22.12.2013

Unity against terrorism
SAFMA conference urges both Afghanistan and Pakistan to work together to prevent the post-withdrawal void from being exploited by extremists on both sides
By Sirmed Manzoor

The South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) organised a two-day bilateral conference (13–14 December 2013) on the impending ISAF withdrawal from Afghanistan and the prospects of a bilateral partnership for peace and cooperation post-2014. The conference brought together some 300 parliamentarians, security analysts, and media practitioners from both Pakistan and Afghanistan to debate the issues arising from the latter’s difficult political and military transition, and its repercussions for the region as a whole.

The conference’s keynote speaker, author and analyst Ahmed Rashid, underscored the need for both countries to overcome their immense mutual trust deficit. He pointed out that the existence of a “peace lobby” within the Afghan Taliban (as opposed to the Pakistani Taliban) was grounds for optimism that Afghanistan could make a secure political transition post-2014. Afghanistan’s former minister for information, Abdul Hameed Mubariz, also emphasised the importance of overcoming this mistrust, with economic cooperation being a possible starting point.

The conference’s four thematic sessions on countering common threats, areas of convergence, a joint strategy to overcome militancy and promote reconciliation, and the way forward, were addressed by a number of notable security and foreign affairs analysts, including Ghulam Hassan Gran (former secretary general of the Wolesi Jirga), Maj Gen (Retd.) Athar Abbas, Azarakhsh Hafezi (president of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries), Brig (Retd) Mahmood Shah, Dr Wadeer Safi (an academic at Kabul University), Brig (Retd) Asad Munir, AVM (Retd) Shahzad Chaudhry, Nargis Nehan (director of the Afghan NGO Equality for Peace and Democracy), Khadim Hussain, Lt Gen (Retd) Talat Masood, Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi, and Abdul Sattar Purdeli (head of the Mahmud Tarzi Think-Tank in Kabul).

The common thread of the panelists’ discussions was that Pakistan had a key role to play in Afghanistan’s transition, given their shared geography and historical and ethnic ties. This also meant, however, that Pakistan would have to employ a far greater degree of transparency in its dealings with its neighbour. The primary emphasis, several speakers argued, should be on a well-planned transition coupled with reconciliation, rather than on an exit strategy.
The common thread of the panelists’ discussions was that Pakistan had a key role to play in Afghanistan’s transition, given their shared geography and historical and ethnic ties.

A key aim of the conference was to give political leaders from both the countries a forum from which to voice their concerns regarding the prospects of bilateral cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to interact both formally and informally in the hopes of reaching a consensus on potentially controversial issues. Accordingly, the conference attempted to ensure that all Pakistan’s major political parties — and especially those whose constituencies bordered Afghanistan, such as in KP and Balochistan — were given the chance to exchange views with their political counterparts from Afghanistan’s Wolesi Jirga.

Representatives from the PTI, Asad Umer and Shafqat Mahmood, spoke of their party’s commitment to peace in Afghanistan and the need to shun foreign intervention in building a relationship of trust. Former minister Qamar Zaman Kaira and Senator Farhatullah Babar spoke on behalf of the PPP and argued that it was essential for both the countries to recognize that giving sanctuary to militants on either side was not in each other’s interest. Senator Jaffar Iqbal from the PML-N assured the conference’s delegates that his government was committed to measures for peace and reconciliation with Afghanistan, while Senator Mushahid Hussain discussed the outcomes of his recent meetings with counterparts in Kabul and argued that the concept of “strategic depth” should no longer govern Pakistan’s relations with its neighbour. Former KP chief minister, Pir Sabir Shah, from the PML-N also spoke of the economic benefits that could accrue from improved relations between the two countries.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of the JUI-F held that it was important that both the countries’ military establishments were willing to commit to peace in the region, adding that peace with India was equally crucial for this purpose. Aftab Ahmed Sherpao of the QWP focused on resolving the issue of border management, recommending that people on both sides of the border take responsibility for checking illegal cross-border movement. Senators Haji Mohammad Adeel and Afrasiab Khattak of the ANP spoke of the common ethnic ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the importance of maintaining a sense of brotherhood in the face of political turmoil and violence.

Dr Abdul Malik, the Chief Minister of Balochistan, also spoke at the conference and said that a complete withdrawal of international troops was unwise: the troops should draw down in phases so as to prevent any possibility of the Taliban wreaking havoc. Sartaj Aziz, special advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, underscored the importance of an international consensus on Afghanistan’s sovereignty. He held that all promises made to support Afghanistan by the international community must be fulfilled, adding clearly that a proxy war between Pakistan and India played through Kabul would damage all three countries’ interests and must be avoided at all costs.

The conference culminated with the approval of the Islamabad Declaration: a document drawn up at SAFMA’s previous bilateral conference in 2009 and now amended to incorporate delegates’ concerns regarding border management issues and the role of women in Afghanistan’s transition. The crux of the declaration was that both Afghanistan and Pakistan must work together to prevent the void created by the withdrawal of ISAF troops from being exploited by extremists on both sides. It was imperative that the two neighbours refrain from acting against each other’s national security interests and tackle the narrative of extremism that now dominated the political and social discourse.

Afghanistan’s parliamentarians in particular emphasized their concerns about the recognition of the controversial Durand Line, pointing out that it had not been the outcome of a democratic exercise. Nonetheless, in the interests of reaching a consensus on border management procedures, both countries’ delegates agreed that the declaration should refer to a non-specific border without prejudice to the position of either country.

29.12.2013

Headless bodies
A number of government organisations are working without permanent heads, putting the government’s ambitious privatisation plan in doldrums
By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed

The incumbent government has been in power for a good six months but it still seems indecisive on many fronts, including appointment of heads of government organisations, statutory bodies, regulatory authorities etc.

These appointments are extremely important as the government has launched an ambitious privatisation plan and vowed to provide a level playing field to the private sector and potential investors. In the absence of qualified, competent and neutral heads of these bodies, it is next to impossible to achieve the above-mentioned objectives. Neutrality is a key to good governance which should be kept in view while making these appointments.

The situation on ground is that there are no permanent heads of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and many others. At places, there are acting heads who, though help complete quorums, cannot take strategic decisions and have been under the scanner of Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) for long.

Inordinate delay in these appointments has made many of the concerned organisations ineffective. The government seems to be aware of this fact but it is taking calculated decisions, mainly due to the proactive role of the judiciary. Several appointments and removals by the government were declared null and void by the judiciary as it found them politically biased and violative of the principles of merit.

So, the question here is whether the situation will remain the same or there would be a breakthrough on this front?

Sources at the federal establishment division say there have been recent developments. The Federal Commission for Selection of Heads of Public Sector Organisations (FCHPSO) has advertised for 33 of these posts and the process of selection is underway, they add.
Inordinate delay in these appointments has made many of the concerned organisations ineffective. The government seems to be aware of this fact but it is taking calculated decisions, mainly due to a proactive judiciary.

FCHPSO was formed on SC’s order of July 22, 2013, in which it had asked the government to form a three-member commission which should ensure the appointments are made on merit and in a transparent manner. The judgement, in fact, clips powers of the prime minister to make appointments on these posts. Experts believe irregularities found in appointments made by ex-PM Yousaf Raza Gliani called for this move.

The court order covers 58 posts of heads in organisations falling in the domain of cabinet division, commerce division, aviation division, national food security and research division, national health services, regulations and coordination division, religious affairs and interfaith harmony division, housing and works division, industries and production division, interior division, information, broadcasting and national heritage division, information technology and telecom division, inter-provincial and coordination division, prime minister’s office, petroleum and natural resources division, railways division and water and power division.

An official in the federal secretariat tells TNS that the members of the commission meet rarely which is a reason why the process is extraordinarily slow. One of the three members was away from country for long which brought everything to a halt. The process has started once again after his return and reportedly the commission is holding interviews, he adds.

