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Thursday March 28, 2024

The Panama roadblock

By Kamila Hyat
March 01, 2018

Ever since the Panama leaks affair first surfaced in April 2016, it has, for quite natural reasons, dominated national headlines and shaped the country’s political environment.

However, the manner in which the matter has been handled has resulted in a complete standstill in the functioning of the government and the state’s normal affairs.

The latest point of contention between the superior courts and the executive, over who has the power to legislate and how the courts should act, is only the latest chapter to have been added to this long story. The tendency of senior judges to make observations and sometimes even controversial remarks – a tendency we also saw in Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry – simply means that what should be quiet, sombre judicial matters are instead being played out before the media. The media, as we well know, further adds to the problem by playing up every comment and adding its own malicious twist to the tale.

As a result, we have become completely engrossed in the never-ending Panama affair instead of focusing on the many grave issues troubling the nation, region and people. The Panama case has already resulted in the somewhat controversial disqualification of a prime minister and now also his removal from the leadership of his own party. The ensuing chaos means that no efforts are being made to resolve the country’s other problems. Too much energy has been put into handling the multiple cases filed against the Sharifs and debating the apparent intrusion of the courts into areas that, some legal experts suggest, lie beyond the sphere allocated to them in the constitution.

Let’s consider this through an example. According to multiple surveys, Sindh now has the worst rate of malnutrition among all the provinces of the country. Around 57 percent of children under the age of five in the province are stunted, and the number is even higher in some districts, including Tharparkar. There has been immediate criticism of the Sindh government. This, of course, is entirely justified. A government that has been in power for over eight years should have been able to direct adequate attention towards saving its people from such miseries. But there are complexities to look at. According to Dr Baseer Khan Achakzai, the director of the Nutrition Wing in the federal Ministry of Health and a respected nutritionist, Sindh among all other provinces has spent the highest amount of money on addressing malnutrition issues. Despite this, no significant improvement has been witnessed.

The problem lies in implementing the collaborative plans of the federal health ministry and international donor agencies. The nutrition support programmes of the World Bank for example, have not been able to run simply because there is a standstill in the country’s affairs at all levels, notably the centre. Changes in ministries; uncertainty over the status of prime ministers; the removal by the courts of officials appointed by the federal government have contributed to the situation.

High-level meetings and sensible decision-making involving all the four provinces are required. The Council of Common Interests should be meeting following increasing concerns over the 1990 water agreement between provinces and the need to alter it to ensure fair distribution to all the federating units. This cannot happen, at least in part, because of the turbulent nature of governance at the centre. Who is to be blamed for this? Should the people suffer because our institutions are unable to ensure the smooth working of the system? These are questions that we should perhaps be asking alongside those concerning the Calibri font and the matter of the salary given to Nawaz Sharif from his son’s company.

There are many other examples. The ongoing protest of the Pakhtun community as well as the recent reports of the leaders of this movement being targeted and killed, deserve a discussion in parliament. But parliament has itself been largely paralysed for the past two years because of the events occurring outside of it and the manner in which they have been capitalised upon by the opposition political parties. There are of course leading players among these parties. They need to be asked if the fate of the people matters less than the outcome of a case that is already shadowed by multiple concerns regarding the JIT formed to examine the charges against the Sharif family, the behaviour of NAB and other related matters.

We certainly need to tackle political corruption in our country. We all know that it exists. But the only way of achieving this is to produce tangible evidence against any individual involved in this malpractice so that a precedent can be set. Judging by the recent by-elections in Punjab – the legitimacy of which is now itself under doubt after Nawaz Sharif’s removal as PML-N’s president – the sympathy of people still lies with those accused of corruption. Clearly they are not convinced that the Sharif family has wronged them.

The process we are now witnessing is, in fact, what bolsters corruption and makes it easier for others to engage in it too. Rather than settling in with what is now beginning to look quite suspect, we should be questioning why our law and order system has been unable to find evidence against the many political leaders accused of massive corruption. Remedying these issues should perhaps be a key concern for courts and other institutions. When people perceive the unjust actions of a particular individual to be just, the results are never positive. This is what has happened in Nawaz Sharif’s case, who alongside his daughter has played his cards well and won over considerable support from the ordinary people – even those who did not previously support him. That the late Asma Jahangir, never a supporter of the PML-N, took the principled decision to take up cases involving the party leaders who spoke out for Nawaz Sharif highlights this injustice.

It should be a priority of all the state’s institutions to ensure that any work that enhances governance is not interrupted by the various dramas that unfold on the political stage. The danger that Pakistan faces of being placed on the watchlist of the US-led Financial Action Task Force, the global standard setting body for combating money laundering and financial terrorism, is a grave one. Pakistan has been warned that it has 90 days to either act or be placed on the list.

The question is whether the country has enough decision-making power for its cabinet to act jointly and decisively. This cabinet has after all just undergone a change last year, and works amid conjecture that more change may be on the way. In fact, had better governance and better diplomacy been practiced some months ago, Pakistan could have avoided falling under such a danger. The government as it stands right now is weak in its ability to handle these risks. It has also been unable to function even as the focus remains on the ongoing judicial action and the future of the PML-N.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com