Another crisis
November 25th, 2012
Barely has one controversy between the presidency and the superior judiciary been put to rest with the dispatch of the letter to Switzerland that another crisis is brewing: this time over the appointment and seniority of judges in the Islamabad High Court. The plot is complicated and involves multiple judges and their futures but in essence it started with the decision to elevate the chief justice of the IHC, Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman, to the Supreme Court. The controversy started when the Judicial Commission nominated, and the parliamentary committee endorsed, Justice Mohammad Anwar Kasi to the chief justice’s post as the senior-most judge of the IHC. When the summary appeared before President Zardari for routine signing, an anomaly was cited: another judge of the IHC, Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan, had been considered senior to Justice Kasi and therefore in line to succeed Justice Rehman as the IHC chief justice. In the midst of this tussle, two other judges of the IHC have become collateral damage because their continuation as judges beyond Nov 20 was contingent on approval by the Judicial Commission — which did assent but whose composition was taken as incomplete by the presidency owing to the dispute over who was the IHC’s senior-most judge.
If that sounds complicated, it is. On the face of it, the presidency appears to be inserting itself into a decision-making process that is two-tiered — judicial and parliamentary — and in which the role of the president was not really envisaged to include questioning the decisions taken by the judicial commission and endorsed by the parliamentary committee. But scratch the surface and the matter becomes more complicated because it appears the presidency may have a genuine case that Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan and not Justice Mohammad Anwar Kasi is technically the senior-most judge of the IHC behind the chief justice who has been elevated to the SC. The bigger mystery here is why the Parliamentary Committee, which is meant to debate and scrutinise the Judicial Commission’s recommendations, appears to have simply rubber-stamped a change at the top of the IHC that may be out of line with accepted convention. Considering the speculation that has been generated, it is important to know the reasons behind the out-of-step nomination of the next IHC chief justice.
Meanwhile, legal experts are hoping these developments have nothing to do with a petition challenging Gen Kayani’s extension as army chief that was to be taken up by the two judges whose tenure expired on Nov 20. The presidential reference to the SC should be moved quickly to end this unnecessary impasse.
Food security
November 25th, 2012
The government’s decision to raise domestic wheat support price for the next harvest by 14 per cent to Rs1,200 per 40kg has its pros and cons. It will encourage farmers to grow more wheat to reap a record output of 26 million tons next spring. The hike in the cereal’s price will not only offset the surge in input costs but also increase the growers’ margins, which should help cut rural poverty. Additionally, it will make the country more food-secure than ever in the past in terms of availability and bring down the food import bill. But is higher crop production alone sufficient to reduce food insecurity? More than half the households, including subsistence farmers, in the country remain food-insecure despite a rapid increase in grain production during the last few years on higher-than-global domestic wheat prices. It means surging prices, especially of wheat, have put food out of the reach of most people. The new crop will be 80 per cent dearer than the one harvested in 2008, restricting the access of more people to enough food. Thus, while giving price incentives for increasing food production, the government should evolve a mechanism to feed everyone. Food inflation isn’t the only disadvantage of higher wheat price. It will put additional burden on the cash-strapped government that would be required to borrow greater funds from banks for its wheat procurement operations to keep the market from dipping, and pay heavier costs for the storage of grain. Moreover, the higher price may encourage farmers to bring more land under cultivation keeping them from becoming more efficient.
While the decision has its economic value, it will also help raise the ruling PPP’s stock in the rural areas of Punjab and Sindh in an election year. With a considerable number of people in rural Sindh angry with the PPP over the new local government law and many in south Punjab frustrated by its failure to create a new province for them, increasing support prices is perceived as a move to help the party win back a large chunk of its unhappy voters.
Unregistered vehicles
November 25th, 2012
From time to time, this newspaper has carried photographs of vehicles with illegal number plates — that is, personalised plates as well as those reading ‘Applied For Registration’, or ‘AFR’ for short — which have proliferated across the country. In a status-conscious society, vehicle registration plates are another means of gratuitous self promotion. There is no dearth of vehicles bearing ‘MNA’, ‘MPA’ or ‘Senator’ plates plying the streets, or ‘Shaikh’ and ‘Nawab’ for that matter. In a sign of the times, when contempt of the law is itself deemed an act of bravado, one can even come across an occasional ‘Gangster’ brazenly affixed to a vehicle. Two prominent notices by the Sindh government in this newspaper on Friday offer hope that the days of unregistered vehicles may be coming to an end, at least in this province. One stated that owners must register their vehicles within 60 days, failing which they will be fined between Rs5,000 to Rs100,000, depending upon the delay in registration. The other notice addressed those vehicle owners who have inexplicably not picked up their government-issue number plates despite having applied and paid for them, and who are now presumably driving without plates.
Although there have been a number of ineffectual campaigns of this kind over the years, there seems to be a new urgency to this drive given that the Supreme Court’s Karachi bench, during a recent hearing on law and order in the city, ordered that unregistered vehicles, those without number plates and non-custom paid illegal vehicles be impounded. The practice in question not only deprives the government exchequer of taxes due on newly registered vehicles but, particularly important in the context of Pakistan, also makes it impossible to trace vehicles involved in terrorism as well as other crimes, including hit-and-run incidents. This time, there is no room for any laxity.