Impunity and the crisis of governance

As Shahbaz Sharif sat triumphant with the depressed father of young Zainab – the girl so brutally assaulted and then murdered by a man belonging to her own neighbourhood – for finally having arrested the inhuman violator of the young angel, did it ever cross his mind why and how matters had come to such end?

Why had Kasur – no outback in the throes of a remote Punjab region but a suburb of a sprawling Lahore very much under the eyes of an ever keen chief minister – become such a hub of shame and international ignominy with case after case of young girls raped and then brutally murdered by agents of depravity?

Some 250 young children, boys and girls both, were found to have been similarly deprived of their innocence in 2015 by those who had allegedly turned this ghoulish business into an internet venture. That case has remained unattended for three years. Kasur has five seats for the National Assembly and ten for the provincial, with a regular deputy commissioner responsible for all administrative functions which fall under the purview of the government and a district police officer, senior enough and responsible enough to ensure law and order and protect the life and liberty of the residents of this small city. Yet the dastardly happened, and young roses lay crumpled.

Away from the debate of whether the CM should have asked the audience to clap in acknowledgement of investigative agencies finally nabbing the criminal, the CM may like to instead ask why such crime and its enabling environment have perpetuated over time and under his watch. Why couldn’t any intervention be made at the time of the widely reported recurrences and why did an administrative system meant to inhibit such societal waywardness allow this to continue? After all, the time over which such criminality manifested itself is shamefully long.

There can be many reasons; from an abject disregard of the common man by those in power to the utter absence of responsibility where officials tasked to ensure civility as the obtaining environment patently failed. But as Shahbaz Sharif himself stands on the cusp of another important role – a more central responsibility as the next prime minister, or the next chief minister of the province, once again, given that the PML-N may still hold on to Punjab if not the centre – it is time for deeper introspection. Why has governance as a function continued to abysmally decline?

It has something to do with Shahbaz Sharif’s personality. An action man, on the go and constantly occupied to the point of obsession with doing something which involves motion, he has been missing the woods for the trees. Punjab speed, or Shahbaz speed, are reflective of that; the term particularly coined by the super-smart Chinese to keep the CM in good humour. But, travelling at such great pace, he hardly has time to observe anything in depth. Till of course it comes back haunting or has potential political cost. Like the Kasur or Model Town fiascos. The Sharifs, per proclivity, have a fascination for the big and the grand, and remain politically and electorally motivated on immediate returns – but the cost of neglecting what else counts increases, even as the apparent seems to ingratiate their sense of the grandiose. Developing a society on progressive lines should be the key to sociopolitical trailblazing; but that then entails working on avenues where returns are slow to come by even if the impact is deep and contributes to developing better societies.

Which takes us to the next step of why people politic at all in Pakistan. The hard answer is: for power alone. Power for what purpose? To flaunt, to exploit, to bring it to your personal or familial benefit. Hardly ever as a means of public service, which is the primary driver for most elsewhere. Any power that accrues then is to be used to the benefit and service of the people in whose name the politicians will gain eminence and positions of authority and respect. When they violate these two underlying intents of power, over time they lose authority and respect.

People popularly see lust for power and money as the primary drivers of Pakistani politics. Sharifs are currently struggling through one such saga of accountability before the courts. Beyond sleaze, what taints politics is its rather blatant disregard for governance. Even for someone as popularly associated with administration as Shahbaz, administration and rule of law are a distant second on the priority list, despite being the two pillars around which a province as large as Punjab can be managed to enable safety and security to all its citizens. Clearly this hasn’t been achieved. Anything beyond in pursuit of advancing civilisation and attaining a progressive society could be the next compelling purpose, but who has time for these low-on-return, long gestation period undertakings. Instead a few roads here and glitzy malls there serves the rather instant purpose of expedient politics while imitating progress.

Governance may encapsulate many things, from priorities to policies in public interest to development aimed at aggregated mobility in civilisational advancement. But given to the specific environs of Punjab – and anywhere else throughout Pakistan – it must relate to attitudes and a sense of responsibility in personal conduct and institutional functioning. Where functionaries know that they can get away with anything as long as the Boss is kept in good humour, he is loathe to focus on much more in fulfillment of his basic function. The head-man satisfied, the people thus end up being fodder. And get treated as fodder. That is also when Kasurs and Rao Anwars happen. Pakistan is afflicted with this inadequacy in its systems and leadership attributes while there seems no way to break this vicious cycle. This is also the Shahbaz problem.

Attention by the leadership to only a few matters of personal or familial interest rather than wider public favour amounts to neutering the system of delivery. This is Pakistan’s bane. Who may now tell the ever-versatile Shahbaz Sharif that, while keenness and sharp zeal is always good, running a government in the province and of the country is far different than running a developmental project? The gaze has to be wide and the perception keen and long-serving. Added to his inherent zeal, he can easily bring governance back to life with a wider sense of participation and simple attitudinal restoration towards systemic functioning and institutional resort. A steady, persistent and resilient view from a central vantage point keeps all on their toes while giving them the flexibility to exercise their bequeathed authority.

In the case of Kasur, the fault was as much of the kind of governance model practised by Shahbaz Sharif as it was of the deputy commissioner and the district police officer who slept through the heinous inhumanity. The worthy chief minister – and a potential prime minister – must learn his lessons quickly.

Email: shhzdchdhry@yahoo.com