Reining in VIP expenses
THE Supreme Court on Saturday rightly ruled that a petition seeking to slash the allegedly extravagant sums of public money spent on the President House, Prime Minister House and the various governor houses across the country is a matter of policy and a political question in which the court should not intervene. In the constitutional scheme of separation of powers and separate domains, the court is charged with interpreting the law and issuing authoritative judgements on legal disputes – not determining whether any given policy is good or bad according to some subjective standard. A court aware of its limitations is a court that is well placed to perform its constitutional duty. Perhaps this most recent judgement will guide future benches in not wasting the court’s valuable time in hearing and authoring judgements on what are clearly politically motivated petitions and will instead dismiss them at the outset.
Yet, to say that the court is not the right forum for hearings on the so-called VVIP culture that has taken hold at the very top is not to deny that there is a problem of the country’s leadership, elected and unelected, having become unjustifiably removed from the people. It is not so much the upkeep of buildings and residences – the presidency and governor houses, for example, are symbols of the federation and steeped in history, so must be preserved for posterity. The problem is rather who makes decisions on issues like security arrangements, protocol and overall budgets. Far too often, rather than independent professionals, those decisions appear to be left to the beneficiaries themselves. Take the case of security, surely something that must be taken very seriously given the terrorist threat in the country. But when does high-profile security start to unnecessarily and unfairly impinge on the people’s rights? Of the hundreds of policemen idling around state residences and the dozens of vehicles in fast-moving convoys on cordoned off roads how much of that is about pomp and display and how much truly about necessary, efficient and cost-minded security?
At its root, the problem is that those making decisions about VIP lifestyles and security are either the beneficiaries themselves or those who are beholden to the high officials for their jobs. Perhaps a step in the right direction would be to have independent audit and budgeting committees. Rather than, say, the President House draw up its own budget and submit it to the government for approval, an independent committee of relevant professionals should be tasked with drawing up a proposed annual budget. The savings, admittedly, from a national budgetary perspective would be small. But measures that reduce the physical and psychological distance between the people and their elected representatives are worth more than can be counted in rupee terms. The epidemic of so-called VIP culture harms the democratic project. Excess must always be reined in.
Justice delayed
THE perils of an inefficient judicial system are all too well known in Pakistan. Any individual or group that has to approach the courts knows that justice, if it is ever served, will be a long time coming. From the apex court to the lower judiciary, but especially in the latter, the backlog is massive, leading from time to time to concerted efforts to clear it. But it is not just a matter of the sluggishness with which cases, and the sheer numbers they constitute, make their way through the system; even after the conclusion of a trial, it is common for litigants to have to wait for months and sometimes even years for the judgement. Hence, the fact that the Supreme Court handed down a judgement on Thursday prescribing a time frame within which courts must deliver their verdicts should be taken as a positive step. As its author, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, noted, without this final step the entire judicial set-up is rendered illusionary. Litigants will no doubt feel some relief at the apex court’s directive that civil courts must deliver their judgements within 30 days of a trial’s conclusion, district courts within 45 days, and high courts within 90 days.
A step in the right direction though this may be, there is much else that remains to be done to reform the judiciary. The central fact is that the country’s court system is badly broken; from poor investigation to weak prosecution and overworked judges, there are a very large number of problems in the system and most will remain unaddressed as a result of Thursday’s judgement. There already exist directives within which several sorts of judicial forums must conclude a trial, but these are overwhelmingly breached. The situation is so dire that it has led the country into quagmires from which extrication appears difficult. Consider, for example, that during the late ’90s, in an effort to speed up the progress in certain serious offences, Anti-Terrorism Courts were set up bypassing the regular court system. A decade and a half later, given the backlog that has built up in the ATCs and the low conviction rate secured there, after the Army Public School massacre the government resorted to the deeply problematic decision of trying civilians in closed-door, military courts. Such clouds of illegitimacy can be avoided: effective steps need to be taken urgently to revive the presently moribund courts’ system.
Mass transit
WHAT would in any case have been embarrassing for the authorities was made only much more so by the fact that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had taken such keen personal interest in the project. Last week, as residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad greeted the rain with relief, some of the stations of the new Metro Bus line were inundated. The underground stations on 6th Road and I.J. Principal Road saw accumulated rainwater that caused the escalators to become dysfunctional. And on the newly built elevated bus roadway between Saddar and Faizabad there was considerable accumulation of rainwater, raising the question of whether the drainage system was adequate — especially given the heavy rains and intense cloudbursts that are common in this area. To be sure, not all the flooding was because of insufficient infrastructure. Nevertheless, there is reason to question whether enough thought, research and planning have gone into the two mass transit systems that are already up and running in Lahore and the twin cities, as well as those that are being planned.
There is no doubt that mass transit systems are urgently needed in most of our big cities. However, public money is being spent. Are cities getting the best bang for the buck? True, the Metro Bus systems in Lahore and Islamabad/Rawalpindi are moving hundreds of thousands of passengers. Nevertheless, questions remain about whether the best routes were chosen. In which city would a subway system be a better and greener solution? What are the merits of rail versus bus? The Shahbaz Sharif government is planning to add the Orange Line Metro Train to the Lahore mass transit system, but hundreds of trees are to be felled. Has a credible study been conducted regarding the long-term impact on the environment? These questions, like the creation of mass transit systems, are of tremendous public interest. It behoves the government to confide in the people, in an accountable and transparent manner, so that the legacy it so seeks to leave behind is indeed a positive one.
Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial