Monday, July 27, 2020
Judiciary Takes The Wind Out Of Pakistan Navy’s Sails – OpEd
By Nilesh Kunwar
It’s not very often that the judiciary pulls up the armed forces in Pakistan, and so, the navy must have got a rude shock on Thursday, when Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah directed secretary of the Cabinet Division to ensure that the Sailing Club of Pakistan Navy at Rawal Lake should be sealed off by the Capital Development Authority (CDA). From the judgement order it’s apparent that the Judge is irked by the fact that CDA Member (Planning) Dr Shahid Mehmood who represented his department “not only stated that the land was not allotted” to Pakistan navy but even “candidly conceded that no approval was obtained from the competent authority” for construction of this ‘leisure facility’ as required under the CDA Ordinance, 1960.
Lamenting the “abysmal state of implementation and enforcement of enacted laws, which inevitably leads to violation of fundamental rights,” the Judge, in an embarrassing reference to the repeated highhandedness exhibited by the armed forces of Pakistan, directed that this issue should be placed before the cabinet in its next meeting “because the enforced laws are not being implemented and that enforcement has been confined to common citizens.” Justice Minallah has also accused the navy of brazenly flouting laws governing construction in an “environmentally sensitive” area and regretted that all this was done for the sake of an “illegal building, which is purportedly being used as a club and that too for commercial purposes.” (Emphasis added).
It’s the widely prevalent cult of lavish self-conferred privileges within Pakistan’s armed forces that make its top brass believe that being the ‘defenders of the nation’ puts them above the law and Justice Minallah took pains to mention to the naval officer present that “We appreciate your sacrifices and respect you, especially because of your martyrs.” But he also made it amply clear that “nobody is above the law, not even this court” and he didn’t end here. In a stinging reference to the army’s record of rampant human rights abuses and utter lawlessness in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, he sent out a clear message to Rawalpindi that “These aren’t the tribal areas but the country’s capital.”
The Judge not only asked navy officials present in court for the authority under which the navy was running a “commercial enterprise,” but also observed that the CDA was trying to soft-pedal the issue by terming the construction as “unapproved,” while in the eyes of the law it was “illegal.” He lashed out saying that “It seems like the CDA member is afraid to say that the illegal club belongs to the Pakistan Navy” and even told him to “Go and raze down the illegal construction,” asking him, “Why there are different standards for the poor and the rich?” (Emphasis added).
The court order went on to note that “It has been consistently observed that it has become a norm for the Capital Development Authority and other agencies to promptly take action against those who are common citizens and who do not have the means to influence, while the privileged and elites are being treated differently. This is unacceptable for a democratic polity governed under a Constitution which guarantees fundamental rights,” and so the navy may take serious exception to such a strong indictment since it’s a relatively smaller ‘land-grab’ player in the Pakistani armed forces fraternity. But with the army having a whopping 12 percent of Pakistan’s land holding, this menace has reached such alarming proportions that the navy has no choice but to bear the consequences of Rawalpindi’s unbridled immoderation on this issue.
Ever since Ms Ayesha Siddiqa published details of Pakistan army’s commercial empire in her well researched book ‘Military Inc: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy’ in 2007, institutions and people started talking about the army’s commercial ventures more openly. In his book ‘Crossed Swords’, Shuja Nawaz narrates how in 2007, “the country saw the jarring banners carried by lawyers who were protesting the removal of a chief justice by the military ruler: Ae watan ke sajeele Genrailo; saaray ruqbey tumhare liye hain (O’ handsome Generals of the nation, all the plots are just for you).” In July 2016, Pakistan’s Defence Minister informed the Senate that the army was running nearly 50 “projects, units and housing colonies” functioning in the country under the administrative control of Fauji Foundation, Shaheen Foundation, Bahria Foundation, Army Welfare Trust (AWT) and Defence Housing Authorities (DHAs).”
One month later, in article (‘Lust for Land’) published in leading Pakistani English Daily ‘Dawn’, on 27 August 2016, former civil servant and noted Pakistani columnist Irfan Husain stated, “The military has long been expanding its footprint across Pakistan’s cities through its multiplying defence societies. Land is acquired at nominal rates from provincial governments, and developed with money taken as advance payments for residential and commercial plots from officers. Allotment letters are then sold to civilians at several multiples of the price they paid.” (Emphasis added).
