Good Governance

Columnist ALI ASHRAF KHAN writes about the importance of good governance

aliph Omar ( R.A.) declared that if a dog dies of hunger at the bank of Tigress, he is answerable to

God. Was he a dictator or was he a democrat? The requirement of the country and the nation is to say the least Roti, Kapra and Makan, and this can be obtained only by a ruler who is honest, sincere and desireless. Kingship knows no kinship and this has been the order of things right when the first man was born and has aptly been proved by Nawaz Sharif's attempt to throw his Chief of the Army Staff out even if it costs lives of a plane load of innocent men, women and children on PIA flight PK-805 flying from Colombo to Karachi. Thus God has willed General Pervez Musharraf to be the saviour of a nation being ruled under the garb of democracy and popular mandate, not only this but also the fair name of Islam was being misused to invest unlimited powers in one man and that too in the name of Islam. So far Pakistan has been ruled by democrats and dictators with absolute powers but with no responsibility. Although accountability is the keynote of Islamic character yet it is not only emitted in the constitution of Pakistan but also not found even in the character of the rulers, this is a word unknown to the rulers of Pakistan, unless accountability is introduced with all the seriousness that it demands, the ills and curses inflicting the country will continue to inflict. It was in 1948 when General Sir Douglas Gracy the then Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan refused to obey the orders of the Head of the State of Pakistan and he got away with it, he was not held accountable for his disobedience of orders and as a matter of fact he should have been court martialed. The Head of the State should also be accountable for his deeds and misdeeds. The policy of nationalization enunciated by one ruler and the policy of privatization followed by the other goes only to prove that the country has been converted into a serfdom to suit the whims and caprices of the man at the top, it was through the sheer manipulation of the so-called democratic process that these people first achieve power then use power and abuse power and finally lost power. This is the process of history and will continue to be so for all times to come and in this process the country suffers and the teeming millions of masses suffer. The latest bait has been thrown by the west in the form of their policy of beggar thy neighbour in which the IMF and the World Bank advanced loans to be used for the rich in the country and poor man repay these loans, this is the latest form of subjugating other nations who live in the third world. It is therefore not only imperative but also an essential requirement for the present ruler not to go for norms and forms and try to obtain the cooperation more than willing political parties who have no programme or policy of their own, their only programme right from day one has been to oppose the ruling elite without any alternative and keep their names alive in the minds of the people, they are professional politicians and prepared to join any government for the little bit of power and protocol

they are able to get. History records that the opposition was united in 1977 to oust Zulfikar Ali Bhutto under the name of PNA and no sooner than Bhutto was ousted the same opposition fell into disarray and approached the then Chief Martial Law Administrator to postpone the promised elections, of course there were politicians who refused to betray the nation so much so that the party itself was divided on the issue. It has been the curse of Pakistan that the same parties and same politicians with the same objective of greed and self-interest are seen in the print media. The feudal character which pervades the ruling elite has also sneaked into the democratic character of the political parties, the presidentship of the party is handed down to the son or the daughter of the retiring president, there may be a few exceptions. The people of Pakistan have given a high mandate to the Armed Forces of Pakistan who have been their only hope for the survival, it is now left to army leadership to cash on the sentiments of the nation bleeding with the tyranny of the politicians coming into power through democracy. The country needs a benevolent despot and not a corrupt and unpatriotic Prime Minister who is a security risk for the country and the nation. The problems facing the country are: 1. Bank defaulters. Successive governments have forced the banks to unscrupulous advances to their party members and associates, which are now in default. When Nawaz Sharif government took over, the quantum of the defaulting loans was Rs.130 billion and through the State Bank of Pakistan incentive packages of rescheduling of loans it was reported that an amount of Rs.40 billion have been settled, that being so the defaulting loans should have been reduced to Rs.90 billion. But as the reports are it is through the active collusion of the corrupt bankers appointed by the Nawaz Sharif government that the quantum of defaulting loans has arisen to Rs.235 billion. This must be recovered with an iron hand in an army like manner, probably then we may not be looking upto the IMF and the World Bank. 2. Corruption. Corruption is the root cause of Pakistan's downfall right from day one, so much so that they are up on the ladder of corruption, the methodology of the customs, income tax, revenue and police department are well known to describe here and waste the time of the readers. The government functionaries and their associates, their life style, misappropriate 75% of the annual development plan and their benami transactions must be checked. Every democratic government, as a matter of necessity for the existence have to dish out jobs like minister of state, advisors, chairman's of the imaginary cells and special assistants with perks, this must be done away forthwith. Then there are ministries, which are not required, and a section officer could do their job, the cabinet should be reduced to the minimum. Pakistan's history records that in a caretaker government there were three ministers in one ministry, what a wasteful expenditure at the cost of the tax payers money. The process of accountability not only be swift and sure but also transparent. Although the maxim of law is to let ten guilty persons off than punish one innocent man. Pakistan's cancer of corruption requires a surgical operation in which even if ten innocent people are sacrificed for the head of one guilty person, it is worth it, let not the corrupt bureaucrats take the cover of their connections and the E&D Rules. Accountability should be irrespective of personalities and not Ehtesab style, which is meant only for Benazir and her husband to keep them out of politics for the benefit of Nawaz Sharif and his family. There is a lot of material regarding corruption submitted by the erstwhile Federal Anti-Corruption Committee (FACC) which is lying in the office of Chief Ehtesab Commissioner which will give a clue to the corrupt and the