The official says independent heads of regulatory authorities and organisations bracing for privatisation are a must to give confidence to investors. But, unfortunately, these have never enjoyed financial and operational autonomy and remained subservient to the state. “Let’s hope the new appointees bring a positive change and challenge the status quo,” he adds.

The official gives examples of how this delay has affected the working of organisations. He says there are several applications pending with NEPRA for tariff determination but decisions have not been taken despite passage of years. New electricity projects cannot be launched till NEPRA decides the unit price to be paid to investors. This has led to delay in launching new projects.

Irfan2

Similarly, in the absence of NAB chief, no fresh investigations could be launched. Issuance of 3G licenses is also not possible in the presence of acting PTA chief.

Rashid Munir, who works at Commission I section in the establishment division, claims that FCHPSO has recommended appointments of heads of PTA, PIA and NEPRA. Besides they are holding interviews for appointments to PSM on December 26 and PEPCO and NTDC on December 27.

Another eagerly awaited appointment is that of the CEO of Drug Regulatory Authority, which is directly responsible for regulating the pharmaceutical industry and ensuring the wellbeing of patients in Pakistan. Currently, there is a CEO from within the setup and an advertisement in newspapers was placed in October last for a permanent one.

The need for having a drug regulatory body was also felt strongly when the Supreme Court of Pakistan observed there was no mechanism in place to check malpractices in the pharmaceutical sector. This happened when a large number of heart patients died due to drug reaction following their medical treatment at Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC).

Irfan3

A pharmaceutical company executive, requesting anonymity, says that the government was not even willing to allow regulators to work independently.

He says based on the facts and numerous discussions between the stakeholders and DRA throughout the year 2012-13, the latter recommended a 15 per cent increase in the prices of those drugs which have not been given any increase since 2001. But the prime minister reportedly revoked the order which, as per sources, was okayed by him a couple of days ago.

He says the government tried to gain political mileage by reversing the raise in prices of medicines but, in fact, jeopardized the independence of DRA. Many companies will stop producing several drugs for being non-viable and people will have to buy the imported or adulterated medicines.

The executive defends his case, saying many pharmaceutical companies did not get any raise during the last 11 years while all the inputs increased by more than 100 per cent over this period. For example, he says, the rupee depreciated manifold as it rose from Rs54 against a dollar then to Rs108 at the moment.

Dr Abid Qayyum Suleri, Executive Director Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and member of federal government’s economic advisory council, believes the practice of having acting heads of organisations should be done away with. Though they (the acting heads) fill the posts they are on weak footing and cannot take major initiatives. Polarisation, lobbying for permanent heads and uncertainty with the organisation made them ceremonial heads, he concludes.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

29.12.2013

The Quaid of hagiographers
By Tahir Kamran

On the eve of Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s 137th birth anniversary, it seems pertinent to take a synoptic view of the discursive studies carried out on his life and achievements. Included in the huge corpus of literature produced on that subject are hagiographies, compilations of important documents concerning his political life, statements and speeches, biographies and scholarly studies, to list the broad principal categories.

Zawar Hussain Zaidi, Sharif ud Din Pirzada and Waheed Akhtar followed by Rafique Afzal and Jamil Ahmed have done compilations of important documents, which are handy resources for posterity for the use of researchers. Ayesha Jalal, Sharif ul Mjahid and Sikander Hayat have all produced scholarly works on Jinnah. Riaz Ahmed and Akber S. Ahmed too have contributed in this regard, but their works are the illustration of what Saeed ur Rehman calls “safe scholarship” whereby the authors take extremely cautious/conservative view of the subject that they deal with.

In the category of biography, Hector Bolitho, Stanley Wolpert, Liaqat Merchant, Jaswant Singh and Ajit Javed are credited to have produced biographies which are worth reading to say the least. Hagiographical literature on the founder of Pakistan is in abundance from Z.A. Sulehri to Chaudhry Sardar Muhammad — works which at times appear to be trivialising the towering persona of Jinnah. Hagiographical literature on the founder of Pakistan is the seminal point made in the lines to follow.

Jinnah, along with Allama Iqbal, is being constantly imagined and re-imagined by an ever-increasing band of hagiographers and apologists. Undoubtedly, in Pakistan, the deification of these two personalities is divesting them of their human characteristics through churning out hagiographical accounts, a process which has proved to be the safest career option for many writers. One wonders if such placid studies, completely devoid of any novel intervention on the subject, are doing any good to the state of history or its allied disciplines in any way.

It can, however, be argued that the ‘transcendental signification’ accorded to these two great persons has arrested the growth of our political insight and critical thinking in general. Moreover, it has given sustained currency to the anachronistic notion of personalities being central to the culmination of any historical process. Such studies are akin to the traditional tazkira nigari, in which the person concerned was eulogized ad infinitum in a bid to make him look like a transcendental being, rather than proper biographies which deal with time-space bound mortals.

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan wrote Yadgar-i-Ghalib which is undoubtedly a classic. However, in the modern Muslim history of the Subcontinent, Altaf Hussain Hali (Hayat-i-Javaid, the life history of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan) and more importantly Shibli Naumani can be regarded as the pioneers of the genre of biography-writing (which were more like hagiographies). One must be mindful of the fact that Hali’s Hayat-i-Javaid is a finely balanced account and fulfills the criterion of a biography. Shibli, of course, was a trend-setter by putting together such works like Sirat un Nabi, Al Farooq, Al Ghazali, Al Mamun etc.

Shibli was inspired immensely by British historian Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) whose book entitled Heroes and Hero Worship casts an indelible impression on Muslim laureates of 19th century India as S.M. Ikram alludes to, in his book Yadgar-i-Shibli. However, the biographies churned out ever since have a tangible rub of the style peculiar to tazkira writing. As a consequence the life-histories produced thereafter are devoid of any critical engagement with the subject of the study.

Thus any scholarly work with critical inflection is usually excoriated relentlessly by these Jinnah specialists. Many of them have the privilege of reaching out to a wider audience through the Urdu media, to which they contribute on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the general perception about the Pakistan’s history and politics is being formed by their writings, a fact that is highly regrettable.

It was because of them that after its publication, Ayesha Jalal’s The Sole Spokesman was virtually condemned by this species of hagiographers as if she had committed some heinous heresy. Late Prof. Sher Muhammad Garewal was visibly incensed when I suggested including that book in the Master’s course at GC University, Lahore. Ayesha Jalal, according to him, was unpatriotic and anti-Quaid-i-Azam and hence she should be condemned instead of including her works in the curriculum.

Now it is quite commonplace to quote the very first paragraph from Stanley Wolpert’s Jinnah of Pakistan which accords a glowing tribute to Jinnah that reads, “Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation state. Muhammad Ali Jinnah did all.” But despite that it also was banned in Pakistan in the 1980s when Gen. Zia was at the helm. The reason for banning its circulation in the Pakistani market was the author’s audacity to unveil some of the ‘human’ (one can read ungodly too) aspects of Jinnah’s personality.

After Hector Bolitho’s book, Jinnah: Creator of Pakistan Wolpert’s Jinnah of Pakistan is one of the very few books which fulfils the criterion of a biography. Jaswant Singh, A.G.Noorani and Ajit Javed are other extremely important and acclaimed biographers of Jinnah. Their biographies are extremely significant because it is through such studies that one gets to know how Jinnah is being viewed from across the border.

It is because of the hagiographical nature of most studies on Jinnah in Pakistan that neither of those could create any ripples in the international academia. However, Liaquat Merchant and Sharif ul Mujahid are two exceptions in this regard. Merchant has employed some useful family sources in his study and Mujahid’s work, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah: Studies in Interpretation is worthwhile because of the academic rigour and meticulous marshalling of primary sources, which are generally a hallmark of his scholarship.

