Crisis unending

SINCE March 9, when Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was made “non-functional”, the country has not known normality. One incident after another has led to the spread and aggravation of the crisis and added to the people’s anguish over the shape of things to come. One worry overshadows all others — will the crisis now raging culminate in a victory for democracy or will it leave in its wake things more horrible? The people have these misgivings because they fear a repetition of the past when popular movements were followed by events that froze the political process and pulled the country back into autocracy. No event did more to accentuate the sense of crisis and a drift towards anarchy than the May 12 killings. Karachi has still not recovered from the trauma, and its reverberations are being felt throughout the country. On Friday, addressing a political gathering at the Chief Minister House and later, while launching DawnNews TV’s test transmission, President Pervez Musharraf emphasised the need for reconciliation and appealed to the press, especially the electronic media, to show good sense and exercise restraint. He specially referred to the repetition of images showing violence.

The media is a mirror that reflects the face of reality. The president’s criticism of the electronic media maybe justified to a degree, because the dozens of channels we have will take time to come of age and show maturity. But let us not forget that some of the world’s most prestigious channels do not hesitate to show gory scenes — often with apologies to their viewers. The violence in Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s execution and the images of the horrors of Abu Ghraib were seen by millions the world over. Though there were protests from viewers shocked by what they saw, the shots nevertheless exposed the Bush-Blair duo’s claim that they had launched the war to overthrow a tyrant and move Iraq towards democracy and civil society. The scenes of May 12 killings were shown live to the people highlighting the fact that the city had been virtually abandoned by the law-enforcement agencies and gunmen given a free rein. The attack on Aaj TV on May 12 and the ransacking of Geo TV offices on March 16 fly in the face of the government’s claim that it not only believes in a free media, but also takes credit for the mushrooming of the channels.

As if this turmoil and violence were not enough, opposition leaders on Friday warned that they would launch a civil disobedience movement if the government took extra-constitutional steps to curtail the independence of the judiciary. Perhaps, this is no more than a threat, held out merely to pressure the government not to do anything rash. But our political parties, when not in power, seem to forget that they owe it to the people not to contribute to lawlessness while waging their legitimate struggle for democracy. Popular agitations often have a tendency to spin out of control of those who initially launch them, because anti-democratic forces seek to profit from the anarchy to advance their own agenda. This is the lesson one gets from the events leading to the coups by Yahya Khan and Ziaul Haq. As for the government it has only one choice: it must come out with an unambiguous timetable for parliamentary elections and satisfy the nation on the president’s re-election mode and the uniform controversy.

Need for an organ law

THE detention of the owners and some doctors of two private hospitals in Lahore on Friday for their alleged involvement in kidney trade is a reminder of the need to enact laws that will check this heinous practice. The government’s inability to address this issue despite repeated calls made by the medical profession is telling evidence of their commitment to health issues, especially ones that affect the poor. It is the poor who often sell their kidneys for money and because they rarely get proper post-operative care, many do not recover from the extraction of their kidneys. There have been several incidents of unscrupulous doctors being involved as middlemen in this trade, some have removed kidneys without a patient’s knowledge. This is what seems to have happened to at least two men who reported their ordeal to the police in Lahore which probably led to an investigation. The men were lured to the city from Sheikhupura and Nankana on the pretext of jobs, held in a house and had their kidneys removed without their consent. They were then told that they would be paid 65,000 rupees each but have not yet received any. The police must now conduct a thorough investigation against those they have detained and not be swayed by any pressure that may be brought to bear on them. There are a number of hospitals in the country that are involved in illicit kidney trade that need to be identified and appropriate action taken against their owners and doctors, specifically involved in the kidney sale racket.

What is crucial, however, is a law relating to organ donation for transplantation. That will lessen the possibility of illegal trade in human organs and also ensure easier availability of donation of organs for those who are badly in need of transplants. Unfortunately, laws on this issue have remained dormant in parliament since 1992. The latest bill which was introduced in February this year — Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Ordinance 2007 — too has yet to be promulgated. There are many flaws in this bill which should have been debated and new provisions included to ensure that there was an end to any profiteering in the sale of organs. That has not happened. A proper cadaver donation law is urgently needed to end the current practice of selling and buying of human organs.