In another comprehensive and unbiased account (‘Qayyumabad’s long battle against DHA,’ Dawn, 22 August 2016), Fahim Zaman and Naziha Syed Ali reveal that “Through the years, the residents of Qayyumabad have consistently maintained that DHA has unlawfully grabbed 53.22 acres that are part of their locality, including 30.32 acres earmarked as amenity areas to serve their needs. However, their negligible political and financial clout puts them at a huge disadvantage in trying to establish their claim. They are, after all, up against DHA, the country’s most powerful land authority that provides real estate windfalls to the men in uniform while catering to the residential and commercial aspirations of the super-rich.” (Emphasis added).
That Pakistan army’s insatiable lust for real estate has crossed bearable limits is evident from an observation made by Supreme Court Judge Justice Gulzar Ahmed last year that, “Defence Housing Authority (DHA) of Karachi have encroached so far into the sea. If they had their way, they would build a city on the sea. The owners of DHA would encroach on the entire sea all the way to America and then plant their flags there. The owners of DHA are wondering how they can make inroads into India!” (Emphasis added).
Under these circumstances, even the most ardent fan of Pakistan armed forces will tend to agree with columnist Irfan Husain’s view that “As long as this unseemly acquisition of land by the military continues, it might be seen as a colonising force!”
https://www.eurasiareview.com/27072020-judiciary-takes-the-wind-out-of-pakistan-navys-sails-oped/
Why Can’t Pakistan’s Opposition Parties Remove the Khan Government?
Opposition political parties in Pakistan cannot topple the current government unless they are ready to anger the country’s powerful military.
On Monday, Pakistan’s main opposition parties announced an All Parties Conference (APC) after Eid al-Adha to formulate a joint strategy to remove the current political party from power.
The decision by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to lead anti-government agitation comes after years of preparation. However, the real question is whether the parties can dislodge the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, even if they launch a joint front.
This is not the first time that opposition parties have decided to launch anti-government protests. In May 2019, the heads of both parties made a similar declaration, citing growing inflation as a key reason for their agitation against the government. However, the PML-N and the PPP didn’t make a move on their announcement and rather decided to bring a motion to remove the ruling party’s chairman in the upper house of Parliament. The motion failed to remove the chairman of the Senate even after both parties had a clear majority. Following the failure of the motion, the PML-N accused the PPP of colluding with the security establishment to gain political favor.
In October 2019, the PPP and the PML-N, in coordination with the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), once again announced they would mobilize the public against the government. That round of agitation was framed around a sit-in the capital, supposed to last until Prime Minister Imran Khan tendered his resignation. Once the agitation got underway, the PPP and the PML-N’s reluctance to take further action became obvious; JUI-F’s leadership and workers were left alone in the capital. Khan didn’t resign.
In February 2020, the PPP and the PML-N yet again announced a phase of anti-government protests. Fast forward to July 2020 and another movement is being planned by the opposition parties to topple the government.
In the current case, the PML-N and PPP’s leaders are facing serious allegations of corruption. For more than a year, both parties have sought relief from the government and its supporters in the security establishment regarding growing pressure from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the institution leading investigations against the two parties. This is one of the reasons that the PML-N and the PPP have not moved against the ruling party beyond threats of leading an agitation.
However, the PPP and the PML-N have not received any relief and if anything, the government has pushed for a stern approach to bring both parties to “justice.” By now, it has become clear to the PML-N and the PPP that as long as the current government remains in office, their chances of gaining political relief are nil.
In the backdrop of this understanding comes another announcement to agitate after Eid al-Adha. However, the latest announcement is unlikely to produce anything significant when the parties do not share ideological interests and are divided internally over the issue. The alliance between the two parties is merely glued together by virtue of individual electoral interests and an intent to survive the current accountability campaign against them both.
The new alliance has already fractured, with PPP leaders accusing the PML-N leadership of undermining the pact. The current president of the PML-N and the opposition leader in the National Assembly, Shahbaz Sharif, has refused to join the all parties huddle after Eid. It is well known that Sharif has good ties with Pakistan’s security establishment. Understandably, his political faction within the PML-N doesn’t want to anger the military leadership by becoming a part of an anti-government agitation campaign.
This is not the first time that Sharif has refused to support PML-N factions that want an aggressive approach against the military-supported government of the PTI. Sharif’s halfhearted support for his brother and the founder of the PML-N, Nawaz Sharif, was visible when he arrived back in Pakistan in 2018. Sharif is also known to have undermined the PPP and PML-N alliance with the JUI-F to unseat Khan in November 2019.