As a concluding remark, it is argued that any historical account with critical insight does not amount to demeaning anybody. Great historical figures remain great even if someone comes up with a dissenting view about them. Rigid thinking engenders rigid behaviour which is nothing but a recipe for stagnation and decline.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

29.12.2013

Tablets to teach
Giving tablets to teachers, and not children, will help overcome teachers’ content knowledge deficiencies and improve teaching skills
By Irfan Muzaffar

After reading my last article, which questioned the smartness of Punjab government’s plans to develop the smart school system, I received several perceptive email responses from interested readers. While most readers seemed to share my concerns about this plan, one of them also asked my opinion about what would I do if I were given thousands of free android tablets and asked to do something with them to improve teaching and learning in our schools. My response was, “If anyone can benefit from giving this technology to schools, it is teachers. If the Punjab government must give tablets to schools, then they should experiment with giving them to the teachers and not children.”

In this article, the third and hopefully the last on this topic, I will explain how the android tablets, if part of a well-coordinated plan, could help teachers teach better.

Let me begin by observing that any initiative to improve teaching must address the perennial problems that afflict it. One of the foremost and widely documented problems with teachers in Pakistan is that of subject knowledge deficiencies. In a conversation I had with the legendary teacher of mathematics, Geoffrey Langland, many years ago, I remember asking him his opinion on teacher education. The seasoned teacher responded, “All you need for good teaching is sound knowledge of your subject and a passion to teach”. My experience has taught me that Langland is right in his judgement. If teachers do not know their subject knowledge well, they cannot learn to teach.

Teacher education is typically not, or inadequately, designed to eliminate the subject knowledge gaps. The policymakers have tried to address this problem by accepting the suggestions to increase the length of pre-service teacher preparation. Yet, as a seasoned teacher educator in one of the premier institutions in Pakistan recently told me, the quality of teacher education programmes can be only as good as that of teacher educators.

In the course of a study that I recently conducted, many teacher educators I interacted with did not have a university degree in the subject of the courses they had been asked to teach. Thus, a teacher educator trained in Urdu literature could be found teaching mathematics and science. What other faculties in a university will let this happen? Can you imagine this happening in the Physics, Chemistry, or even Urdu department in a university? Yet it does happen in some faculties of education. As a result, the prospective teachers joining the teacher education programmes with subject knowledge deficiencies exit those programmes without much change in their state of subject knowledge. Thus unresolved, the knowledge difficulties of prospective teachers are routinely carried into nation’s classrooms.

While the pre-service teacher education fails to address the preparation needs of prospective teachers, there is no evidence either that in-service professional development courses are able to comprehensively address those needs. The in-service professional development activities, with some exceptions, usually consist of short spurts of training offered to the teachers during the summer holidays.
This tablet comes preloaded with short video lessons on every topic that you would be required to teach. Each video accompanies a quiz designed for self-assessment. You can watch the video to refresh your knowledge.

Provinces, with the exception of Punjab, are barely maintaining their teacher education institutions by paying the salary bills of their staff. There are no resources available for designing and implementing professional development activities, which are almost completely funded by project funds obtained from the donors.

Punjab’s situation is somewhat different since it has established an elaborate structure for continuous professional development of teachers by extending the reach of Lahore-based Directorate of Staff Development (DSD) to district and sub-district level. The district teacher educators regularly visit the classrooms, provide support to teachers, and also conduct regular student assessment.

However, the anecdotal evidence based on conversations with teachers and a study of transcripts of classroom observations show that even this system of regular support is unable to sufficiently address the subject knowledge difficulties of teachers. To my knowledge, no rigorous evaluations have so far been conducted anywhere in Pakistan to establish the usefulness of professional development in addressing teachers’ professional needs.

Now imagine a situation in which each teacher in Punjab has been provided with a virtual mentor in the form of an android tablet. Imagine that you are one of those teachers. You have to teach a lesson on division of fractions to fourth graders tomorrow, but you are not quite comfortable with your own knowledge of the concepts involved in this lesson and your skills in using them to solve problems.

You reach for the android tablet that has recently been given to you by the Punjab government. This tablet comes preloaded with short video lessons on every topic that you would be required to teach. Each video accompanies a quiz designed for self-assessment. You can watch the video to refresh your knowledge and also attempt the quiz if needed. It also has lesson plan ideas, several activities that you could use as part of your lessons, as well as tips to develop low cost teaching aids by using things freely available in the classroom environment. The video lessons, the quizzes, and the lesson plans are carefully prepared by the experts at the DSD who have taken utmost care to identify and respond to the teachers’ needs. Your district-based mentors have already trained you in the use of these video-based supplementary materials. They, in turn, were especially prepared by the DSD to help you use these new support materials in accordance with a user’s manual.

So you turn on your android tablet, open the short video on divisions of fractions and watch it. The video is in Urdu. Most of these videos are dubbed versions of internationally available videos. Some have also been prepared locally. DSD has approved them after a careful process of development. Each one of these videos was shown to a smaller group of teachers who evaluated them based on their usefulness to them. A selection from these videos was also piloted for their usefulness before they were approved for delivery to its users.

You pull up the video that explains the concepts you will be teaching tomorrow. You can obviously repeat it as many times as you wish, until you feel confident that you have a good grasp of the concepts. If you wish you can take the quiz as well.

Mobility of mentors and supervisors, especially in the rural areas, has always been seen as a major impediment in the way of efforts to provide on-the-job support. Your mentor was also unable to come because his motorbike was in need of repairs. But you can no longer complain now as you have a virtual mentor, that you can access as much as you want.

I am not sure if it is feasible to provide these android tablets with data connections and hence have only mentioned the possibilities associated with preloading the tablets with supplementary materials designed to help the teachers teach better. But if the androids were to have a data connection as well, even if very limited, the possibilities of professional developments would simply multiply.

In fact, the Lahore-based DSD could reimagine itself, at least partially, as a provider of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). MOOCs are a recent development in distance education and involve unlimited participation through the web. MOOCs can be easily developed by the organisations, even the individual course authors, and the course building tools are freely available through website such as MOOC.ORG.

I recently attended an MOOC on classroom-based student assessment. The course participants included teachers from different countries and they were completely free to enrol. Doing professional development courses in MOOC format offers an efficient solution for institutions such as DSD with a mandate to provide professional development opportunities to a massive number of teachers.

Since the MOOC is a new mode of distance education, even AIOU can explore using it to design and offer short professional development courses to target various aspects of teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical skills. It is entirely possible for the teachers to benefit from such focussed MOOCs if they had access to android tablets connected to Internet.

We know we will never be able to improve the quality of education in our schools without good teachers. We also know that subject knowledge deficits are produced due to many years of flawed education and cannot be addressed comprehensively by pre-service teacher education. We also have no evidence that in-service professional development has addressed these difficulties. The anecdotal and piecemeal evidence from the classrooms suggests that they have not. But teachers have a better chance of overcoming their content knowledge deficiencies if they had a virtual mentor (the tablet) at their beck and call.

While I believe that giving tablets to teachers, and not children, will be a good step towards addressing the real needs of the teachers, I would still advise caution and analysis. Like any other policy idea, this suggestion should also be scrutinised by relevant experts, and, if considered good enough, piloted with a smaller number of schools to see whether and to what extent it can help teachers teach better.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

29.12.2013

Missing beats
By Syed Mansoor Hussain

Recently, I had an interesting discussion with a friend and a former colleague about the future of cardiac surgery. My friend now runs one of the largest and busiest cardiac centres in the public sector in the Punjab that is also responsible for training cardiac surgeons as well as cardiologists.

What concerned my friend was that even though ‘competent’ cardiologists are being trained, the number of cardiac surgeons capable of independent cardiac surgery being produced is just not adequate for the expected need over the next decade. Sadly, I am inclined to agree with him.

