Democratic leaders in Pakistan have been prone to abuse authority

[fatman17]

Democratic leaders in Pakistan have been prone to abuse authority for personal gains: The Hindu

NEW DELHI Dec 5 (APP): Pakistan’s democratic leaders have been prone to misuse and abuse their authority for exceedingly narrow objectives and personal gains while in power, said an article carried by Indian national daily ‘The Hindu’.
“Pakistan’s so-called democratic leaders have done precious little to earn any kind of public legitimacy. Nor have they helped deepen the democratic process or institutions”, the article added, continuing, they have made a habit of betraying the public trust.
Army officers in this part of the world have often been lured into the political arena on the presumption that they were honest, dedicated, and committed enough to clean up the mess created by the “irresponsible” politicians, observed the article.
It should be obvious to every epaulette officer in the Indian armed forces that the developments in the neibouring countries have only one moral: avoid the temptation to step into the politician’s dirty world.
It is too messy to be swept away by the wave of a field marshal’s baton. Democracy has always been a messy arrangement and will remain so.
A similar lesson ought to be imbibed by the judicial fraternity in India: do not overstep the institutional boundaries, the article said.
Pakistan’s former Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry is also in part author of the mess that is IN Pakistan today. He and some of his brother judges allowed themselves to be provoked by the gentlemen in the black coats into a confrontation with Islamabad establishment, added the article.
The Bar and the Bench goaded each other to assume the role of the principal opposition to President Musharraf. This was presumptuous and was bound to invite reaction.
Lesson for judges Similarly, some of our judges in the Supreme Court and the High Courts would do the institution they preside over and the country a whole lot of good if they understand a simple maxim: there will be consequences, not always healthy, if you decide to play politics or decide to get involved in politicians’ quarrels.
The judges’ job is to interpret the law and to promote constitutional wholesomeness; judges are not and cannot be arbiters of political morality, the article said adding, moreover, there can be the most unpredictable consequences if the judges continue to refuse to set their own house in order by addressing allegations of corruption while arrogating to themselves the right to preach and prosecute an errant political class.
There is the issue of the nature and content of the democratic discourse, which claims its credentials from a membership in civil society but, in fact, is a neat commercial arrangement, unaccountable and unanswerable in any democratic forum.
The problem, as it manifested itself so acutely in Pakistan and which manifests itself day in and day out in India, is that this so-called democratic discourse ends up de-legitimising every democratic symbol and institution.
Our own media leaders need to reflect on their own institutional arrogance and their own frailties; more than that, the democratic discourse has a responsibility to ensure that it does not create conditions which may tempt the non-democratic forces and voices to step in.
And, lastly we need to understand the danger of involving the outsider in our domestic disputes. Indian leaders and commentators have all too glibly been suggesting that the United States should do this in Pakistan or do that to President Musharraf. Unwittingly we concede the outsider a legitimate right to meddle and interfere in Pakistan’s affairs.
Sooner rather than later, the same precedent gets invoked in the context of another country. In recent days, we have had this entirely distressing spectacle of American Ambassador and other high-ranking U.S. diplomats visiting assorted leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party in an effort to convince the principal opposition party of the Indo- U.S. civilian nuclear deal.
It speaks volumes about the collapsed communication between the government and the opposition that at the Ashoka Road establishment the Americans are heard with respect and deference. The Americans, however, are not the only foreign power suspected of over- stepping nor is the BJP the only political party susceptible to advice from foreign missions in New Delhi, said the article.
The turn of events in Pakistan once again prescribes a simple lesson for the leaders in India: do not abuse the public trust; do not cross the limits of fair play; public office is not a licence to loot and plunder, and political rivalry and competition is not another form of feudal vendetta.
We may permit ourselves a false sense of superiority that the Pakistani politicians deserved the mess they find themselves in. But we will do well to keep in mind that we now have a whole generation of political leaders who have thrived and prospered by their cultivated indifference to public good and political decency.
Prime Ministers in successive coalition governments have found themselves helpless in reining in errant ministers belonging to regional political groups, said the article adding, “We need to find collective willpower and energy to reverse this new trend and to restore trustworthiness to public office.”

 

[BATMAN]

An old article about Pakistan politics when memories were relatively fresh.
DAWN - Cowasjee Corner; 18 July, 1999

WHY blame our stars? Why blame others and not ourselves? We are responsible for our own actions. We should blame our apathy, unconcern, indifference, impassivity, callousness, heedlessness, ignorance, and, above all, our selfishness combined with greed.

Senselessly, in 1993 the country brought in Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari to rule for the second time. Ridding ourselves of them with great difficulty in 1996, after they had caused irreparable harm, there remained at the top, heading a caretaker government, President Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, landlord to the manor born, man of wealth, who had served with honesty as a civil servant and was thus well versed in the rules of governance. Overtaken by power and greed, he closed his ears to reason and to the advice of the few who advocated that he undertake the process of accountability before holding elections. In this, he had the support of the army, the judiciary, our external supporters and providers, and even of the influential international media. Knowing well that once a political party sat in the saddle it would not look into its own misdoings, Leghari insisted on elections, and in 1997, with his backing, Nawaz Sharif and his incompetent corrupt men were brought in by their 'heavy mandate' for their second round.

Leghari and his caretakers surely knew the intelligence level of these men, their appetite for power and pelf, their capacity to ride roughshod over all to stem the voices of dissent, their shamelessness, their ability to amend laws and avoid repaying to the nation what they had robbed in their first round and even earlier. What they may not have known was that these men were capable of going to the extent of storming the Supreme Court of the land to save themselves from being adjudged.

In rapid succession Nawaz Sharif pushed through his 13th and 14th constitutional amendments by which he converted himself into a supreme autocrat. The president was made a puppet, the power to appoint the service chiefs was his alone, the judiciary was rendered helpless, and now, with all institutions of the state at his mercy, Sharif wields sole power and is answerable to no man, woman or child of this country.

Having done sufficient wrong, his sense of self-preservation should perhaps have made him aware that he was riding a tiger from which he might fall and be eaten up. But no, his instincts and reactions are those of mediaeval despots. Why are you surprised, 'they' ask, that when one talks of the hunger and thirst of the people he replies that he has given them yellow cabs and motorways? Did not Marie Antoinette, when told that the French had no bread to eat, ask why they did not eat cake? Why are you surprised, 'they' ask, that he flies in a 400-seater aircraft to go begging for money, that he takes his family with him for a photo-opportunity and to go little-mall shopping when he flies to Washington to beseech help to avoid war? Did Nero not fiddle whilst Rome was burning? Apocryphal may be the sayings about Marie Antoinette and Nero, but you are witnessing reality..........

In my opinion the worst crime of politicians is when they misuse their authority. They have no right to interfer in organisational matters of any institution and make appointments and using transfers and promotions as tool to force civil and military establishments to work for there personal gains.
Our previous government has even modified the legislation in a way that Pakistan became an autocrate state. Today, they claim to make Pakistan ever more democratic. In the process they have even prepared a charter of demands which 'demands' from present govt. to restore the legislation back to 1973.
Would they mind telling, why did they modified the legislation on the first place and why don't they restore it by them self when the come to assemblies.