Resistance to accountability
POLITICIANS have long been wary of accountability because it has so often been used to stunt the democratic process in the past. But there is a line that separates legitimate concerns from the desire to be above the law and that line appears to have been crossed by the present political leadership of the country. Consider the reaction by politicians, and especially leaders of the PML-N, to the National Accountability Bureau informing the Supreme Court of inquiries and investigations under way and references that have been filed against senior politicians, bureaucrats and sundry well-connected businessmen and public figures in scams involving billions of rupees. Instead of a sensible and measured response to what is effectively NAB doing a part of its job by inquiring into alleged fraud and scams, the political class has taken it upon itself to attack the integrity and professionalism of the accountability bureau itself. Curiously, Speaker of the National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq, who has demonstrated much equanimity in the long-running personal saga of Imran Khan and the PTI contesting the result of the seat they lost to Mr Sadiq in May 2013, appears to have been flustered on the PML-N’s behalf and has even threatened to file a reference against NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry. Earlier, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid had launched his own attack against NAB and its working.
There is no real doubt about what has provoked the outrage of parliamentarians: they seem to be allergic to the very idea of accountability. There also appears to be a sense of entitlement at work here, that somehow anything that attracts public and media criticism is unjustified when it comes to the reputation of politicians. In fact, it should be the other way round: politicians ought to be able to respond to every allegation of misconduct or corruption by proving that the allegations are without merit. But the trend is not new. In the last parliament, the PPP and PMLN feigned interest in a new accountability body, but then created an impasse over who should lead the organisation. Now, with the PPP still the largest single party in the Senate and the PML-N having a majority in the National Assembly, there ought to be no reason at all for delaying what the last parliament was unable to do – and yet there is no hint that the legislators are interested in taking up the matter anytime. Indeed, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq should be more concerned by the legislative disinterest of the house he presides over.
A basic point needs to be reiterated here: corruption — and the public’s perception of corruption — damages the democratic process. Few, if any, would argue that the political process is cleaner today than what it was at the start of the transition to democracy. An empowered, independent and professional accountability body is needed. NAB has many flaws, but so do many politicians have much to hide.
Pensioners’ lot
A RECENT picture in this newspaper shows an elderly woman pensioner being helped out of the bank by her son and grandson. Frail, and in obvious discomfort, she had just been told to come another day to collect her pension. The image may be worth a thousand words and more, but the indications are that, yet again, such telling signs have been ignored by those who can help these senior citizens by introducing a respectable method whereby they can receive the monthly allowance they are entitled to. We have written previously on the subject, but comments and news items pointing to their lot have failed to have any kind of an impact. Pensioners in the country do get much sympathy — especially during the first few days of the month when they are seen lining up outside banks to receive their dues. But what they and their more conscientious backers from among the well-meaning have been unable to get is official notice and consequent steps towards relief.
What more prompting does a government need than a senior citizen telling a reporter to not bother with his lost cause? Another explains the link between his appearance and the pension that he is so grudgingly provided after a painful, prolonged process every month: he is forced to come in person — at least once every three months — to prove he is still alive. That is quite a remarkable standard to maintain. The attitude towards senior citizens is generally insulting and is one that makes them feel as if they are unwanted by society and the state. That is a terrible feeling and the remedy requires much more than the improvement of facilities at banks that at the moment so begrudgingly give pensioners their entitlement. There has to be a campaign led by the government aimed at restoring to the elderly the respect which was thought to be their due before they were made to suffer the ignominy of standing, waiting for ‘favours’, in these ‘dole-out’ queues.
Guns vs books
THE challenge that Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has thrown down for us deserves to be taken seriously. The young and courageous campaigner for education said at a UN-sponsored education summit in Oslo that $39bn is all that is required to give 12 years of free education to every child in the world.
To put the number in context, she placed it next to global military expenditures, showing only eight days of military spending could pay for the education of every child in the world. This is a staggering comparison, and becomes even more important when one considers the growing role of child soldiers in conflicts in Africa and many other parts of the world.
Global military expenditures have been showing very slight declines in the past three years, coming in at $1.776tr last year according to the Stockholm Peace Research Institute. But these declines hide a fundamental reality: the centre of gravity of military expenditure is moving away from the Americas towards the Middle East and Asia.
Countries in our neighbourhood are arming themselves at an alarming rate. The US remains the world’s leading arms spender, but the list of the top 15 countries with the highest military expenditures today includes India, China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It is heartening that Pakistan does not feature on this list — we can hardly afford to. But each of these countries has a special responsibility to ensure their growing military expenditures are matched by equally robust increases in their education spending.
Pakistan too, as a rival of one of these countries and a strategic partner of the remaining three, shares a special responsibility to ensure that the competition it chooses to pursue does not come at the cost of educating our future generations. The young Malala took enormous risks to underline some very obvious facts: that education is necessary, that girls are as entitled to it as boys. Now she is once again reminding us of our tragically misplaced priorities in which our hatred and thirst for power today trumps our investment in our children’s future.
If even eight days of military spending sounds too much of a sacrifice for the sake of educating every child in the world for 12 years, then our grip on humanity has withered to a great extent. The least we owe our children is to think about how we got to this point, and more importantly, how we might extricate ourselves from the situation.
Published in Dawn ,July 13th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial