Democratic Masters of Incompetence

Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950).

Historically, Pakistan suffers from the uneducated populace that has habitually shown nothing much beyond submissiveness during the previous elections; this kills the level playing field right there.

Secondly, wrong candidates tend to play dirty politics; curse of stealing the “public mandate” including ballot stuffing and other types of rigging being among the most painful wrongs. Naturally, the nation ends up with repercussions in the form of lost merit, disrespecting rule of law and the constitution. Most of the time, the judiciary is blamed for their “slow paced deliverance of justice.” despite the existing malfunctioning system.

Previously, the  ruling PPP (Pakistan people party)under the co chairmanship of president Asif Zardari, could not offer other than a sub standard governance that continued with its inherent ‘chronic sufferance’ from the worst administrative paralysis.

Unfortunately, the current Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was on tour abroad along with finance minister, and no one knew what to do with petrol crisis. Ironically, the cabinet ministers were seen bashing their own government. The painful scenario is the federal government delayed actions to address the worst petrol crisis leaving the consumers unattended. This shows the worst manifest of bad governance.

Despite the delivery failures, the PPP luckily managed to fully enjoy the five long years of inefficiency and national loot. On the other hand, the N league is in the driver’s seat with no sense of direction whatsoever.

Since the Nawaz regime is prematurely on the ventilator, it does not seem to continue running the show for the full term. The reason is simple: It’s generally assumed that even the most incompetent is not too incompetent to see the country running out of fuel.

The reliable sources point fingers towards the government as it is part of the circular debt. Why is it unable to pay its dues? What did stop the ministry of finance to have ensured collection of needed funds ahead of time to keep them available?

Actually, the government doesn’t have“know-how” or a “workable strategy” in place to eliminate the circular debt once and for all.

It is certainly true that PSO (Pakistan State Oil) should have realised that its continual default on payment would have a negative impact on its credit lines, however, its precarious financial condition is partly the fault of the past and the current governments. Hence, total blame shifting to PSO is just an attempt to get off the hook.

Sadly, the consumers have been running around back and forth for a week or so in search of petrol but all in vain. Other scenario is waiting time for gas and electricity’s load shedding has also been increased adding to the existing stubborn misery.

No electricity-no gas-no petrol, maybe the next one will be “no breathing.”

All over the World, price of oil is at its lowest point in years, but the Pakistanis have to wait in mile-long line ups – isn’t that shameful! God forbid! looming fear is furnace oil stocks with the power companies are running out. If the government doesn’t have a clue how to handle fuel crisis, then the political, economic and security issues are a way more complicated issues.

The sequence of events that led up to the shortages is quite obvious by now, and it is disingenuous on the finance minister’s part to try and shrug off responsibility.

It is hard to understand as to why the so called democratic prime minister and finance minister prefer to keep all power in their own hands. When they are out of country, there is no appropriate action to solve the emerging issue in their absence. Furthermore, as a large part of the crisis grows up because of the funding requirements of PSO, credit lines are affected adversely due to defaults in payments of furnace oil imports, yet no explanation comes from the finance ministry.

Beyond doubt, managing the oil supply chain is tricky business and technical in nature; this requires advance planning because limited storage capacity for petrol at Karachi site. Also, managing the supplies becomes much difficult if the company placing the order does not know whether it will have the funds to honour the required payment. In fact, suppliers demand money upfront before a vessel is loaded. The fact is the vessels have transit time, berthing is often not available on demand, and discharging the fuel for upcountry transportation can take days. 
Thus, whole process of supply is very complicated so the funds and management have to be certainly available all the time 24/7.

Obviously, the worst form of negligence is the current unprecedented shortage of petrol in the country for the last week or so has never been seen before. This alone exposes the government’s tall claims of good governance, improving national economy and running the country’s affairs. Wow!

Not importing even a single litre of oil during the month of December and importing only once during January is not the way to go. Is it inefficiency on part of the government or is it something cooking up merely for privatising the PSO? Time will tell.

But for now, the government needs to take a serious look at how it is running things and as to why this situation did arise in the first place. Although, the best option is the prime minister, finance minister and petroleum minister must step down immediately to pave the way for better governance in future, yet fashion of resigning is not for Pakistani democracy. Democracy by the incompetent is likely to continue.

Suggestion: 
True, crises do erupt in fuel supply/ power supply due to circular debt, nevertheless, the government is responsible to legally bind the defaulters to repay the debts. No immunity should ever be given to the defaulting institutions, provincial departments/federal ministries. Govt including OGRA (Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority) and PSO must go after recovering of the unpaid bills of electricity, gas and petrol.

Though slower, yet the alternate means of transportation in the meanwhile including Tonga and cycle rickshaw are the best options plus there is unpolluted clean air to breathe. Follow the Chinese model of simplicity using bicycles; that’s good for health and is very economical indeed.

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Does Death Penalty Help?

