Thursday, January 16, 2014
The LG polls circus
IT is hardly news that the local government elections have again been postponed — this merry-go-round has been whirling for a long time. What is new, this time, is that we have not been told when these twice-postponed polls will be held. On Monday, the Supreme Court accepted the request of the Election Commission of Pakistan that the elections be delayed because it was not yet ready for the task. So the vote proposed for March 13 in Punjab and Feb 23 in Sindh has been put off — dates which the ECP itself had suggested on Jan 8, because of the “difficulties” involved. It is not clear why the ECP suggested fresh dates for vote, when surely it must have known by then that all arrangements were not in place. Now sources close to the election body have told this paper that the LG polls would not be possible for another six months.
Is anyone really interested in the local bodies’ elections, except the people of Pakistan? Worldwide, local government elections are considered of vital importance because they constitute the first rung of the democratic ladder. In fact, those elected to these bodies handle affairs which have a more direct relationship to the people’s daily life than those manning the elected fora at higher levels. Yet among the ironies of Pakistan’s traumatic history is that it is the military strongmen who have been quick to organise LG elections. Their motives were, of course, far from altruistic and democratic, for invariably they made these elected institutions serve as an electoral college to give legitimacy to their rule. That elected governments should be tardy on this score is a matter of shame. No LG elections were held during the last five years, and, again, the elected governments have been in the saddle for more than seven months, but the administrations of the two most populous provinces have shown no sincere desire to let the people choose their local representatives. In fact, the two resolutions passed unanimously by the National Assembly in November were a true reflection of our politicians’ view of LG elections when the lawmakers demanded the polls’ postponement and indirectly criticised the judiciary for its “stubbornness” because it insisted on the polls. The truth is our political governments fear the consequences of a vote that may not necessarily reflect the May 11 preferences.
The ECP must finally make sure that it doesn’t have to regret a new date. The printing of ballot papers is a major task, and in Sindh the issue has been further complicated by the tussle between the PPP and Muttahida over the delimitation of constituencies, with the high court setting aside the amendment to the Sindh LG law. And who do candidates in Punjab blame for spending some Rs6bn on an election that has yet to take place?
Prosecution has a case
FOR official prosecutors, the decisive moment quite often comes at a very early stage — when they have to make up their mind whether or not to pursue a case. They are lawyers appearing on behalf of the state and at the expense of taxpayers; and the conviction rate they are in a sense duty-bound to ensure is crucial to the health of the judicial system. Elsewhere they are cast as facilitators of judges, enjoying credibility as well as some fame. Not so in Pakistan. A report from the biggest, and by many accounts, the most ‘settled’ province portrays the prosecutors more as victims than able-bodied, functioning harbingers of justice working at a very basic level. Punjab signifies the extent of the powerlessness of prosecutors in the country. The province had set up an independent service for prosecutors in 2006, which brought only limited improvements to the system. One of the main causes cited for this restricted impact is the lack of a service structure that is commensurate with the work of these lawyers. Not only do prosecution lawyers have to work on small budgets, they are condemned to live with the stigma of being ‘only good enough to represent the state’.
This whole arrangement is against the market rule and must discourage many of the more intelligent minds from enrolling as prosecutors. Instead, it could attract those desirous and willing to abuse the ‘official prosecutor’s’ position. Then these lawyers work at a distance from the police, that forever-maligned investigation arm of the system notorious for destroying a case file even before it reaches the lawyer. Understandably, those from among the prosecutors who can, divert at the first opportunity, which doesn’t help the reputation of those who cannot. The end result of this chain of frustration is that the crucial first decision quite often turns out to be the wrong one. Official figures show that of the almost 350,000 cases taken up by prosecution in Punjab during January-November 2013, some 150,000 were not worthy of trial. That can only change by turning the prosecution-investigation into an effective machine. The police have to be pulled up and set on the right track. Importantly, conditions have to be created where prosecution becomes worth a good lawyer’s while.
Neutral advice needed
THE maiden meeting of the recently reconstituted Economic Advisory Council held on the weekend proved to be a eulogy of the economic and financial policies designed and implemented in the last seven months by its chairman Ishaq Dar, who also happens to be the government’s finance minister. The input of its members, especially those who aren’t associated with the government in any capacity, according to a handout, was restricted mostly to ‘endorsement’ of his policies, or ‘all-purpose’ comments on the state of the economy. That tells us a great deal about what we can expect from the council going forward. The fate of the reconstituted council is unlikely to be too different from that of similar bodies formed under previous governments.
The fault doesn’t lie with the (non-official, private) members who join such bodies out of their desire to contribute their expertise and give the government neutral advice to help it formulate effective economic policies. The council is structured in such a way that bureaucrats and politicians, who are unwilling to listen to a neutral viewpoint that challenges their monopoly on policymaking, dominate it. Such temporary and non-constitutional bodies can function effectively and meaningfully only when they comprise people known for their grasp on the subjects they are tasked to deal with and are not linked to the government in any way. The body should be working directly under the country’s chief executive and its job should be to function independently of official or political influence to highlight issues that have a direct bearing on the life of the people and the country’s economic development. Such a body should be mandated to identify and analyse the various issues facing the country from a neutral, unbiased standpoint and also prepare periodic reports — monthly, bimonthly or quarterly as is required by the prime minister — to inform the people of gaps in official policies. This will also address complaints, if any, of the council infringing on the territory of one federal department or the other.