How Authoritarian Structure is Being Pulled Down in Pakistan

That the two top intuitions of Pakistan, say Army and Judiciary, at odds with the Parliament is not a baffling situation for academia and historians. This is a tradition which just lives on in the democratic age as well. What is important to note and highlight is whether this tradition will die down, ever.

The major weakness on the part of the Parliament in Pakistan has been that the presidents and prime ministers were not on the same side of history. This time this factor is missing, thanks to Mr. Zardari’s decision to scale up the ladders of the presidency, which had been used in the past as a venue to scheme against the civilian governments.

Mr. Asif Ali Zardari did quite a commendable job to surrender the powers of the head of the state, which had been actually granted to the PM by the Constitution. Other than laying down the foundation for stable democratic system through such a step, he also relieved the federation of the hatred it was subjected to by the smaller provinces – it undid the Concurrent List, which the Constitution had promised to abolish by 1983 but the matter had been left pending.

The PPP (Pakistan Peoples Party -led government also initiated the process to organize the tribal and other regions affiliated with Pakistan. While Gilgit and Baltistan were coupled together to become an administrative unit, maximum resources were utilized to clear FATA off the militants so that the unruly tribes should also be brought into the mainstream politics. Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) has been amended and Political Parties Act has been extended to these violence-infected regions as well.

The PPP is also part of the efforts on demarcating the boundaries of the existing four provinces so as to make the benefits of provincial autonomy reach to previously ignored regions as well. The party will have to revisit 1969, the time when a Yahya Khan, a dictator, said four culturally distinct nations – Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushtoon and Baloch – that make up the federation of Pakistan. His move was resisted as was the case when One Unit came into effect by another dictator – Ayub Khan. For good or bad, the PPP endorsed the formula of Yahya Khan through 1973 Constitution.

The PPP has caused fractures in the authoritarian governance structure which had been in vogue since the inception of Pakistan. The devolution of power with more than a dozen ministries going to the provinces simply means transferring the human and capital resources on the disposal of these ministries to the provinces. Reorganizing of the tribal and affiliated regions has also broken the fangs of bureaucracy the bulk of which had been recruited from particular regions of Punjab.

The smaller provinces have not only secured more subjects to legislate on but also the natural resources within their boundaries have also been placed on their disposal. Due to their underdevelopment they have been given additional funds from the federal divisible pool to compensate the loss they have suffered in the past due to their economic marginalization.

While the provinces stay autonomous, they will try in future to get their share in federal divisible pool further. Too, the political parties onward will become more vigilant about the policies and programs of the federation and the degree to which the same are rational. More efforts now will be brought forth to curtail its expenses and to discourage it levying more taxes.

The last three plus years have been apparently marked with curtailing the powers and scope of the federation to the advantage of the provinces but the fact of the matter is that the former is now more free to interact with the world and is relieved of the tensions which hampered its way to assert its sovereignty effectively.

While the supremacy of Parliament is essential to assert sovereignty of the state in the comity of nations, the only way to make the legislators accountable is to democratize the decision-making structures of the political parties that control the Parliament.

The civilian governments controlling provinces will have to concentrate on good governance, which duly means transparent working of the public institutions and rule of law. For that matter, the decentralization of power on to the various regions of this province can’t be delayed further. Failure to do this may invite the intervention of the federal government through carving up new provinces, for good governance is not simply a method available to civilian regimes to draw legitimacy but is also a prerequisite to the socioeconomic uplift of the state.


People also view

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *