haq’s time and since the takeover by the present set of generals in October 1999, accountability has tended to be partial. The present government has been persecuting the leaders of the two mainstream national political parties, while it has chosen to ignore the answerability of those who are on its right side. In several cases, victims of accountability languished in prison for years before being released because no charges could be framed against them. In many other cases, those accused of financial shenanigans were allowed to get away with part of the loot on grounds of what has come to be known as “plea bargains”. Under this legal innovation, a suspect confesses to his crime and gets his freedom after surrendering part of the ill-gotten money. What has been missing all along is impartiality in pushing the accountability process through without political considerations. One also notes with regret here that the members of the armed forces remain largely outside the accountability dragnet, because the military insists it has its own system of dealing with corruption.

If accountability is to have any meaning, it must be a continuing and unsparing process, as it is in many developed countries. In Pakistan, leaders and their cronies are made to pay for their crimes only after they cease to hold power. Since accountability is pursued by the regime that replaces the old one and that too selectively, the entire process becomes vitiated. There is no example in our country where the misdeeds of a ruler are made known to the public while he is in power and he is held legally answerable. To be meaningful, accountability must be a continuing process. It cannot cleanse politics of corruption if it is sought to be enforced by fits and starts.

Urban transport row

THE dispute between Swede Bus Pakistan (SBP), a foreign-funded urban transport company, and the Karachi city government’s transport department does not augur well for the city’s commuters. The SBP is credited with operating quality buses on two popular routes in the city, and its eco-friendly, well-maintained and airconditioned fleet has brought about a pleasant change in the chaotic urban transport culture over the last few months. The dispute has arisen because the city government, after approving the design of the bus transit shelters submitted by the SBP, went ahead and auctioned off the construction and maintenance of these facilities to other bidders whose designs it had itself rejected. In retaliation, the SBP has threatened to wind up its operations in Karachi and move its investment to Lahore, where other foreign investors are successfully operating similar urban transport schemes. If that happens merely as a result of bureaucratic wrangling on the part of the city government, it would be a sad development for Karachi’s commuters who are desperate for a workable public transport system.

The city government’s contention that no one company can be allowed to have a monopoly has some merit in it. But if that indeed were the case, then perhaps it should not have approved a single design for all the proposed 470 bus shelters that it plans to build in the city. Other bidders had also submitted their own designs and one fails to see how all of those fell short of the transport department’s standards. The Karachi Nazim would do well to look into the matter and reach a compromise with the SBP. If the latter is forced to suspend its operations in Karachi, it would send a wrong signal to other potential investors. The city’s unorganized and inefficient private transport companies have long held hapless commuters hostage to their whims. It is time the transport department learnt from past mistakes and let whatever little good has come to the city through foreign investment stay here.

Wedding tradegies

IT IS tragic that in the desire to celebrate happy occasions like weddings with impressive fireworks displays and aerial firing, people should forget the serious dangers inherent in such practices. What was supposed to have been a joyous occasion turned into a multiple tradegy in Chakwal the other day when firecrackers stored in a house for a marriage celebration caught fire and exploded. Instead of the rejoicings that mark marriages, a family

is now mourning the death of a seven-year-old boy who died in the explosion. Eight other family members are reported to be critically burnt, including four children aged three to 11, all

of whom are now in a hospital in Rawalpindi fighting for their lives.

Incidents of accidental shootings from aerial firing during wedding celebrations have similarly turned many a joyful event into grief. Traditional customs are difficult to eradicate, but given the dangers in practices like fireworks displays and aerial firing, society owes it to itself to try and convince people that it is not worth the while to continue carrying on with such customs and risk more disaster. If authorities can zealously implement a ban on meals at marriages, threatening violators with strict action, similar determination can be brought to bear on the uncontrolled use of fireworks and firearms at weddings. People should be clearly warned that violators would be seriously taken to task.