Fighting politics with politics
TRUE and eternal as the democratic right to protest must remain, yet another season of rallies raises questions of whether or not the country’s political leadership understands the full spectrum of its responsibilities towards the public. PTI chief Imran Khan, political provocateur Tahirul Qadri and sundry opposition politicians appear so fixated on opposing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N that there is no room for institutionalised thinking or even concern beyond their immediate goal. The contrast between the response to the militant attacks in Peshawar and Mardan and the aggressive political rhetoric in the opposition rallies could not have been more disappointing. Much as this country needs better governance, cleaner politics and a more transparent electoral system, the security threat is of fundamental concern. The militant threat has manifested itself from Balochistan to KP in recent days, but few, if any, of the opposition politicians agitating for the ouster of the government have shown much interest in contributing to a national strategy to fight militancy.
Where the opposition is on firmer ground is Imran Khan’s criticism of some state institutions. While some of Mr Khan’s wild accusations against specific public officials can only be taken seriously if reasonable evidence is produced, it is clearly the case that investigation, law-enforcement and accountability agencies are not acting as independently of the political government as they should be under the law. Can any reasonable observer of politics and governance here claim that the FIA, FBR, NAB, etc are operating autonomously and to the full extent of their powers as allowed under the law? Or can the claim be made that the revelations in the Panama Papers can be probed independently and authoritatively by any government agency operating under political control? If the parliamentary committee system had been stronger and more empowered, perhaps the legislature could have been the scene of serious revelations about unwarranted political interference in the workings of the executive. Unhappily, while the opposition rightly criticises eroding institutions, it does not appear interested in strengthening the most fundamental of democratic institutions ie parliament.
Yet, no amount of contradictions and failings on the part of the opposition can overshadow the basic truth: as the elected government, and therefore the chief custodian of the democratic project, it is the PML-N that must lead the way on institution-strengthening and truth-telling in politics. Instead of fighting politics with the rule of law and democracy-building interventions, the PML-N seems determined to fight politics with politics. Even in the FBR’s decision to send notices to all individuals named in the Panama Papers lies a whiff of political strategy. The government is trying to show its willingness to move ahead on investigating the offshore companies while treating the Sharif family on a par with the other individuals involved, a tactic that is advantageous to the first family. It may be too much to hope for an elected government to not respond politically to attacks against its leader. But surely politics cannot be the be-all and end-all of democratic existence.
Women workers
IT might be good to hear that the government wants to devise a ‘road map’ to narrow the gender wage gap to 10pc in the next three years, but it is hard to see how any road map to close the gender wage gap can be effective in the absence of the right to form associations and engage in collective bargaining. If they are serious in their intention, then we should see wide legislative steps that try to eliminate discrimination in various forms, as well as resurrect the right to form associations and engage in collective bargaining. Despite having ratified the relevant UN and ILO conventions more than a decade ago, the gender wage gap has only increased, and according to research done by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, now stands at almost 40pc in the garment industry that is a large employer of women. Moreover, it seems that only one-tenth of the country’s labour force enjoys access to rights of association and collective bargaining.
Beyond the gender wage gap, there is a host of other issues that also need to be addressed to make the labour laws of the country more just towards the rights of women workers. Already the vast majority of the country’s workforce is hired on a contract basis so the rights enjoyed by permanent workers need to be extended in order to be effective. There is no concept of maternity leave or other benefits, an absence that hits women workers harder than others. At the moment, the government appears to be reacting to pressure from the European Union which is demanding greater emphasis on women’s labour in order to renew the GSP-Plus preferential trading scheme for Pakistan. In this situation, the will to actually move beyond meetings, discussions and drafts of legislative proposals is absent. The Justice Shafiur Rehman Commission report makes for a good platform to develop such a road map. But the report has been lying dormant for over a decade now and there is little reason to suppose that the present effort to lift it out of obscurity will have any credibility. If the attorney general is serious, he should also lay stress on the rights of association and collective bargaining in developing this road map. Otherwise, it will be obvious they are working on a road map to eyewash and nothing more.
APS victims’ families
SOME press is bad press, and always will be. Appearing insensitive to the parents of those who were murdered in the APS Peshawar attack falls in this category. On Thursday, around 60 protesters, including parents of some of the victims, were turned back by the police from entering Islamabad’s high-security Red Zone after they arrived in the capital. The group was planning to stage a demonstration outside parliament to register their protest against the government’s failure to order a judicial inquiry into the massacre, as had been announced by the president. They also wanted to meet the prime minister to demand that the state fulfil the commitments made to them in connection with the attack. Upon being thwarted, the protesters chanted slogans against the government and threatened self-immolation. Finally, a minister from Islamabad’s development division, CADD, brought the fraught situation under control with assurances that the meeting they sought would take place next week.
One could argue that an appointment with the country’s chief executive cannot take place without going through the formalities. However, the niceties of protocol are irrelevant here. For most of the country, Dec 16, 2014, was a watershed that, in its remorseless brutality, brought home the urgency with which the battle against terrorism had to be fought. But for the families of those who met their end that day, it was the beginning of a never-ending nightmare, a torment that can perhaps only partially be assuaged by getting answers to burning questions: eg, who exactly were the attackers, how did they succeed in their task in such a high-security area, etc. That is far from an unreasonable demand: we too should be asking the same instead of accepting glib, pre-packaged responses. Some of the planners and perpetrators of the attack have been brought to book, or so we are told. But as they say, “Justice must not only be done; it must also be seen to be done”. Closure continues to elude the APS victims’ families.
Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2016