THE federal cabinet’s decision on Thursday to once again extend the provincial quota system in federal services is not surprising. It is germane to conditions in Pakistan and has to be of necessity perpetuated. Meant to safeguard the interests of the people of ‘backward areas’, the quota system has acquired an obscene permanence because there is hardly any improvement in the lot of the people the scheme was to benefit. In the late 1940s, the decision made eminent sense. There was hardly any middle class in two of (West) Pakistan’s four provinces, the literacy rate was shockingly low, and the ‘central’ bureaucracy reflected an ethnic pattern that was a legacy of the British Indian civil service. The partition holocaust also brought with it an overwhelming number of bureaucrats who belonged to what was called the steel frame of British rule in India. Mostly from Punjab and the Urdu-speaking community, they acquitted themselves well during the country’s formative phase when a new political and bureaucratic structure was being created. Recruitment through competitive examinations would have merely reflected the same ethnic pattern. So a quota system was introduced as a temporary measure to have more people from the ‘backward areas’ in federal jobs.

Regrettably, we are stuck with it because it has not achieved its aim. A pitiable 7.5pc merit quota is still there, but people from Fata, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are still not in government jobs in the numbers they should be. In Sindh, there are urban and rural quotas, and that anomaly continues to be extended. The issue has to be examined from two points of view: one, have the Constitution’s quota provisions enabled the bureaucracy to deliver? Two, has it served the interests of the backward regions? Independent of the quotas, the real challenge before the state is to ensure Pakistan’s uniform development to give the people a better life. It is only a well-developed state which can dispense with the aberration that is the quota system.

Noisy opposition: Resignation call


THE call on Saturday by Leader of the Opposition Khurshid Shah for the ECP commissioners to resign en masse is yet another missed opportunity in the quest to build an independent, autonomous and powerful election commission. Remember that it was the PPP itself which led the way on the constitutional amendments that created a legally more robust election commission during the last parliament. And the members of the ECP that Mr Shah has now demanded step down were picked by a parliamentary process in which the PPP itself played a lead role. Moreover, in the very recent past, when rural Sindh was paralysed by protests against alleged rigging in the May 11 general election, the PPP leadership did not seem quite as displeased with the ECP’s performance as the party appears to be now. The cynical partisanship, then, is not hard to miss at the moment.

Had Mr Shah and other opposition parties upset by the docility of the ECP really wanted to focus on improving the commission’s performance, there are any number issues they could focus on. The single most important task the ECP is entrusted with is to hold a general election for parliament and the provincial assemblies. But, as the recently held general election proved, the road from acceptable and credible elections to truly free and fair elections is a long one. From the compilation of voter lists to the scrutiny of candidates’ papers and from facilitating everyone who wants to vote on polling to dealing efficiently with the post-election appeals process, the ECP has much room to improve. Take just the issue of how the provisions of Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution were expansively applied during the initial scrutiny of candidates by returning officers who ultimately came under the ECP’s purview. Could parliament not be urged to revisit that unhappy episode by the Leader of the Opposition?

Similarly, problems with the electoral rolls are far from over with. Could parliament not examine ways to support the ECP in keeping electoral rolls current and up to date? Or the countless polling day violations that have been summarised by various election observers and political parties — could parliament not spend some time examining how to iron out these problems and make the next general election, or more likely the local government elections, freer and fairer? If Khurshid Shah and the PPP simply want to be a noisy opposition, calling for the resignation of the ECP leadership will achieve that. But if they want to be a democracy-strengthening bloc, there are many other routes that can be taken.

Justice on wheels: Mobile courts


JUSTICE is an essential component of society everywhere and the provision of it an essential responsibility of the state. Given that state infrastructure in Pakistan, including the courts, tends to be located in urban areas, there are a great many areas where the justice system has little to no reach. From the villages and towns in the mountains of the tribal areas and the northwest parts of the country to the interior of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan, the complaint is frequently heard that citizens cannot benefit from the court system because it is located too far away. How serious an issue this is can be gauged from the fact that several years ago, in the run-up to the Taliban’s takeover of Swat, the people of the area initially responded to the extremist group’s promise of providing speedy justice. And lack of access to the justice system is what, in part, allows forums such as jirgas — whose version of fair-dealing often involves illegal practices such as using women as dispute-settlement currency — to continue to be convened.

It is in this context that the mobile courts system inaugurated on the premises of the Peshawar High Court on Saturday must be viewed. The court has been pursuing the matter for over a year and it is to its credit that it has achieved its aim through notifications despite the inaction of the provincial government to pass the relevant laws. The idea behind the system is sound: the specially designed vehicle will travel about to resolve petty criminal and civil disputes. The idea has proved effective in India and Bangladesh and could prove of value here too. There are several parts of the country where an effective mobile court system could help aggrieved citizens.