Ending the drift

[irum]

POWER is a bit like a muscle: if you don’t exercise it, it atrophies. Most of the politicians in the new government have been out of power for a long time, and could be excused for the tentative use of their authority. It almost seems they are negotiating their way out of a minefield.

To be fair, the coalition government of the PPP and the PML-N has got bogged down in the debilitating controversy about the restoration of the judges sacked by Musharraf. The resignation of the PML-N ministers from the cabinet has not helped decision-making. But above all, there are too many power centres for effective administration.

Musharraf’s presence still casts a long shadow, with bureaucrats unsure of his role and his powers. After over eight years of snapping to attention and saying ‘Yes, sir!’ whenever he gave an order, it is not easy for civil servants to get out of the habit. To compound this confusion, the coalition partners are sending out mixed signals about their perception of his future.

Then there is the issue of party leaders Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif pulling the strings from behind the scenes. Although there is a prime minister and his cabinet in place, all major decisions have to be cleared by Zardari and Sharif. Of course, some ministers are calling the shots in their respective departments, but there is a sense of drift and lack of confidence that have marked this government’s performance thus far.

One sign of this tentative grip on power is the fact that three months after the elections, most of Musharraf’s cronies are still around. Although General Kaya ni has ordered serving army officers to leave the civil service jobs they had been seconded to by Musharraf, hundreds of retired military personnel still man key positions in the bureaucracy. Many others fill sinecures in sports organizations and public sector corporations.

Then there is another category of retired civil servants granted repeated extensions as a reward for their loyalty to Musharraf. It had been widely expected that all these time-servers would be sent home as soon as the elected government came to power. I suppose it will happen one day, but nobody seems to be in any hurry to end the Musharraf legacy.

During his years in power, Musharraf often invoked the principle of ‘unity of command’ to justify his occupation of the presidency while he exercised supreme executive authority. While trying to cope with the mess this ‘unity of command’ has landed us in, the government is unsure of how to go about it. One reason, of course, is that Nawaz Sharif wants Musharraf to leave immediately, while the PPP is taking a more nuanced approach, preferring a gradual transition rather than an overnight transformation. This debate spanned several weeks and much op-ed space in the Daily Times before the elections, and continues to play itself out today.

The problem with the PPP approach is that it produces paralysis of the sort we see today. Unsure of Musharraf’s powers and tenure, the bureaucracy looks towards the presidency, the prime minister’s office and Zardari House for decisions. This is a sure recipe for an administrative logjam. As it is, our bureaucracy moves at glacial speed; the presence of multiple power centres just slows things down still further.

I am not sure if it has made the textbooks, but one theory recommends ‘administration by earthquake’. According to this approach, when you first take over an organisation, you should make major personnel changes very quickly. In the process, you might make some mistakes, but you send an immediate message about who’s the boss. Also, if you wait to get to know the organisation before gradually making changes, you get bogged down in departmental rivalries and the personal relationships you build up with your colleagues.

Clearly, the earthquake moment has passed. Musharraf and Chaudhry loyalists still man the upper echelons of the bureaucracy, and have no doubt made themselves indispensable to many ministers. This is something many of them are past masters at. A little sycophancy goes a long way in ensuring job security.

On a short visit to Pakistan recently, I encountered a taxi driver who said to me: “We understand that this government can do very little to bring food and fuel prices down. But why don’t they do what they can do something about?” Why not, indeed? It’s good to learn there is some forward movement on the judicial issue, with the PPP moving legislation aimed at breaking the long and harmful deadlock. But whether the final outcome will please everybody remains to be seen.

In themselves, multiple power centres are not unusual in a democracy. The checks and balances provided by the separation of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary are essential to the freedoms enshrined in our constitution. But our current problem is that each branch of the state has more than one authority figure. Thus, Musharraf, Zardari and the prime minister share power over the bureaucracy. Zardari and Sharif dominate the National Assembly, while the PML-Q and the MQM wait in the wings; PML-Q controls the Senate; and the judiciary has a sitting chief justice, while Mr Iftikhar Chaudhry awaits his return.

These permutations and combinations are disastrous for effective decision-making. Clearly, no major policies can be formulated and put into effect under these circumstances. This is one of the reasons the rupee is shaky, the stock market is gyrating, and there is flight of capital from our shores. Given the range and scale of the problems facing Pakistan, we can hardly afford procrastination over fundamental issues like reinstating the sacked judges, and retaining Musharraf.

One way or another, these matters need a swift and conclusive resolution. They cannot be allowed to poison the atmosphere indefinitely. If there is an impasse despite hours of negotiations, the coalition partners need to recognize that the differences are irreconcilable and end their alliance. If the PPP cannot accept the return of Iftikhar Chaudhry, and wishes to have Musharraf in the presidency for its own reasons, it needs to explore the PML-Q/MQM option.

The ball is clearly in Asif Zardari’s court. The one thing he cannot afford to do is to lose the initiative.

By Irfan Husain (www.dawn.com.pk)