Utter chaos
THERE are many examples of abject mismanagement and unexpected crises in the political history of this country. But few such episodes have been as thoroughly unnecessary and self-inflicted as the fiasco that was polling day for the Senate elections yesterday. It is less the number of seats that became the subject of controversy — certainly, only a minority of the 48 seats contested on Thursday. It was the entire voting process that was tainted by the actions of a few. As with every fiasco, there are culprits and this time it is the PML-N and, to a lesser extent, the PTI. Start with the PML-N. As the governing party, the PML-N is the chief custodian of the democratic project. In addition to being in the electoral fray, it was the responsibility of the PML-N to keep the process itself as transparent, efficient and free from controversy as possible. In that regard, the PML-N has been a stunning failure — adding to its growing list of ineptitudes and difficult-to-understand mistakes. In strictly procedural terms, ahead of the unruliness in Punjab and ugliness in KP, the failure to elect Fata senators is a wretched tale of an eleventh-hour intervention failing to address a problem that had been apparent from the very outset of this election process.
Presidential ordinances are an undesirable form of legislation to begin with, but can there even be a justification for a democratic government promulgating an ordinance in the middle of the night that changed the rules of an election to be held the following morning? Whatever the problem that the ordinance sought to address — legitimate or not — surely the late-night change to the rules was always going to stoke controversy. If that were not enough of a scandal, there was a broader PML-N failure in three provinces: the inability to anticipate some thoroughly obvious problems and the unwillingness to offer pre-emptory solutions. Nothing that happened in Balochistan, KP or Punjab was new or particularly challenging — but none of those problems could be dealt with without calm, organised and thoughtful political leadership.
Surely, in politically divided provinces such as Balochistan and KP and neglected houses such as the Punjab Assembly, MPAs were going to create trouble if left to their own, parochial devices. Disastrous as the PML-N leadership was — a last-ditch effort to pass a constitutional amendment actually underlined the political and managerial failures of the government — the PTI in KP played its role in compounding the problems. With a provincial leadership that appears to defy the central leadership more often than not and with PTI chief Imran Khan being his usual mercurial self, the PTI in KP appears to have become everything Mr Khan excoriates in status quo politics. Where are the principles, where is the discipline and where is the public interest in the PTI set-up in the province?
Madressah financing
WHAT does one make of a situation where a different answer is given to the same question, depending on who is asked and when? In a rolling series of responses given to the Senate since at least January, the Punjab police have been giving conflicting answers to a simple question: how many madressahs in the province are known to be receiving foreign funding? In late January, where other provinces presented a combined figure of 23 madressahs that received foreign funding, Punjab had said there were no such seminaries on its territory. This claim was met with scepticism, and the Senate committee summoned the Punjab IGP and asked him the same question. The IGP sent a representative in his place who reportedly told the committee that foreign funding was indeed being received, but came via informal channels, and details were therefore not known. He sought the assistance of the FIA and the State Bank in tracing it. The committee tasked the Punjab police with preparing a detailed report and scheduled another hearing. That hearing was held on Wednesday, and this time the Punjab IGP appeared in person, along with an official from Nacta, the counterterrorism authority. This time they told the committee that 147 seminaries in Punjab were receiving funds from abroad, but that “no actionable intelligence” existed on the matter, and therefore the police could do little more than keep the entities under watch.
Nacta made the startling observation that it was unaware of the exact number of madressahs operating in the country since the figures provided by different agencies and provincial governments did not tally. He had no concrete information on foreign funding. Given some follow-up, the provincial government has gone from “nil”, to “some” to 147 in just over a month. The fact that legislators have to follow up aggressively in order to get straight answers to such an important question shows the provincial government’s lack of interest in pursuing the matter. Funding of madressahs, especially those suspected of involvement in terrorist activities and those whose curriculum includes preaching hate against members of other sects and denominations, is a crucial part of fighting the menace of extremism and terrorism in Pakistan. If the law-enforcement agencies are evasive in generating straightforward answers to simple questions, and continuously plead their helplessness and ask for assistance from other government departments, it reveals a manifest lack of vigour in going to the roots of terrorism.
Misuse of ECL
OFFICIALDOM in Pakistan seems to have a penchant for mishandling sensitive issues. Take the treatment meted out to Baloch rights activist ‘Mama’ Abdul Qadeer at the Karachi airport on Wednesday. Before the activist, accompanied by two colleagues, could board a flight to the US to attend a seminar, the group was stopped by the Federal Investigation Agency and told their names were on the Exit Control List. Mama Qadeer says officials told him he was involved in “anti-Pakistan” activities, which is why he could not travel abroad. The campaigner was supposed to participate in a seminar in New York on rights violations in Sindh and Balochistan. The move clearly smacks of political victimisation. What is particularly disturbing is why the individuals had not been informed when their names had been placed on the ECL; this would have allowed them to challenge the move legally. This incident indicates the state is continuing to misuse the ECL. Instead of employing it as a tool to prevent the flight of violent and dangerous suspects or criminals, it seems the government is using the list as a way to punish critics and opponents by restricting their freedom to travel.
It should be recalled that Mama Qadeer had led a nearly 2,000km march that ended in Islamabad in 2014 to highlight the plight of missing persons in Balochistan. Accompanied by a small group of women and children, Mama Qadeer’s march was a poignant, painful reminder that in this country, it is taken for granted that the security apparatus detain people extra-judicially. His own son was found shot dead after going missing. The state should realise that instead of silencing critics or preventing them from raising their voice internationally, it must address the core issues that push people to speak up against injustice in the first place. This unsavoury incident also highlights the need to reform the process of placing names on the ECL. The procedure must made be more transparent and less prone to abuse.
Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2015