The election year budget that brings little respite

In the national interest

By Kamal Siddiqi( The writer is editor reporting, The News)

The budgets have been unveiled. Both national and provincial. The government promises us relief and respite. In reality, we have neither. Subsidies are back in fashion, much to the disdain of the international finance institutions. Defence spending is up while there is a very marginal increase in spending on health, education and sports. If the state of a nation can be judged from its budget, then Pakistan does not come across as a country that cares much about its people. And yet, budgets are like promises of power by our rulers — seldom honoured usually broken.

At the same time, the CJ saga continues. And with it continues the government offensive on the media. In this age of good government, one finds it strange that those who are seen to be standing by the Chief Justice are being punished while those who are happy to file affidavits that go against him are rewarded. The divide is blatant and brutal. And yet there are those who continue to support the CJ. This worries the government.

This newspaper reported earlier this week that in an amazing “twist of fate” the government’s witnesses against the CJ are getting better deals one by one while those who did not toe the government line have to face the music. The details show that some have been rewarded with plum postings. Those who have opposed have faced arrest, torture and much worse.

In the case of the new Sindh IGP, Major (Retd) Ziaul Hassan, this is an example of shooting two birds with one stone. Major Hassan had earlier given an affidavit that showed the CJ in a negative light. Tongues are now wagging that this is his reward. But there is more. His appointment comes after earlier attempts by Islamabad to put their man in Sindh which were thwarted by the coalition partner, the MQM.

Sindh Advisor for Home Affairs had gone on record for saying that a senior police official from Sindh should be made the provincial police chief. However, after the incidents of May 12, it seems that this demand has been withdrawn. Now we have yet another man from Islamabad who will try to make the most of the situation in what is essentially unfamiliar terrain. Is it fair to Sindh to be given as a reward posting?

What is fair and what is not is subject to debate in Islamabad. Mercifully the minister of state for communications, Shahid Jamil, finally resigned from his position following the registration of a criminal case against him in connection with the alleged killing of a Pakistan-origin Canadian national at his residence. But one wonders why he was not arrested. Instead, when the media got wind of the story initially, the much hyped Motorway Police stood guard to protect the minister from the prying public. This is ironic.

The same irony also applied to the Minister of Tourism, Nilofer Bakhtiar, who resigned from her position because she was relived of a party position that she held. That change came after the paraglide pictures of the minister were made public with a group of men who she was obviously not related to. Why do we have two standards for everything? Also, if the minister should resign it should have been for the disaster she has made of the Visit Pakistan Year 2007. The only beneficiary of this ill-advised venture seems to be the minister herself who went around the world in a bid to “promote” Pakistan during its tourism year. Will we ask her to pay back the public money she spent on these sprees?

Is it not ironic that key members of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s super-sized cabinet resign for all the wrong reasons? Possibly that is why many of the other ministers hold on despite all that is said and written about them.

We are told that yet another minister of state is in the firing line. This time for involvement in human trafficking. The FIA has sent a questionnaire to this minister to explain how his official stationery was used to procure European visas for people. One recalls that the prime minister had said that when he inducted his super-sized cabinet that their performance would be evaluated on a periodic basis. Given the antecedents of cabinet members so far, where is the report card the public should ask? Better still, say some, don’t ask. Ignorance, they say, is bliss.

The prime minister himself has been busy predicting the obvious. In an interview with an American news service, the prime minister said that he expects President Musharraf to secure another five years in office. One hopes the president has the same predictions for his prime minister.

Talking to this foreign news agency, the prime minister also unveiled the grand plan. The president would be re-elected by the sitting parliament between September 15 and October 15 after which around November an interim prime minister would take office so that elections are held within 90 days. So for all practical purposes, elections are expected in January 2008 or so.

Who will be the interim prime minister, one asks. More importantly, will it be someone seen as being close to the prime minister or the president? Or better still, a retired judge?

However, there are ifs and buts to this. For example, the US is insistent that the elections should be held “according to international standards.” US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, even went and met officials of the Election Commission of Pakistan this week “to ensure that arrangements are being made to hold free and transparent elections.”

While one is no fan of the military setup in place, a senior US official dictating to the election commission on how elections should be held in Pakistan is taking things too far. If this is not unnecessary interference in the affairs of Pakistan, then what is?

The mixed signals from the government, however, are confusing. The foreign office spokesperson stated “We don’t need an outsider to come and tell us what to do. This is for our people, our government and our media to discuss, debate and decide.” She said this when a reporter asked her about the state of media freedom in Pakistan and comments by some EU officials over recent “setbacks” in media freedom in Pakistan.

Should these comments also not hold true for elections in Pakistan as well? It is one thing to have independent observers from international organisations and another to have a foreign government insisting on supervising the process minutely. With such involvement, one worries about the outcome of the exercise itself.

Email: kamal.siddiqi@thenews.com.pk

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=60981