Sharif has again decided against lending support to any agitation movement to remove the current government.
“After CoD [Charter of Democracy signed between Nawaz Sharif and late Benazir Bhutto in 2006] setback, it is clear that the PPP cannot and should not trust the PML-N,” said a senior PPP leader after finding out Shahbaz Sharif’s position on the issue.
However, the PPP is also not new to such maneuvers: Last year, the PPP’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, undercut his commitment with the PML-N to remove the chairman of the Senate. Zardari used the deal’s threat to make an agreement with actors that support the current civilian setup and brought some political respite in Sindh province. The approach, however, strengthened the view that opposition parties in Pakistan are not interested in the question of good governance as long as they continue to get political relief.
In the current milieu, this means that the ruling party still enjoys the support of the national security establishment. And leading an action against the government could mean leading a movement against the military’s selection in the civilian domain. Adopting this approach could have serious implications for any party or leader’s political life in Pakistan.
As of now, it remains unclear if any political party, including the PPP and the PML-N, are ready to take that route. Making statements for the removal of the government is one thing; it may not anger people in powerful places. Leading a nationwide agitation is an altogether different story.
Arguably, both political parties are making another effort at using the threat of a potential alliance to strike a deal with the national security establishment. But any such respite is unlikely to come: With the question of the 18th amendment fate’s hanging in the balance, the costs of making a compromise with the government and its support base in the military have only gone up. The PPP and the PML-N will have to make some hard choices in the coming weeks and months.
The leaders of both political parties remain skeptical of each other in terms of who may end up making a deal first with the country’s national security establishment. Thus, the perpetual game of hide and seek by self-seeking politicians will continue to go on in the months to come.
وزیر اطلاعات شبلی فراز پر شاعر احمد فراز کی تربیت کا اثر تو نہیں ہوا مگر عمران خان نے انہیں دوسال کے اندر مرداد سعید ضرور بنا دیا ہے
پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کی مرکزی ڈپٹی سیکریٹری اطلاعات پلوشہ خان نے کہا ہے کہ وزیر اطلاعات شبلی فراز پر شاعر احمد فراز کی تربیت کا اثر تو نہیں ہوا مگر عمران خان نے انہیں دوسال کے اندر مرداد سعید ضرور بنا دیا ہے۔ شبلی فراز کی پریس کانفرس پر ردعمل کا اظہار کرتے ہوئے پلوشہ خان نے کہا کہ سلیکٹڈ وزیراعظم کے اقتدار کے دو سال ملک اور قوم پر بہت بھاری ثابت ہوئے ہیں۔ ایک نیازی نے مشرقی پاکستان کھویا اور دوسرے نیازی نے کشمیر۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ سیاستدانوں پر الزام تراشی کرنے والی فیکٹری نے عمران خان کو ایجاد کیا جو فیکٹری کی مزید بدنامی کا باعث بن چکا ہے۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ شوکت خان ٹرسٹ سے یتیموں کی رقم چوری کرنے وال آج منظم طریقے سے قوم کو لوٹ رہا ہے۔ بجلی کی بلوں کے ذریعے قوم کا خون نچوڑا جا رہا ہے، ادویات کی قیمتیں عوام کی پہنچ سے دور ہیں، دالیں اور سزیاںبھی غریبوں کی قوت خرید سے باہر ہیں۔ آٹے اور چینی کا لٹیرا اسی جہاز سے فرار ہوا جس پر نیازی گھومتا تھا۔ یہ کہنا درست ہوگا کہ قوم مہنگی چینی اور مہنگا آٹا خرید کرکے جہانگیر ترین کے جہاز کا سود سمیت قرضہ اتار رہی ہے۔ پلوشہ خان نے کہا کہ سلطنت نیازیہ میں لوگ بھوک کے مارے خودکشیاں کر رہے ہیں، بیروزگاری عروج پر ہے، قوم کے خون پسینے کی کمائی پر شہباز گلِ جیسے نتھو خیرے پل رہے ہیں، علیمہ خان مزید امیر ہوگئی ہے جبکہ لوگ غریب ہوئے گئے ہیں۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ کورونا ہزاروں افراد کی جانیں نگل چکا ہے مگر مدہوش وزیراعظم کو اس کا علم ہی نہیں ہے۔
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