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PIA, maladministration and the public

ecent events reminded me of Murphy’s Law (coined in 1949 by Edward A. Murphy, an officer in the US Air Force) which states that, if anything can go wrong, it will (definitely) go wrong at some point in time. We now have what could be called Nawaz’s Law, i.e. if anything is running smoothly, it can definitely be turned into a mess. Let me elaborate.

In May 1998 we surprised the whole world by making possible what had previously seemed impossible – conducting nuclear tests. Within a week, Mian Nawaz Sharif managed to make it controversial and we lost the golden, once-in-a-lifetime chance of unifying the nation and making Pakistan the leader of the Islamic World.

He bypassed one of Pakistan’s finest officers, Gen Ali Kuli Khan, and instead appointed an unknown, unprofessional Musharraf as army chief. The result of that misstep is known to us all. For this folly, he himself went through hell for eight to nine years. It cost the country its sovereignty, hundreds of thousands of lives, terrorism, suicide bombings, etc, etc. The way he went about dismissing Musharraf before the coup was outright foolish.

The handling of the Model Town affair was also far from correct. We all witnessed how it was mishandled. One could be forgiven for not expecting a prime minister to behave so foolishly – yet it was done.

The agitation and sit-ins by Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri were also badly handled. Dr Qadri is a Canadian national. The government could easily have barred him from entering the country in order to prevent a law and order situation. Not so. He was allowed into the country and soon joined hands with Imran Khan.

This folly cost the residents of Islamabad 6 months of inconvenience, loss of trade, billions of rupees loss to the exchequer and strikes which lasted for more than six months. We became a laughing stock in the eyes of the world. Foreign diplomats were not spared. The Chinese president had to postpone his state visit and many foreigners refused to visit Pakistan. Had Dr Qadri been prohibited entry into the country, Imran Khan’s balloon would have deflated with a week.

The present PIA debacle had been looming for some time, but Nawaz Sharif not only left for Saudi Arabia and Iran, but then extended his travels to France and Davos, followed by a four-day private visit to London. During his current term in office he has already visited about 47 countries, costing the nation a huge amount in foreign exchange. Had he rushed back after spending two or three days in Saudi Arabia and Iran and tried to solve the PIA problem before it got out of hand, millions of passengers would not be facing hardship and inconvenience and PIA would not be losing billions of rupees worth of revenue.

Without the least consideration for the inconvenience to the general public, and expatriate workers (who face cancellations of visas and job contracts, followed by repatriation), the PIA protesters are whipping a dead horse. Compare the plane to manpower ratio in PIA to that in other airlines. It is sheer looting and robbing of the airline. If Pakistani workers don’t return to their jobs soon, they may well find that they have been replaced by Indians and/or Bangladeshis. The judiciary, quick to take suo motu notice of much smaller events, should have, in the public interest, taken notice of this mischief.

Another way would have been to approach the Supreme Court as it was a case of vital national importance and public interest. The chief justice could have been requested to nominate an honourable judge and an eminent lawyer as amicus curiae, with two representatives from the PIA union and two members from the government. Any decisions taken by the honourable judge should have been binding on both parties. An amendment to the constitution could be added to handle such situations through the high or Supreme Court.

When I visited Sweden in 1964 with a university delegation from Delft, I saw not only a beautiful country, but also one where there were never any strikes. Aggrieved parties could go to an ombudsman who would listen to both and then give a binding judgment. The United Kingdom on the contrary, once leader in aircraft, ship and automobile industries, witnessed back-breaking, frequent strikes. Today nobody even remembers that they were once leaders in these fields.

The last two years have seen the appearance of the metro bus, highways and orange train projects, all requiring steel and cement. One wonders why. And that too while loadshedding of gas and electricity continues unabated. A few days ago Mian Sahib announced that loadshedding would be over by 2018. That very same afternoon, Khwaja Asif announced that this would not be possible. Had the production of electricity been given priority on a war footing, we would, by now, be earning valuable foreign exchange and hundreds of thousands of people would be able to earn their livelihood. But that is like asking for the moon. No new industries have recently been set up. Thousands of educated youngsters are on the road literally begging for non-existent jobs.

Another masterpiece of Nawaz’s Law is the China Pakistan Economic Corridor. Any controversy could have been avoided by a sitting of representatives of the provinces and the federal government, which would have been enough to decide on a route and then to go all out for it. Now even the Chinese have spoken about the controversy. Shame on us.

The navy is reported to be supplying drinking water to the people of Gwadar. What a shame! What incompetence! A desalination plant and a thermal plant could have been a relatively quick solution. But for such solutions one needs foresight and, unfortunately, that seems to be a scarce commodity in this country.

Email: dr.a.quadeer.khan@gmail.com

Dr A Q Khan, "PIA, maladministration and the public," The News. 2016-02-15.
Keywords: Political science , Political issues , Air force-United States , China-Pak Economic Corridor , Supreme court , Diplomacy , Terrorism , Judiciary , PM Nawaz Sharif , Imran Khan , Gen Ali Kuli Khan , Model Town , United States , Saudi Arabia , PIA