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WE are a paradoxical people. In ‘reel life’ we love personalities like the titular character of the hit Turkish TV series Dirilus: Ertugrul, the defiant young man who against all odds stands for the truth. And in real life, we stand for anything but the truth.
Recently, the chief secretary Balochistan, retired Capt Fazeel Asghar, issued a show-cause notice to the former assistant commissioner of Dalbandin, Ayesha Zehri, for essentially conducting a raid, catching smuggled drugs and disrupting the smugglers’ network. As per the show-cause notice, the chief secretary, keeping in view the facts of the case, has not even felt the need to conduct an inquiry. Instead, she was threatened with dismissal if she failed to explain her position within seven days. The situation is self explanatory, but if the honourable chief secretary does not want to see, seven years would not be enough to explain it, let alone seven days.
In February, then assistant commissioner Ms Zehri conducted a successful raid and seized drugs worth millions of rupees. But to her utter surprise, when she went to hand over the confiscated drugs to the police station, the deputy commissioner at the time had already forbidden the police officials from taking charge of the confiscated goods. Upon seeing this, she held a short media conference immediately, just to put the facts on record so that they would not be distorted later. But since civil servants are not allowed to interact with the media, she has been charged with violation of the code of conduct.
Holding that media talk, which subsequently went viral, is the gravest charge against Ms Zehri. Ironically, that is what has saved her so far as people are aware of the case, otherwise this ‘evil’ would have been nipped in the bud and the status quo would have prevailed. Fear, bribery and cowardice among civil servants are what the smuggling rackets feed on.
Why is the former AC being reprimanded for a successful raid?
There is a need to change the code of conduct vis-à-vis interaction of civil servants with the media, as times have changed. Why are civil servants barred from interacting with the media? What is there to hide? Whistle-blowers can always be victimised if there is no media to back them up. One cannot continue to play by the rules when the opponent continues to flaunt all the rules. Also, the media provides real-time and accurate archiving of events.
Other charges against her are as follows:
Ms Zehri did not take the DC’s permission to conduct the raid. Why would she need such permission for conducting official day-to-day affairs? Especially if she had reason to be suspicious that the concerned officer might jeopardise the outcome of the raid, then she as a responsible officer had every right to conduct business the way she saw fit. She was not posted there to be a puppet in some mafias’ hands. If someone else has chosen such a fate, then that was not her problem. The success of her raid should be enough to exonerate her, but it seems the mafia wants to make an example out of her.
Then, she had taken only three sepoys and still conducted a successful raid. Her gallantry ought to be appreciated and she should be recommended for a medal rather than be questioned.
Also, her teenage brother accompanied her during the raid. If he did not interfere in official business, then it is not really an issue. She should have done without him, but knowing she was ruffling too many feathers, perhaps she felt she needed a trusted hand for a bit of reassurance. Keeping in view the circumstances, this can surely be overlooked.
And how would they have rescued her if anything had happened to her? So, did the smugglers choose a time when there was no back up, or did somebody who knew the exact working of the government machinery choose it for them? Her boldness took the whole smuggling racket by surprise. She caught them red-handed. This is called courage. Those playing in the hands of mafia would not know much about it.
This inquiry reminds me of events of July 2019, when the late deputy collector customs Quetta, Dr Abdul Quddus Sheikh, was severely injured during an operation against smugglers and later succumbed to his injuries. Had he survived, he would definitely be facing a similar inquiry for interfering in the smugglers’ work.
Lastly, it would have been more appropriate for the chief secretary to have been served a show-cause notice for not only discouraging young, bold and brave officers but also empowering smuggling rackets by serving such notices. The prime minister needs to put his foot down if he truly believes in what he propagates — courage and commitment. I wonder if he prefers watching another episode of Ertugrul over disrupting the status quo.
The writer is a former civil servant.
Twitter: @SyedSaadat55
Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2020