For more than three decades, I was involved in training cardiac surgeons, first in the United States and then in Pakistan. I served as the professor and chairman of a cardiac surgery department in a public sector university in Lahore for almost seven years. During this time, I was also responsible for training half a dozen candidates for the Fellowship of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan (FCPS) in cardiac surgery and in Master of Surgery (MS) in cardiac surgery.

Interestingly, soon after I took over as the head of the department, I realised that my junior ‘consultants’ with ‘fellowships’ in general surgery from UK (FRCS) and local cardiac surgery training needed my help first. Both of them were ‘experts’ under the rules of the Punjab government but, in my opinion, neither were capable of performing ‘safe’ cardiac surgery as independent surgeons. So I had to train these ‘experts’ before I could even think of training my ‘trainees’.

As of today, my former ‘trainees’ that I never really got around to train have all obtained their FCPS and MS qualifications in cardiac surgery and some of them are already serving as consultants in teaching hospitals. But I know that none of them can perform even the commonly done cardiac operations as independent surgeons. Of course, some of them will eventually learn but at what human cost? And that is what my friend was talking about.

Worse, some of these ‘untrained’ cardiac surgeons will in time ascend to positions where they will run departments and even become responsible for training new surgeons. Sadly, like many others in similar positions in the Punjab today they will produce equally ‘inadequate’ surgeons and the game will go on. As I said above, some of them will after ‘trial and error’ and considerable human cost learn how to perform basic surgical cardiac operations reasonably well but that is about it.
In Pakistan, I will suggest that after MBBS and a house job, cardiac surgical training should be limited to three or four years of general surgery and a maximum of another three years of cardiac surgery.

Before I go any further, I would like to tell about the difference between surgical training in Pakistan and the US. I performed my first ‘appendix’ operation in Pakistan as a house surgeon in Mayo Hospital in 1971. I was assisted by a student nurse and a medical student. My senior registrar who never asked me about the patient and why he needed the operation said, if you need help, I am in the next operating room. Fortunately, the patient did well.

I performed my first appendix operation in the US a year later. I was assisted by an attending (consultant) surgeon and a fully trained nurse. Before I started the operation, the consultant asked me about the patient, his medical history and all about the reasons why I thought the patient needed the operation. During the operation, the consultant made sure that I did it right, asking me questions along the way about why I did what I did and throughout he was ready to take over the operation if I made a mistake.

Five years later while going through my cardiac surgery training, my senior cardiac surgery consultant helped me through my first coronary bypass operation much the same way, but only after I had assisted him with quite a few bypass operations and he had gauged my surgical ability.

Even though my junior colleagues in Pakistan had never worked with me before, I tried my best to ‘teach’ them as I had been taught. Interestingly, I was the first cardiac surgery ‘consultant’ in local history that actually stood ‘across the table’ and walked a young surgeon through a major cardiac operation! Even if they made a mistake, I was there to take over. Eventually, they were trained well enough that I could sit in the side room of the operating theatre, have a cup of tea or two and let them perform even complicated operations on their own.

Therein lies the difference between the US system of surgical training and the British system that we in Pakistan have inherited and follow most of the time. The British system of training is what I refer to as ‘apprenticeship’, where the teaching concept is ‘watch and learn’. While the US system is based on ‘mentorship’ where the goal is ‘let me teach you how to do it right’.

Both systems produce excellent surgeons. However, the US system is more egalitarian in its approach and the idea is to ensure a uniform and adequate basic level of competence. The British system is elitist where only the very best learn how to do things well. We do have some excellent cardiac surgeons in Pakistan that have come through British or local training programmes, but we just don’t have enough of them to fill all the positions that are available.

Considering the recent expansion of ‘cardiac centres’, this lack of ‘good’ surgeons is unfortunate for three reasons. First, being relatively limited in their own training these senior surgeons are not able to perform complex operations properly. Second, most of the ‘secondary’ centres still train new surgeons and even if we follow the ‘apprenticeship’ method of training, without ‘examples’ to emulate, the trainees will never acquire appropriate skills. Third, being inadequately trained these consultants are not capable of providing leadership in terms of innovation and research that are an important part of the training process.

The other major problem with the Pakistani system of training, as I have seen it, is that by the time most candidates pass their FCPS in cardiac surgery and become ‘certified’ experts, they are already in their middle or late forties. As such, most have little more than a decade left in public service to function as consultants. This sadly has an unfortunate down side. Having spent more than two decades as low paid trainees, once they become consultants their primary goal in life is to earn as much money as they can and as quickly as they can.

So, what needs to be done? First, the training system must be uniform and only the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan (CPSP) should be responsible for certifying specialists and the college should assure a basic and comparable level of competence for all its qualifying candidates. Second, training should be time limited.

In Pakistan, I will suggest that after MBBS and a house job, cardiac surgical training should be limited to three or four years of general surgery and a maximum of another three years of cardiac surgery. This will let the new consultants to start their lives as consultants early enough to hone their skills and to keep up with the latest techniques and innovations. Also, without going through a formal training programme in cardiac surgery, nobody should be allowed to work as a consultant cardiac surgeon.

We should also develop a system of ‘part time’ consultants. Many well-trained cardiac surgeons are returning to Pakistan after going through excellent training programmes in UK and the US. Most of them prefer to work in the private sector but many of them will be quite willing to participate in the training of young physicians in the major public sector training programmes. It is a shame not to use their expertise.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

29.12.2013

Childish lessons
There is no effective mechanism in the country to develop special syllabus for early childhood education
By Rasheed Ali

Zubair Khan Changvani is sitting in his office with a number of books on his table. He is the principal of a private school. Rate lists and details of commissions offered by different publishing houses are spread out in front of him. He is carefully comparing the rates and commissions, so that publishers could be awarded contracts for providing books for early childhood education in all branches of his school system.

Changvani has already given a cursory glance at all books provided by the publishers. Of course, his main consideration is not the content of the books, but the commission offered on each book by the publishers. Finally, he reaches a decision and selects some publishers, who have offered the highest commission. He has selected textbooks for early childhood education at all six branches of his school system. He will now issue an office order for the administrators of the school branches to cooperate with the selected publishers and send details of the books sold on daily basis, so that the commission could be deducted from the total amount.

One must have gathered from the above lines what is a typical way adopted by the majority of private schools, or school systems, to select textbooks for early childhood education all over the country. But is it the right way to select textbooks for the new generation? Who sets the syllabus for the children of 4-8 years age group? Who writes these books? What impact will these books have on the kids? Nobody knows. No study has ever been conducted in the country to analyse the content of these books. No research has ever been launched to check suitability of the textbooks for the children of this age group.

Educationists the world over believe that setting the syllabus for early childhood and writing textbooks for children of the age group of 4-8 years are the most important and crucial tasks. The first eight years in the life of an individual is referred to as early childhood. This phase determines the future of a child, not just in terms of his education, but also his abilities, personality, individuality and success.

It is very important to provide a child proper early childhood education so that he/she can develop properly. During this phase, a child’s mind rapidly develops and as they say, “the wiring of the brain is laid down”. The mental, emotional, social and educational growth of a child is determined by his educational experiences and relationships received and built during his first eight years.
According to educationists, early childhood curriculum builds the foundation of a child’s future. A well developed and designed kindergarten curriculum proves instrumental in the growth of a child’s mental abilities.

According to educationists, early childhood curriculum builds the foundation of a child’s future. A well developed and designed kindergarten curriculum proves instrumental in the growth of a child’s mental abilities. There is dire a need that a syllabus is set for this age group by educationists, with the help of psychologists, keeping in view the country’s religious, moral and social norms.

