Criminally compounded?

Pakistan will remain in turmoil till we realise our own mistakes. No country has ever become a nation with outside help and this should be the major theme of Imran Khan who has seen the world and is now using that exponential experience to draw the line(s) between right and wrong. In speech after speech he is telling the youths of this world what the right thing is and how to perform honestly. This will fall flat on the ruling elite for they have never lived a life of truth. They have meandered around truth twisting whatever never suits them. The dispensation of justice has been thwarted by the improper selfishness of the ruling elites and this goes for all kinds of governments. The recent ruling party must be happy at seeing one of their goonda punished for 11 years in prison; but what about the deaths by police firing. The FIR was not an FIR as the information recorded was about two months old so why call it ‘First Information Report’; a mockery of all that had gone before. Then the FIR was not by the aggrieved party but by the government and therefore completely false. I watched this with considerable concern. Having dealt with such law and order situations in former East and West Pakistan one had a fair idea as to what was going on in the minds of the policymakers and breakers. As District Magistrates we were answerable to the High Court and the police was governed by the High Court rules and regulations of 1861.

Now I find the police more terrifying than the one prior to Musharraf’s reforms. The three-man committee set up comprised Lieutenant General Moinuddin Haider (Retd), Rathore (probably one of the few with academic intellect in the police) and Afzal Shigree. Some of us raised the issues in the Cabinet and especially Javed Masud – federal secretary. Musharraf would have none of it. The numbers of deaths in the police from 2004 are colossal. Prior to that there were no such encountered deaths. The magistrate stood between the mob and the police and carried out negotiations. The police with its guns are hardly in a position to negotiate. The trigger-happy police were all over the place and the resultant backlash is before you. Their professionalism is not visible anywhere. Do they investigate thoroughly and are they aware of the sensitivity of investigation. Or as a former and the first IG of Islamabad stated that the police with these reforms have become paid servants of the government in power. I was cynical enough to disagree. It seems that he was right.

How does one change police ingrained attitudes. You can lament about anything that is infrastructural but you cannot improve their functioning. They are lacking in common sense and can any one explain why an FIR was not recorded? Come on police officers need to wake up and take decisive action without let. Are thanas free of corruption? Can you go to one and seek the rudiments of justice? Far from it. So why live in an illusion. One sparrow does not make a summer but even that one sparrow is not available.

Come to the revenue system. The patwaris hold their annual conference in Serena hotel. In the Punjab they have an office in the CM’s block and no transfer can take place except with the orders of the CM. What does that signify? The will and the writ of the CM is personalised for acquiring land assets. The patwari has critical information on land and that is what the powers want to know. The rate for ordinary mutation is now Rs one lakh per acre. Two people live on the hill – the patwari and the President of Pakistan. The President of Pakistan is a temporary tenant and will leave in due course of time. Not so the patwari. The right to property and safety is part of capitalism but what is this capitalism? We are the mean and rapacious of this world. The LDA has issued SROs? Why? These SROs (Statutory regulation orders) forbidding any land transaction and that is why the boundaries of Lahore have been extended so that LDAS can affect these orders. Between Ferozepur Road and the railway line to the east all land transactions will be with the CM’s orders. Why? Because Jati Umra is now zati umra. The beginnings of the French Revolution? How can the Murree transactions be forgotten? All open spaces have been acquired for the benefit of the family and the registry has been forbidden to take any decisions. When this government falls there will be bedlam; hence the ability to reach a criminal collusion with the other political parties. When a political party holds the institutions of the country to ransom then governance gets poor. It is only a matter of time before the world melts in front of such governance. Gaddafi and the North African states end is never understood by these local goons acting as governors of a province and of a country. How will we explain these political parties-as left as rightist or as self justifiers? Liberal they are not and conservative is an alien word to them. They relish in their food and their other carnal desires. Not one of them can resist a temptation. Not one of them will allow the judicial system to operate. The hogs of this world.

They will talk big. Investment will be in billions and they will go to a dog and pony show to put Pakistan’s case before other countries. No out put. The input is paid by the taxpayers. Who cares? The last time I was in Lahore I counted policeman posted to the house of the CM and there were mobiles as well. The result of this kind of personalised policing is indication of weakness in the system of law and order. The recent Lahore incident at Wagah is a case in point. Rape and murder is rampant in a province that has all the resources given to it by the centre. Raped daughters have no right to live? Right Ranas and kanas of the system – legal system ki aisi tessi. Do not give me sweet and sour sweets. I have seen too much. Has Karachi become any better? Ham ye karden geh ham wo kerdain geh (we will do this and we will do that)? Has the PM eaten dust in Karachi.

The disconnects are evident even at the level of the judicial system. Forget the levels-it is evident everywhere. In our cricketing times we were in touch with some of these judges (eminent they were) and I recall playing a lot of matches with Justice Cornelius and Justice Saad Sood Jan and we learnt a considerable amount of legal systems from them. Let me make a weeping statement the autocratic system was less autocratic than the present democratic system. And I can give evidence of that to any one interested including the present political system in power in Punjab. They have never understood the concept of rights of others. They are in so much conflict there that heaven help them when they are off the block. They will then start running helter-skelter for help. They might even pray for help from their current enemies.

In this kind of environment how can jobs be created? How can investment take place? The wheat support price has been increased by 8.4%. I had given a lot of sense to Ishaq Dar for he failed to realise that trade in wheat is not done by the small farmer but by 7% of the feudal and waderas. They will be helped. Next time I promise to make it with more facts and figures. The small farmer’s wheat production is barely enough for two to three months.

The criminally-compounded actions will continue till these rulers are themselves in the calaboose or jail whichever word you prefer. But Pakistan power structure has very poor history of managing their work. That requires sleepless nights and a sense of working for the masses not one’s own assets. Just consider the social; intelligence of these ministers. May be some time a caricature of these ministers will be in order. Their best ministers are in limbo at the moment. Take care and keep away from the police and the police station.