Anarchy

Anarchy is a ‘state of disorder due to absence of authority or other controlling institutions’.    Pakistan        is in a state of disorder. Why? Answer: Absence of authority. Authority is the “power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.” Our de-facto PM is Nawaz Sharif, the de-jure PM is Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and the PM-in-waiting is Shahbaz Sharif (or Maryam Nawaz). Who has the authority in          Pakistan? Who has the power to give orders? Who has the power to make decisions? Is it the de-facto PM, the de-jure PM or the PM-in-waiting?

The de-facto PM somehow sees intra-state institutional conflicts being in his political interest –          army v protesters; judiciary v parliament; judiciary v army. The de-jure PM somehow feels that the exercise of real authority is the exclusive domain of the de-facto PM. The de-jure cabinet is unable to decide if it wants to govern Pakistan        or focus on defending the de-facto PM and his family. Result: anarchy.

Have a look at our controlling institutions. On        February 22, the Supreme Court of Pakistan told the attorney general of Pakistan: ‘NAB died yesterday’.        The FBR recently submitted a report to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance accepting that ‘corruption, inefficiency’ were rampant in the FBR.

On November 10, a “court rejected a plea to acquit former Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) chairman Zafar Hijazi in a record-tampering case related to the Sharif family’s Chaudhry Sugar Mills”.

On      October 28, as many as 23 senators moved the Islamabad High Court “against the appointment of the new governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), accusing the government of ruthless violation of the legal requirements and procedures in making the appointment.”

According to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, “had there been no institutional capture, seizure and subjugation of all the important institutions of the state, including NAB, the Election Commission of Pakistan, the FBR, the SBP, the National Bank of Pakistan and the Intelligence Bureau through the cronies and collaborators of the person at the peak, as has been evidenced during the course of [the] hearing.”

Have a look at our police. There are 193 member atates of the UN and Pakistan’s police with 388,000 personnel are the 10th   largest police force in the world. Over the past four years, we have spent a colossal Rs700 billion on our police and there is little to show for it.       Amazingly, all that the constables get is a couple of uniforms per year and their salaries. Our rubber bullets are all expired. Sindh has Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) that are not armoured. There’s no training, no equipment and no facilities. Where has the Rs700 billion gone?

Internally, there’s absence of authority. Externally, there are powerful enemies spending billions, hatching conspiracies against  Pakistan. To be certain, the fire of anarchy was lit internally; external enemies are adding fuel to the fire. We are weak internally and thus external forces have been successful at spreading chaos and anarchy.

Professor Sham Gregory of Bradford       University wrote in ‘The role of the military in the cohesion and stability of     Pakistan’ that “The Pakistan military has long been considered the one institution in the country that functions sufficiently well…”

Pakistan’s enemies want to tear     Pakistan        apart. According to Stratfor, the Texas-based private intelligence outfit, “If Pakistan was a state trying to create a nation, then the primary instrument of the state was the army. It was perhaps the most modern institution…. and the best organized and effective instrument of the state. As long as the army remained united and loyal to the concept of  Pakistan, the centrifugal forces could not tear the country apart.”

On the civilian side, we need to change our political culture of sexually transmitted political leadership. We need to change our model of governance. And we must implement institutionalised accountability.

The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com Twitter: @saleemfarrukh