However, regrettably, there is no effective mechanism in the country to develop special syllabus for this very important age group of children in the public sector. Also, there is no effective check on the private sector schools and publishers, and they are free to teach children in their early years in schools whatever they want.

In the private sectors, various efforts have been made from time to time to provide for the needs of this age group. One of such effort was made last year when the early childhood education syllabus was launched in May 2012. It was planned to be piloted in 101 of the total 390 government schools, reconstructed in flood-hit areas of southern Punjab, by the Plan International Pakistan, an international, humanitarian, child-focused development organisation, working in Pakistan as well as other countries of the world.

Rashid Javed, country director of the Plan International Pakistan, says that the early childhood education syllabus emphasises provision of quality education in order to produce knowledgeable and confident leaders for tomorrow. He says that the syllabus has been developed after a year’s research, and it focused on six ‘learning areas’. Lessons about personal and social development, language, creative arts, health and hygiene, basic mathematical concepts and general knowledge regarding the world around the child have been included in the textbooks for the kids in the age group of 4 to 8 years.

Nasira Habib, the founder and director of Khoj, an NGO, who played an important role in preparation of the syllabus, tells TNS that each learning area had a list of expected outcomes, which could be measured with the help of a list of competencies. She says that after the final draft was submitted in October 2011, pilot projects were run at seven community centres in Chakwal, Vehari and Islamabad.

Nasira describes the teaching method prevalent in most schools across the province as ‘regimented’. The educationist says that deep down, our society is still under the impression that you can’t teach without being strict or without corporal punishment. She says the early childhood education syllabus has incorporated elements of our heritage — local stories and games.

About the new syllabus, Nasira says that ideally 15 children should make up a ‘learning group’. If there are more than 20 students, she adds, it will be best to divide them into two groups. The syllabus can be covered in 32 weeks of active teaching, with each week following a particular theme. The last week prepares the child for school, with teachers focusing on making the child ready for organised schooling, explains the educationist.

Nasira regrets the lack of designated early childhood education centres in the Punjab. There are only 32 centres in 36 districts. She says that implementation of early education would be difficult because “70 per cent of rural primary schools in the Punjab are single classroom schools.” She says that while developing the syllabus, budgetary constraints were kept in mind.

Talking to TNS, Sofia Aziz, the learning adviser for Plan International Pakistan, said that such initiatives would help standardise pre-primary schooling. She also hoped that the NGO would launch the syllabus in Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Sindh later this year. She said that the organisation was going to send out the syllabus developed to all government schools in the province, and hoped that the programme of early childhood education would also be initiated in private schools.

There is no harm in engaging private sector, especially NGOs working in the field of education, for preparation of special syllabus for the age group of four to eight years. But the government authorities will have not only to supervise preparation of the content but also to keep a check on what is being taught to the future of the nation in private schools and how it is being selected by the school owners.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

29.12.2013

Secret no more
The Punjab and KP have enacted robust and progressive right to information laws which can be further improved before implementation
By Zahid Abdullah and Yasir Cheema

With the enactment of Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013, all the provinces have put in legislative mechanisms whereby citizens can have access to information held by public bodies. While Sindh Freedom of Information Act 2006 and Balochistan Freedom of Information Act 2005 did not generate any debate in the media as these were exact replicas of largely redundant and ineffective Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab right to information laws have given rise to healthy debate in print and social media as to which of the two is better law.

It is important to test key provisions of both these laws on the yardstick of right to information legislation standards in order to understand major points of convergence and divergence in these laws.

Setting the tone and declaring the intent, the respective preambles of both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Act 2013 and Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013 evoke constitutionality of right to information by referring to Article 19-A of the constitution. Similarly, both laws acknowledge right of citizens to hold government accountable through the exercise of right to information.

The KP law goes a step further and qualifies the meaningful participation of citizens in the affairs of government with access to information. While both laws restrict the right of seeking access to information only to the citizens of Pakistan and do not extend it to foreigners living in Pakistan, Punjab law takes lead on the KP law as it also extends this right to legal entities. This is a significant point in the sense that media organisations, think tanks, corporate organisations, NGOs and other legal entities will be able to access information from the Punjab government departments, but the KP government departments are not bound to provide information to legal entities.

It is important that a right to information law is extended to a legal entity also because at times interests of a citizen coincide with those of vested interest. In such a scenario, an individual is likely to be more vulnerable to the mafias than legal entities, as the killing of many right to information activists in India illustrates. Intriguingly, the KP law excludes Peshawar High Court from its purview whereas Lahore High Court is not excluded from the purview of Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013. Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court not only acts as the top judge of the province but also exercises executive powers like head of any other public body and as such is involved in recruitments, procurements and contracts. Therefore, citizens have every right to know how their taxes are being put to use in the case of Peshawar High Court but they cannot exercise their right to information as PHC is given blanket exemption in KP law.

What is truly excellent about these laws is that the process of filing information requests is easy and cost effective. There is no fee for filing information request and only the actual cost of reproducing and sending it to the applicant will be charged. In the KP law, the time limit for providing the requested information is 10 working days, extendable to further 10 working days on justifiable grounds. In the Punjab law, this limit is 14 working days, extendable for further 14 working days.
Civil society organisations need to explain to people how these right to information laws are relevant to them and how these laws could be used both for personal benefits and for public good.

Information pertaining to life and property of a person is to be provided within two working days in both laws. Both laws have empowered their respective commissions to impose penalty on an official for unlawfully delaying or denying access to information. Under the KP law, an official can be imposed a penalty of Rs250 per day for delaying or denying access to information and it can go up to Rs25,000. In the Punjab law, the fine is linked with the salary to offset the inflationary impact on currency and fine of two days of salary for each day of delay in providing the requested information can be imposed by Punjab Information Commission and it can go up to Rs50,000.

It is highly unfortunate that the KP lawmakers introduced a highly undesirable clause into the Act which pertains to the misuse of the information which was not included in the ordinance. What could be the possible misuse of information which should already be in the public domain? With regard to the declassification of public records, the KP laws say even exempted documents will be made public after 20 years. If any public body has any reasonable grounds to keep a document exempted, it could only be done for further 15 years with the permission of the KP Information Commission.

Taking a different route, the Punjab law has declared all documents as public that are 50 years old. It is extremely encouraging to note that both laws have not given absolute exemption to any type of information and if the public interest necessitates, information will be made available even if it belongs to categories of exempted information.

The KP law is more vocal in this regard than the Punjab law and says: “there shall be a strong presumption in favour of the disclosure of information that exposes corruption, criminal wrongdoing, and other serious breaches of the law, human rights abuse, or serious harm to public safety or the environment;”. In a major departure from the Punjab law, the KP law gives protection to whistle blowers and Article 30 says: “No one may be subject to any legal, administrative or employment related sanctions, regardless of any breach of legal or employment obligation, for releasing information on wrongdoing”.

Both laws have strong provisions for proactive disclosure of information held by public bodies. The KP law makes it binding on a public body to publish its annual report and submit to Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa & Information Commission to show its progress in implementation of its legal obligations, details about information requests and responses. The Punjab law requires public bodies to publish annual reports of their activities and make them available but does not make it binding on public bodies to submit them to Punjab Assembly or Punjab Information Commission.

With regard to formation of their commissions, both laws could have done better. The KP government will have the power to appoint two commissioners and one will be the nominee of Peshawar Bar Council. The Punjab law says that the commission shall not consist of more than three commissioners which means that it could be even a one-member commission. Moreover, the appointment of commissioners will be the sole discretion of the Punjab government. It would have been better if both laws had envisaged a selection committee comprising members from opposition and treasury benches to appoint commissioners.

