09.07.2013 No more secrecy: Abbottabad Commission report
IT was, perhaps, inevitable: a high-profile report on a hugely damaging, and embarrassing, episode in the country’s history was unlikely to remain shrouded in secrecy forever. After this newspaper reported on some of the Abbottabad Commission’s findings and recommendations yesterday, Al Jazeera published the report last evening — and the report appears to pack quite a punch. Did it have to turn out this way, though? Where once the Hamoodur Rehman Commission’s report on the events leading up to the secession of East Pakistan could be suppressed for decades, today there is no such luxury. In the era of WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden and other whistleblowers who can use the global megaphone of a semi-regulated internet, the age of excessive secrecy and the suppression of information that is of legitimate public interest has passed. Indeed, the Hamoodur Rehman Commission’s ultimate fate underlined the changing times — when an Indian publication began to serialise extracts from the report, Pakistani authorities were forced to do what they long avoided, ie publish the report.
Why was the Abbottabad Commission report, handed over to prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in January, not made public? It is fair assumption that responsibility for the secrecy lay with the military leadership. An institutional culture that focuses more on the embarrassment that will be caused nationally and internationally by a comprehensive official account of any episode that is deemed to undermine national security ends up compounding the original errors. Whether it is Ojhri camp or Kargil or militant attacks on military bases in recent years, the approach is always the same: spill no secrets and promise that the necessary corrective measures have been taken, with no proof of whether that is the case or not. A high-stakes version of ‘trust us, guys’. But ‘trust us, guys’ has only led to bigger mistakes and the fact that Osama bin Laden spent years in Pakistan undetected and that US troops were able to kill him on Pakistani soil and leave undetected is surely one of the more staggering national-security lapses in the country’s history.
Now that the report is out and will be pored over nationally and internationally, there is still time for the government, and the army leadership in particular, to get at least one thing right. A leaked report cannot be the basis of accountability or any prosecutions deemed necessary. The government must — yes, must — officially release the report. Only then can the official narrative begin to be set right.
Contentious issue: Job quota formula
IT is once again time to take a decision on the quota formula for provinces regarding government jobs in the country. Aug 13 is the date when the legal cover given to the constitutional clause introduced in 1973 expires. Under the formula, only 7.5pc posts are filled on merit. The rest are — or should be — distributed among the federating units. Originally in place for 10 years, the provision was given extensions by two military-led dispensations in 1983 and 1999. For a period during 1993-1999, the matter of extension was left pending and the status quo maintained. Both the treasury and opposition now appear inclined to keep the arrangement for another few years. In March this year, the PPP government announced it favoured legislation further extending the formula by 20 years and in recent days a PML-N minister has also favoured an extension. The agreement, however, cannot in itself bar a heated debate over the issue in parliament in the coming days.
Job quota is a contentious point in all discussions about getting the balance in the federation right — one which has routinely defined politics. So it is likely to be this time. Even when calls for merit are the loudest right now, the voices asking for more meaningful representation of the smaller provinces in the federation are no less vociferous. Matters get more complicated because in power at the moment is a party which draws its support overwhelmingly from Punjab. Unevenness has existed between the provinces as also between regions within a province, as manifest in the example of Sindh which has a rural-urban job quota formula of its own as a kind of protection against discrimination. However, the very fact the quota was time-barred from the moment it was introduced is evidence it was at that time a necessary provision that would have to be done away with later. That principle stands and the conditions have to improve fast in favour of merit. But first, the gaps between regions have to close — faster than they have over the last 40 years.
Complaints linger: Allegations of rigging
IT has been nearly two months since the May 11 polls were held, yet complaints about electoral malpractices persist. On Sunday, the heads of the PTI and BNP-M called for an investigation into electoral mismanagement which, they say, resulted in the “theft” of their mandates. The JUI-F has also issued a ‘white paper’ on the alleged irregularities that occurred on election day; the document contains some serious rigging allegations. Indeed, from a neutral standpoint it appears that some irregularities did occur on May 11. For example, one can recall images of ballot papers and books left in rubbish dumps and other questionable places in the days following the election. However, it is difficult to accept there was a grand scheme to subvert the electoral process. For the most part, the polls were free and fair and the question that needs to be addressed is that of where mismanagement genuinely occurred, and how to resolve the issue.
Where there is serious evidence that rigging or other irregularities occurred the election authorities must investigate, though the onus is on the parties to provide the proof. Also, while it is the parties’ right to protest against irregularities, care must be taken to avoid jeopardising the democratic project. In this regard it is welcome that Imran Khan has said “the PTI doesn’t want to derail the democratic dispensation”. The key perhaps lies in the complainants pursuing the matter through election tribunals and providing them with solid facts and figures to back up their rigging charges. For its part, the ECP and the tribunals must ensure that the grievances are uniformly redressed. Democracy is a work in progress in Pakistan; all stakeholders need to play constructive roles to ensure the electoral process is continuously improved.