The bane of child labour

CHILD labour in the country shows no signs of abating as pointed out by participants in a workshop organised by the ILO in Islamabad. While, according to a government study, the number of child labourers in Pakistan was 3.3 million in 1996, the HRCP put the figure at 10 million in 2005. This shows that despite the best efforts of NGOs and the assurances by government departments that child labour was being tackled, the problem is assuming alarming proportions. It is linked to the scourge of poverty in the country and can only be removed if measures are taken to reduce the level of destitution that forces families to send their young ones to workplaces to earn instead of schools. Under the present circumstances, it would be impractical to suggest that children stop working altogether, even though the law banning the employment of children in certain industries must be implemented.

The emphasis should be on easing their current work conditions besides ensuring that the very young ones are not sent out to work. At the moment, a large number of children are employed in hazardous occupations such as coal mining and deep sea diving, while children even as young as five or six years are engaged in other forms of labour. Besides, up to 70 per cent are illiterate, a poor reflection on the government’s commitment to education, especially for the deprived members of society. The government has also been lax in carrying out inspections of workplaces to ensure that children are not getting a rough deal and that rules regarding their employment, such as maintaining a balance between work and rest, are being observed. In the absence of such monitoring, employers have been given a free hand to exploit children and most do so by paying them a pittance for long hours of back-breaking labour.

Time for a transition strategy

THE debate is no longer about whether the current military-led regime will make its final exit but when and how it will do so. The writing on the wall has been there since before March 9, but is now inscribed in flashing neon lights. It does seem that despite its blinkers, the regime is beginning to perceive the looming danger. It can no longer dismiss it as a bad dream, but it has yet to move on from being in denial to taking realistic action to resolve the crisis.

Although the action against the Chief Justice, which the regime now concedes, was ‘mishandled’ triggered the crisis, the judicial outcome, whatever it is, will not be able turn back the clock. Indeed, the more protracted the legal proceedings become, the deeper the government will fall into a political quagmire of its own making.

No wonder that doubts pertaining to the wisdom of filing the reference are mounting among government’s supporters and the demand for its withdrawal is gaining momentum, with Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who has paid heavily for his dissent in the past, mounting a mini-insurrection within their ranks.

The Chaudhry clan is watching suspiciously over its shoulders for more chinks in its increasingly unsafe and crumbling fortress.

The muted revolt of the former president of the PML-Q women’s wing, who has been caught in the cross-fire between Lal Masjid and the Hafsa brigade and the interior ministry and Chaudhry Shujaat, is another sign of a brewing storm in the party.

Many other prominent leaders, who have deliberately avoided defending the government on talk shows, are sitting on the fence to choose the right moment to abandon the sinking ship on which nobody even cares to rearrange the deck chairs.

The redoubtable railways minister, albeit, has characteristically risen to the occasion and offered to arrange free train travel for any of his colleagues who may be lucky enough to make it to the shore and regroup to revive the party’s flagging fortunes.

The option of jettisoning the MQM’s contaminated political baggage, in the wake of the May 12 disturbances, is also being debated.

In this increasingly bleak scenario, the beleaguered president, never lacking in bravado or given to the folly of self-effacement, in a speech at the new site of the earthquake-destroyed Balakot city, resorted to one of his most feisty self-defences yet.

This risky all-or-none strategy is characteristic of those losing their grip on power and taking the plunge into unknown territory.

In trying to prove himself holier than the holiest, Gen Musharraf cited his several visits to the Ka’aba where he earned high and unprecedented religious honours and the privilege of entering the innermost sanctum of the Holy Prophet’s tomb, in an attempt to upstage Gen Ziaul Haq who laid the political foundation of religious extremism in Pakistan.

In an interview to Aaj TV, the president blamed the media for imbalanced reporting against the authorities. He defended the events of May 12, both the tragic mayhem in Karachi and the vulgar festivity in Islamabad, and strongly criticised the innuendos of ethnic bias in defending the MQM against charges of its failure to maintain law and order and for causing death and destruction.

Even more striking was his belief in his own leadership qualities and the insistence that he did not have a dictatorial role in decision-making, with the incredulous assertion that Shaukat Aziz (whose abilities as a leader of any substance are being openly doubted by those he interacts with abroad) was the real prime minister.

Neither is the general prepared to admit that there exists a crisis of legitimacy, nor to give any but the vaguest indication of a change in his future political course.

This “business as usual” stance seems to be based not so much on the perceived strength of his own associates as on the hope that the regime will somehow be able to prevent the forces against it from uniting in a grand alliance, despite the glue provided by the Chief Justice’s suspension.

He believes that as in the past, with a combination of political chicanery, bluff, intimidation, blackmail and false promises, the agencies and behind the scenes intermediaries could well succeed in staving off the final blow to his dying regime. The only trouble is that such manoeuvres have often been bungled in the past and have created more problems.

The events of May 12 have brought to the surface two of the more serious divides that could haunt the country in the coming months.

The first is the ethnic divide which has plagued Karachi for more than two decades and which has been kept subdued largely by the political and economic support given to the city and the MQM by the present regime and which is likely to be unravelled in the wake of the May 12 incidents.

The other is the religious divide, which has emerged as a sideshow during the present crisis, partly to scare the West and partly to induce the liberals not to rock Musharraf’s boat.

Both these schisms, promoted by existing and preceding military regimes, are part of a more overarching fault-line that has split the country along economic divisions since it was put on the map by Pakistan’s first military ruler Gen Ayub Khan.

A hallmark of the economic policies of all military regimes (except that of Gen Yahya Khan, who was much too busy entertaining himself to care about the affairs of the state) has been to exacerbate the economic disparities and increase the burden on the poor over time.

Ayub Khan did try to reduce the feudal hold by introducing land reforms, promoting basic democracy and rural development, but this was done at the expense of increasing income inequality and creating industrial oligarchies.

Gen Zia let in the military’s camel into the economic tent and laid the foundation of Military Inc., which has bloomed during the current regime.

The regimes of both Generals Zia and Musharraf benefited financially from the American involvement in the Afghan jihad, the former for promoting it and the latter for suppressing it.

Since much of the largesse was for surreptitious activities — and largely out of civilian or legislative oversight — it was used in both cases, for the personal or corporate interests of the military.

Both the Zia and Musharraf regimes have claimed large reductions — achieved by doctoring data — in the incidence of poverty during their tenures, a distinctive feature of democratically unaccountable regimes. Gen Zia’s claim was based on the introduction of the zakat and ushr system, while that of the current regime’s is based on the speciously high growth rates and the elite IMF-World Bank-sponsored poverty-reduction programmes.

The problems that are being faced by Pakistan are to an extraordinary extent the result of the military’s unfettered ascendancy in the country’s polity, which has been facilitated to an equal extent by the lack of unity among the country’s political parties.

After experiencing bitter humiliation and prolonged wilderness for several decades, they must now find a formula for proofing the political system against the frequent inroads of the military.

The Chief Justice’s case has provided them with a unique historical opportunity to sink their differences and to seek the help of the legal and judicial community to ensure that the military’s door to the political barn is tightly sealed forever.

For this, the political parties will have to engage in a genuine process of reconciliation among themselves and to forget and forgive the excesses they have perpetrated against each other. Partisanship will have to give way to consensus.

This, of course, is easier said than done; but at no time in the country’s history has the political scenario been more propitious for reconciliation than now. It would also greatly help if the military brass realised, as the saner elements among its retired colleagues have already affirmed, that the military has long overstayed its welcome in politics and needs to resume its normal duties under civilian control. Hence, it is hoped that it will eventually agree to pave the way for a peaceful and orderly transition for a genuinely democratic dispensation to be installed.

In all the current discourse on the political scenarios likely to emerge after the traumatic events of the last 10 weeks, the ordinary people of Pakistan only peripherally enter the political calculus.

Yet, they are the ones who will be most affected and without whose active involvement none of the desired changes in the political system can come about.

It is, therefore, necessary that all parties which are in a position to agree on a democratic and economically equitable dispensation should urgently engage themselves in drawing up a common minimum agenda for the democratic, economic and human rights of the people.

sm_naseem@hotmail.com