In the final analysis, both the Punjab and KP have enacted robust and progressive laws which can be further improved when these laws are tested through implementation. The onus is on civil society organisations that have been demanding the enactment of these laws. Their real task has just begun. Now these organisations need to explain to the common people how these right to information laws are relevant to them and how these laws could be used both for personal benefits and for public good. Also would be interesting to see how journalists use these laws for investigative reporting.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

29.12.2013

Bitter realities
By Arshad H Abbasi

Every war has its casualties but mostly those who die and suffer have little or no say in the matters. Decisions that change the face of earth are not made in the battlefield but behind protected walls. History has also witnessed that the worst of atrocities ever imaginable to human mind are often committed in wars, where man has demonstrated the extreme lengths to which he can go when it comes to cruelty. But there are always those side by side the innocent victims who benefit from these wars.

Every war is orchestrated for a larger but hardly conspicuous game of interests. The 1971 secession of East/West Pakistan is also an example of such a surreptitious underplay by the Indian government. Where both Bangladesh and Pakistan has numerously accused each other of committing crimes against humanity, there is hardly any mention of the benefits that India is still capitalising as a result of the secession.

Where it is true that inciting the “who was actually responsible for the secession debate” is nothing short of waking up a sleeping dragon, the Bengalis have been portrayed as nothing but victims whereas the evidence suggests otherwise. It is also no secret that the political turmoil of East Pakistan was exploited by India to further its own ulterior motives. Had it not been for Indian propaganda, the political tension might not have sprung so violently in the form of civil war in 1971. Both Pakistan and Bangladesh have paid dearly for the 1971 fall, but there is only one player that has benefited — India.

It has been argued by political analysts that the separation of erstwhile East Pakistan would have been impossible without the instigation of “Operation Jackpot” by Indian army. Operation Jackpot was the code assigned to the secret operation of Indian army to assist and support the Mukti Bahini group. This operation was aimed to achieve the diversion of Gages River through Farakka Barrage which had already been completed by 1968; three years before the separation. But the Farakka barrage was not operational at that time because the diversion was not sanctioned by the Pakistani government of that time.

It is worth mentioning here that the Bengalis fought for their freedom in 1971 but they also fought for Indian interests whether inadvertently or not. And there are callous truths to support this claim.

In 1963, India used to export just 2.34 thousand tons of rice whereas erstwhile East Pakistan’s exports of rice amounted to 430 thousand tons. Erstwhile East Pakistan’s jute exports at that time were around 1043 thousand tons while India imported 29 thousand tons of jute that same year from Pakistan. However, the picture after 38 years has totally changed. Now, Indian exports of rice and jute are around 2777 million dollars and 250 dollars respectively.

Pakistan saw a booming economic growth in the 1960s, a fact which India could never tolerate let alone accept. India had prompted many plans to divert the water of Ganges River to West Bengal to irrigate the jute crops in the 60s. Jute is also called the ‘golden fiber’ in the subcontinent both because of its golden brown colour and its extensive utilisation in making sacks, handicrafts, bags, furnishing, and carpets amongst other profitable products.
Farakka barrage is one of the largest barrages in the world but the detrimental impact of the diversion is also the worst example of tempering with environment.

Due to its jute exports, India has been able to tremendously increase its trade in the international market. Jute has been the ladder through which India has gained a strong foothold in the world market. And, this has been possible only due to the diverted water of the Ganges River. India is now second in world’s top exporters of rice and tops the list in jute exports. India now supplies more than half of world’s raw jute and 40 per cent of the processed jute products. Jute cultivation has provided livelihood for forty million farmers and 0.2 million industry workers in India. There are around 73 mills in Indian, 59 out of which are located in West Bengal — the largest jute producing state in the country.

Farakka barrage diverts the water of Ganges River into Hoogly River in the West Bengal during dry spells. Farakka barrage is one of the largest barrages in the world but the severe and detrimental impact of the diversion is also the worst example of huge impact of tempering with environment. Cautious estimates state that the barrage is responsible for damages amounting to two billion US dollars alone in the agriculture sector. The diversion of water through the Farakka barrage has had a large part in causing the rise in sea-level and unusual flooding in the area. Thirty million lives are affected by this diversion.

Yet, the worst is the case of Arsenic contamination in Bangladesh after the Farakka barrage went into operation in 1975. Before that various attempts by the Pakistani side to negotiate a plan for sharing the water of Ganges water were hampered by the unwillingness of Indian government to cooperate and provide information about its projects for diverting waters. Particularly in 1968 when the Indian experts argued in favour of the Farakka barrage on the grounds that the River Ganges has plentiful water and India only wanted to draw 20,000 cusec of water from the river whereas the river has an accumulative flow of 86,000 cusecs during the dry season. Thus, Farakka barrage was championed by the Indian government as having no serious impact on the water flow in Pakistani territory (then East Pakistan).

However, the picture usually presented for the general public shows only one side of the story. Many researches and studies on the Pakistani side claimed that the operation of Farakka barrage will be injurious for groundwater.

One of the reports titled “Gain and losses in the Ganges River between Farakka and Harding Bridge” by East Pakistan WAPDA, available with the author, gives an elaborate detail of the technical specification of the barrage and the subsequent impact of the diversion of water on the ecology, river flow etc. This was presented in the same year as the Indian feasibility report for the Farakka barrage. Yet, the impacts of the Farakka barrage construction anticipated in the report by the Pakistani analysts has proved to be true whereas it is evident that India has been also proven right. It should also be taken into account that the figures quoted in the Indian feasibility report for the Farakka barrage were from the period 1955-61. Whereas, Pakistani analysts used the data from the period 1948-1966 which gave a more holistic pattern picture of the river flow and variations.

Regardless of the Indian claims, the diversion of the Ganges River water is the major cause of arsenic contamination in the Bangladeshi waters. In the report presented in 1968, WAPDA claimed that as opposed to the Indian assertion Ganges River was not affluent but influent. The boreholes made by the Pakistani scientists in the northeastern districts where the river flows demonstrated that being an influent river, the water is expelled into the groundwater system from its bed. However, India went ahead with the project, poisoning the Bangladeshi part of the river.

The diversion of the river water caused a lowering of the water table due to which the zone of aeration was exposed to air resulting in the oxidation of arsenic minerals that were present at a lower level in the water table of Bengali sediments before the diversion.

The completion of the Farakka barrage in the 1969 was a serious violation of the Helsinki Rule singed in 1966 and the international river laws. India would not have been able to go ahead with the completion of Farakka barrage if East Pakistan had not been separated from West Pakistan.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

29.12.2013

Fata needs local governance
Meaningful reforms in the current tribal system through local bodies elections are vital for promotion of peace in the region
By Sadia Younus

The political leaders of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were allowed to join political parties with the extension of political parties order in 2011 for the first time in its history. The enthusiastic participation of the people of FATA proved their desire for democracy in the 2013 general elections.

Although the tribal people run their political, legislative, and executive affairs through their local institutions like Jirga, they are still hoping to see local government elections in FATA, someday. To make the existing institutions more democratic, which could guarantee equal rights and protection to tribal people, the political leaders and other stakeholders believe the local bodies’ elections are need of the hour. The elections would potentially strengthen democratic processes and improve living standards of the people in tribal areas which have been badly affected by militancy and military operations for over a decade.

To highlight the challenges of FATA, several political institutions are formed which are pushing hard for equal citizenship rights for the tribal people. All Political Parties Alliance, Political Parties Joint Committee on FATA Reforms, and the newly-formed Khyber Parties Alliance have formulated their reform packages to address the same issues and bring peace and democratic system in FATA.

The FATA political leaders and other stakeholders view FATA has been ignored as local bodies’ elections are being planned in all the provinces of the country with the beginning of year 2014. The political and financial powers vested with the administrative authorities in FATA are needed to be devolved for a meaningful and sustainable development in tribal areas. If local government institutions are established, it will formalise and strengthen the traditional institutions, and ensure equal rights to common tribesmen.
The FATA leaders are constantly pushing the government and the president to speed up efforts for strengthening democracy in tribal areas.

The FATA political leaders are constantly pushing the federal government and the president of the country to speed up efforts for strengthening democracy in the tribal areas but no movement has been seen in this regard as yet. Bringing meaningful reforms in the current tribal system by announcing local bodies’ elections are vital for promotion of peace in the region.

In a situation when the whole world is engaged in efforts for peace in FATA and the tribal belt, the government should undertake substantial initiatives to bring the existing system in FATA into political mainstream.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

05.01.2014

Genesis of AAP
Aam Aadmi Party is trying to popularise a notion that you do not need to be political in order to govern a country as vast and diverse and unequal as India
Genesis of AAP
Another Gandhian Anna Hazare: Inspiration behind the movement.
By Bodhisattva Dasgupta

The spectacular success of the Aam Admi Party in the recently concluded Delhi Assembly Election has opened floodgates of appreciative hyperbole for it in the national media in India.

The party was born out of an apolitical and popular anti-corruption movement which is better than parties born out of tea ensembles. It was created by a faction that felt a political formation is needed to enforce its ideas of fighting graft. There was a bit of schism within the movement; there were some who felt this faction was opportunistic and was degrading the high pedestal that the aspiration for power should not be allowed to pollute. But the beauty of democracy is that political ideas are judged only by the number of votes it can win and, therefore, at least the current Aam Aadmi Party definitely represents the more sensible faction of that movement.

The event of formation of AAP itself challenges the roots of the spirit of high moral ground of Non Governmental sector enterprises, particularly in developing countries. Here was a formation which started away from politics, much with the spirit of unaccountable do-gooders, but felt they needed to dirty their hands in administration and get into the rhetorical slugfest in the arena of politics. They felt they actually needed a political programme which is refreshing in an era when politics is shaped by the media, who are not really direct participants.

Personally, my admiration for this party starts there but very nearly ends there as well, simply because, in my view, they are trying to popularise a notion that you do not need to be political in order to govern a country, as vast and diverse and unequal as India. As if, being honest and transparent about administrative action is enough and as if there is no such thing like politics of administration.

Anna Hazare is a Gandhian who was the inspiration behind this anti-corruption movement which demanded for Lok Pal bill in parliament. Lok Pal is designed to set up an administrative/ legal ombudsman and other modalities of vigilance on officials but with the assumption that the current vigilance processes are inadequate particularly in terms of speed of resolution and independence of decision-making.
AAP — Aam Aadmi Party, founded on 26 November 2012, formed out of anti-corruption movement led by Shri Anna Hazare since late 2011.

AAP won 28 seats in Delhi Assembly elections, a spectacular success by a debutant party, destroying ambitions of the resurgent BJP and incumbent Congress, December 2013

The margins of electoral victories in some cases have been truly spectacular.

There is some speculation on how AAP will do in the general parliamentary elections this year; however since it is a new party, any result apart from zero seat start is a gain.

A few words about the background of Shri Hazare won’t be inappropriate for those who have not followed his achievements in rural Maharashtra. In Ralegan Siddhi, he pioneered water conservation schemes and various other self-help and education schemes but gained fame by his anti-alocohol movement. He was highly respected and popular indeed locally but, it has to be said, Gandhi was and remains bigger than many Gandhians that followed him. Gandhi was one of first few leaders who realised the importance of non-violent mass mobilisation in the politics of our famished, colonised country. He also invoked pre-modern and therefore, by implication, pre-colonial and Indian symbols of life, social practices and culture, the khadi movement, the use of Kabir’s and other Bhajans were part of that very specific campaign. He was also fiercely anti-alcohol or anti indulgence in general. But he had his ‘finest hour’ (due to Professor Sumit Sarkar) during the communal riots of 1940s. He practically stood in between sensibility, civility, humanity and blood-thirsty madness and cynicism in Kolkata and Noakhali.

Shri Anna Hazare, like many other Gandhians after Gandhi, has not yet played that towering role which symbolises uncompromising stand in the question of communal harmony in India after independence, not as yet. Though due respect has to be given to his work on social reform agenda and environment consciousness, however localised.

It is important to understand Anna Hazare’s political ideology in order to understand the anti-corruption movement and therefore the AAP.

There is a strong emphasis on individual morality in AAP, which is a logical extension of its anti-corruption stance. There is an attempt to revoke Gandhian symbols (the Gandhi cap, the chorus of Bhajans etc.) and it is amusing to see that after so many years of material progress and celebrated triumphalism of consumption-led growth in India there is no other political figure who has more universal appeal here at least for symbolic/respectful reference.

Front webThe interested reader can have a look into the published documents of the Aam Aadmi Party, including its manifesto, made available through its website. The AAP’s view on the Lok Pal is significant for its omissions. In AAP’s view, the Lok Pal does not for example, bring the business corporations and non-governmental organisations into its ambit. It is specifically designed for Governement officials.

There is a view that the Left could have taken the agenda of anti-corruption as graft is easily associable with crony capitalism in the aftermath of economic reforms first started in the early 1990s. If we take the example of privatisation of mines, the connection is glaringly apparent in the matter of allocation of coal blocks to privately-owned units in a political environment where the government believes firmly in privatisation of mining sector as a matter of economic philosophy and, to be fair, has every right to do that. But the problem is, it is not entirely consistent with its commitment to welfare and protection of natural resources particularly in context of our country. The beneficiary organisations of the allocation are not always known for engineering or management expertise as well.

There is no evidence to suggest that Left parties never pointed to issues of corruption but, yes, corruption is not the only issue it has dealt with. The case of irregularities in Bailadila mines was brought to national attention by prominent leftist member of parliament, Gurudas Dasgupta, and Left was part of the Janata Dal-led group which won the last election fought primarily on the issue of corruption in India in 1989. It was the Bofors deal then and ‘impeachment’ was the term which had bigger currency than Lok Pal at that time. The law ministry in subsequent years talked about Lok Pal but later on the issue got buried in worse news.

The issue of corruption regained a lot of public attention in that historical period when various corruption charges, all implicating the central government, came to the fore. The more interesting fact is that all such issues were associated with allocation of business licenses to large corporations in coal and telecom sector. The bigger issue for the traditional Left was privatisation itself. It has always opposed divestment in mining, oil and gas companies or banking and insurance companies. But then it was ridiculed for being influenced by ghosts of the Soviet-style planning. It will be interesting to see if AAP takes a stance in favour of public sector enterprises or at least increases public financing in general. There is every chance that the charm of ‘non-ideological’ AAP will immediately degenerate into a perceived spectre of Bolshevism in the eyes of its new posh fans.

AAP cannot avoid defining its own economic philosophy for too long and neither can it avoid taking sides in wider economic debates.

Reasons of Popularity
The face of Aam Aadmi.

The face of Aam Aadmi.

So what were the factors that helped the Aam Aadmi Party win 28 seats in the Delhi elections? Yes, the anti-corruption stance was the main plank; it is a sacred agenda item which fans the simpleton’s belief that the administrative stance against corruption, against government officials, is enough to make up for the absence of policy; or worse, money rescued from the clutches of corruption creates stashes of cash enough for adequate social investments and for that there is no need of an explicit political will.

The party was canny enough to have some more items in its agenda. AAP promised (and now actually delivered) gross reduction in power tariff for personal consumers. But it was also canny enough not to mention the dreaded S word (S being for subsidies). It also promised reduction in water supply prices (have just delivered that as well), however the cost to exchequer is not estimated yet. It has promised simplification in tax filing for traders and, most importantly, has promised legalisation of some of Delhi’s famous jhuggies or shanties.