Though the likelihood of executing an innocent person is too strong to be ignored, yet the death penalty saves lives of potential victims in future. In other words, there is taking of certain risks in exchange for safety. The opponents of death sentence claim lots of innocent people are wrongly executed because of the flawed methodology employed for evidence gathering by the investigators.

In fact, the resulted delaying tactics involve a number of loopholes that are disguisedly advantageous for the offenders who manage to walk away free. The delayed justice is no justice as it is caused by the obsolete/age old procedure in the judicial system. Hence, there is a state of compromised merit system leading to lack of transparency.

Unless the executive/ the judicial administrators take extra precautions, the innocent people and their rights would continue to remain unprotected. And, in some case, the chronic condition tends to cost their lives of innocent people needlessly.

Furthermore, there are those who argue that the capital punishment amounts to brutalizing; some label the penalty as “legalized murder.”

Nevertheless, there is certain benefit of having deterred the potential offenders or repeat criminals through death penalty, thus it’s absolutely essential to protect the society.

Legally speaking, capital punishment is still part of the law, which means that as long as parliament does not amend the law, Pakistan is under no obligation to “not to carry out sentences” awarded under it.

Maybe, Pakistan is liable as a signatory to the international conventions, but is under no obligation or pressure to not executing those who have been tried and found guilty.

Admittedly, there are certain economic benefits of extremely high value, as the GSP Plus status was given by the European Union to Pakistan.

The problem is if the moratorium is not lifted, the terrorism can’t be dealt with effectively. In other words, there is more benefit in going ahead with hanging the terrorists along with their abettors and facilitators.

It’s about time for executing those who have been awarded the death penalty after they have been heard at all levels, right from the trial court to the superior courts, and they have also gone ahead unsuccessfully with appeals exhausting review petitions as well. After their sentences are confirmed through a prescribed sequence of events, there isn’t much left to save them from getting hanged.

The question arises for protection for the innocent: The Fair Trial Act and the Protection of Pakistan Act will actually protect innocent people from prosecution. The Fair Trial Act provides the state the opportunity to identify actual suspects: people against whom evidence is collected through surveillance that is considerably accurate. Yet again, it all depends on the lines on which a thorough investigation has been carried out to collect genuine intelligence permissible as evidence in the court.

Religiously speaking: The Quran regarding the death penalty clearly states,"...Take not life, which God has made sacred, except by way of justice and law. Thus does He command you, so that you may learn wisdom" (6:151). Therefore, the death penalty (capital punishment) is a reasonable option to save potential victims’ lives.

Furthermore, with regard to legality of capital punishment, Pakistan is ranked fifth after the People’s Republic of China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The fact is European Union has no problem with it, so it continues to do business with Iran, Saudi Arabia, China and USA.

Actually, “Human Rights Watch” opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty. Pakistan’s use of the death penalty is inconsistent with international human rights law, according to statements of United Nations human rights experts and various UN bodies.

Human rights law upholds every human being’s inherent right to life; it limits the death penalty to those serious crimes that result in death. In Pakistan’s case, terrorists’ activity has killed many thousands which is very serious matter indeed. Killing innocent children by the barbaric terrorists is highly intolerable.

There was an expired moratorium which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government did not extend, however, a ban on executions of over 8000 convicts awaiting execution was maintained. Nevertheless, the lifting of the moratorium in the death penalty has angered the European Union (EU); the demand of immediate restoration of moratorium has also angered Pakistanis.

Despite the immediate demand for restoring the moratorium; Pakistan will not restore the moratorium after what had happened in Peshawar.

Obviously, the EU fails to take into consideration Pakistan’s number one foe which is terrorism; rather it should offer a helping hand to facilitate the elimination of bad guys.

Death penalty may not be the best deterrence against the suicide attackers because they lose their lives right away, yet it would definitely scare their abettors and financiers.

War on terror will receive a real blow once the execution of the convicted terrorists is allowed to continue uninterrupted all the way till its logical ending.

Hopefully, the long awaited normalcy will return followed by economic national betterment. Then the EU may advocate for the humanitarianism as much as it wants.

Currently, the jailed convicts awaiting executions are being held due to appeal-scenario; many have been enjoying because of the moratorium on death penalty.

There is a lot of talk about “military courts;” this development is against the spirit of democracy. Under the ongoing negative circumstances, non military courts/anti terrorism courts have not been fully successful in providing quicker justice, therefore the dream of rooting out terrorism never really came true.

Since the terrorists cannot be permitted to be roaming free among the vulnerable populace, they need to be nabbed to be put to death within a reasonable time frame in the best interest of the entire nation.

Political parties have already developed consensus to setup military courts for the period of two years. The house is also expected to approve a bill to amend the Pakistan Army Act.

With the recent passage of Constitutional Twenty-first Amendment Bill to provide a constitutional cover to military courts, the scenario will be a different one.

Let’s wait for the dust to settle in favour of perpetual peace.