methodology applied by them. There are $ 90 billion in the accounts of Pakistanis in the foreign banks, a list has already been supplied to Government of Pakistan by some foreign organization a decade back, this money belongs to Pakistan as it has been earned from Pakistan and must be brought back. A detailed scrutiny of the activities of SMEDA, Rescheduling of defaulting Industrial and Commercial Loans, Privatization of Assets, Motorway Projects and Mera Ghar Project should be carefully examined. 3. The Feudal Lords. The 2% of Pakistan's population have been ruling this country in one form or the other and no government right from day one has been able to lay their hands on them. The vaderas in Sindh even have their personal jails, this is the democratic society present in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, every government so far has done lip service to this popular demand and requested the provincial governments to levy farm tax which has yet not been collected. The Federal government takes an innocent plea that this is a provincial subject and they cannot do a thing about it and when it suits the purpose of the government they take direct control of Sindh province by appointing an Advisor to the Prime Minister on Sindh Affairs minus the feudal lords. The feudal lords are the root cause of all the economic ills and curses that afflict Pakistan they enjoy the fruits of Pakistan and do not pay any tax, so far as Pakistan is concerned General Pervez Musharraf is riding a tiger and he has to muzzle it before he gets off it to save the nation and the country from the impending chaos which has always been the fruit of democracy in Pakistan. 4. Sick Industrial units and Revival of Economy. The sick industrial units and specially the textile units are a great economic liability on Pakistan. This liability is the result of collusion between the owners, the bankers and the politicians, instead of crying on the spilt milk now let us revive these units to increase the productivity of Pakistan, they may be taken over under the emergency laws, the Army Welfare Trust and Fauji Foundation are the finest examples of profit earning organization simply because they are bereft of any political influence. The Pakistanis living abroad may be invited to invest their savings in these units to be managed by a board under the management of AWT or Fauji Foundation. These units could prove to be huge foreign exchange earners in due course of time. Revival of economy is yet another item for the attention of our benevolent ruler. Let us reduce our imports to the minimum only, special items must be imported, luxury goods should be banned. Boost should be given to develop and enhance production through cottage and medium size industry; export of non-traditional items may also be given incentives and priority. If necessary the Industrial and Cottage Industry sector should be protected by government orders. 5. Agriculture. Every piece of agricultural land should be brought under the plough to relieve the country from the burden of importing wheat from America. Pakistan is invested with a potential manpower that are committing suicide for want of employment. They could be used to plough the vast uncultivated lands and also by re-activating the sick industrial units placed under a new and efficient management. The larger the number of people involved in nation building activities will result in increase in our production, hence the fruits of progress and prosperity could be shared by the nation at large, there is no dearth of efficient and honest people in Pakistan, of course there is dearth of sincere, honest and selfless leaders whose place has been usurped by the greedy politicians. This is the opportunity given by God to pack off such people as the Musalmans of India have done during the course of their historic struggle for Pakistan. Let us not wait for another chance from Providence.

The politicians have let down the country so much so that the PML Chief Nawaz Sharif was out to put this country under the suzerainty of India which is evident from the fact that even during the Kargil crisis they were busy in materializing their commercial deals of sale of molasses and sugar to India at the cost of our national exchequer by drawing heavy subsidy also. The unsuccessful plan to force PIA plane land on an Indian airport with Chief of the Army Staff on board speaks volumes on their intentions and future designs about the future geo-political arrangements in this region. It is an irony of fate that All India Muslim League achieved Pakistan and the people who claim to be its successors - the PML(N) have unsuccessfully tried to reverse the political cycle by putting it back in the lap of India to serve Western interest of installing India as a policeman to watch China, this could only make the Sharif family to role in wealth and pelf but Pakistan would have been wiped out from the map of the world. Little did he realize that Pakistan is a gift from God and its slogan has been the pious name of Allah and He will look after it. To the General, I would submit, beware of the loiters in the corridor of powers, they will sneak into him also. For norms, for forms, let fools contend whatever is best administered is best, democracy has never been the panacea of ills of Pakistan.