One can be dead certain, if similar measures based on subsidies or federal assistance were called for by traditional trade unions or Left parties, the media would have been less kind or less focused on apolitical service delivery. For example, the fear of deficit budgeting reached such a height in West Bengal during 2011 Assembly elections, the anti-left combine talked mechanically about PPP, private-public-participatory, model whenever they proposed a new welfare or infrastructure scheme in its manifesto and did not know how to finance it without Federal assistance.

One has to accept though that the AAP is spot on in identifying simply that the section of the urban middle classes, who have been otherwise either disadvantaged or left out by changes of globalisation, will be happy to welcome relief in utilities prices. The high inflation rates of recent years are also a part of the context.

I will wait to see how the agenda of regularisation of jhuggies is implemented, because that is a relatively more radical agenda in the face of current doctrines of urban beautification and real estate boom. I am afraid, legalisation of inner city jhuggis or large investments in utilities or waste management in those areas will test AAP’s friendship with its elite/middle class friends. Nobody minds central funds or subsidies in any capital city in the world; it is just that rural areas or smaller towns do not get proportionate investment. My hunch is that no elite/middle class citizen will mind conceding bits and pieces of full statehood status for Delhi in the absence of balanced revenue distribution between states and centre in order to secure inflow of central development funds. I guess social housing will meet some resistance in the planning doctrine or it will at best be a localised exception aimed towards political appeasement. For that we will have to wait and watch their strategy.

Escapism and its captive clientele — methods of ‘solution centricity’

AAP’s triumph has really not been in inclusion but in avoidance of pressing issues for our nation and narrow focus on issues that concerns Delhi only.
What do we know about Aam Aadmi Party’s vision?

What do we know about Aam Aadmi Party’s vision?

Here is a quote from the Hindi manifesto: ‘Agar dilli ka tala khulegaa to desh bhar me badlao ki khirki, darwaje khulenge, chaabee aap ke haath me hyaay’ (if Delhi’s locks are open, then doors and windows of change in the whole country will open, the keys are in your hands)

This view makes the Aam Aadmi Party just an aam party, for it again fans the misplaced wisdom that whatever works for Delhi will work elsewhere and road to corridors of power for the whole country is in Delhi.

Do you want to know what the Aam Aadmi Party’s view is on the SEZ or Special Economic Zones or land commodification in general? Honestly, there is not much view available. This is one of the main issues of fierce political debates and violence in the past few years in India. If you want to know what the Aam Aadmi Party thinks about Gujarat riots or Kashmir situation or Muzaffar Nagar riots or special power to armed forces in some areas in the country, there is no clue. Yes, there was some attempt by civil rights supporters to connect civil rights activists of various areas in the anti-corruption forum but it did not last for long. We do not know why or we do not know enough, and I won’t mind a rejoinder from a party enthusiast here.

What do we know about Aam Aadmi Party’s vision on the contentious matter of positive discrimination of cast-based reservation in education and in jobs in both public or private sector? All they have promised is that their own internal committees will be well-represented from all sections of people which, like other issues, is not a bad start but quite a few miles away from clearly stating its policy.

Yes, one can argue, it is a new party, formed out of a single issue — the anti-corruption movement — and has no more rhetorical range than other single issue organisations, for example, and I won’t discourage those who see possibility in them after all.

Let AAP also form its opinion on how to handle insurgencies in North East or generally the Maoists in the heartland, its administrative approach to terrorism, and its foreign policy. Will it be militarily aggressive? Will it be dialogue- or rehabilitation-oriented? Because both are ‘solutions’ so to speak; it is just that they are different kind of solutions with different intended results. We are yet to know. Nor do we know the view of AAP on farm subsidies and rising prices of fertilizers. Yes we know AAP wants government-run schools become good enough to compete well with private schools, but we do not know its views yet on privatisation in higher education or public transport. We do not know yet its views on Panchayeti Raaj or general dissolution of power in direct governance. We know it wants the parallel structure of apolitical mahalla sabhas (area governing/advisory councils ), but alternative models of direct or representative democracy do exist in the country; we still do not know what it thinks about them or what reforms it looks to bring to them.

There is a theory that is currently popular among some of my younger friends on the liberal left. They are saying the welfare intentions will invariably push AAP to the left. But then great welfare policies in combination with trigger-happy security forces in order to appease the mainstream will not get my vote at least. Seeing the state as nothing but a slightly big utility service provider is actually more myopic than an AAP-enthusiast would like to believe.

The symbolism

The current connotation of the phrase ‘aam aadmi’ is actually a derivation; it used to mean distinctly lower classes 20-30 years ago. They were largely the people for whom the slogans of roti-kapra-makaan were framed. In terms of political etymology, the precursor was the political entity of ‘common man’, if my memory serves right, that gained popularity among the English newspaper-subscribing public in Mumbai in the 1970s. The notion of hard-working educated middle class as victim of goings on in daily-life gained popularity at that time. The popular grumble those days was that there is nobody looking after the middle class and this notion gained popularity when trade unionism of workers was seen as a barrier to industry or indeed the government’s functional viability.

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As Amartya Sen, with his old-fashioned humour, recently said in a TV appearance that the middle class has reinvented itself as the ‘aam aadmi’. It is probably the most succinct observation about the movement leading to the formation of AAP.

It is the urban middle class with its various sub-classes that will offer the first taste of contradictions within the support base of the Aam Aadmi Party. The section of the population which wants hassle-free trade licenses for small businesses and fair price public distribution shops and well-run government schools is yet to be tested — whether it will stand firm when barraged with fear of unmanageable increase in public expenditure in way of power tariff rationalisation and free water supply and indeed with the cost of maintaining efficient PDS or efficient local bureaucracy, even if we assume that by then spillage will be plugged?

What will the private sector employees, who support the idea of efficient and professional urban governance today, think about trade union rights of the public sector employee? In the example of Bengal, we know there is a huge apathy towards public sector employees here, consciously worked up by the right wing propaganda machinery; so much so that the shutdown of transport services and non-payment of pension to retired public transport employees, sometimes resulting in tragic suicides, does not attract condemnation. It is an interesting win for the rhetoric of austerity in the so-called land of lal jhanda and naare baazi — employee welfare in public sector is seen as a flabby excess of unmanageable democracy or probably just bad house-keeping.

The Aam Aadmi Party was formed at a historical juncture. It is clear that even the mainstream population, even within strict frameworks of unquestioned nationalism and fantasies of ‘strong administration’, is sick and tired of lack of simple services from the government, but is indeed mistaken in thinking government is just a service-provider like an insurance company. This perspective is the most serious of its compromises with contemporary capitalism — as if the government is just a delivery mechanism of limited level of services and there is no requirement of any political ideology.

This either assumes or hoodwinks the public to assume that welfare policies can be universal and nobody has to put up serious economic, political and cultural resistance to current doctrines of governance prevalent in the world. It seems it aims to bring the zeal of rights activism into governance but wants to get away by not spelling out the guiding principles that decide what kind of rights it will back or prioritise or be tolerant about.

Looking forward

But we need not be entirely cynical. If the Aam Aadmi Party remains secular, continues to attract to its rank the likes of renowned commentators, civil rights activists, subject matter experts, young people of all classes and creed, and if it can think wider and frame policies for sustainable development in a federalised state and working towards a tolerant and just society, where equal opportunity and equality is the basis of social relations, the old lefty in me might as well support it. But it is too early to be excited about the party now. For me it is just making promises at the moment. If it does achieve what it is perceived to achieve, and our beneficiaries of economic changes of last 25 years suddenly all become tolerant towards the weaker sections of the society and starts believing in personal austerity, worthy of the much revived Gandhi Cap, then it is a different matter. That will be a dream rainbow nation Tolstoy, Gandhi, Dr. King and Mandela of the later years together had the courage to dream about.

On current evidences, I am sorry, I see no reason to be so hopeful. Moderation in celebration is the key phrase then, much like New Year’s eve advisories.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)