VISITING Islamabad with my grandchildren, I decided to introduce them to our very impressive Islamabad Sports Complex. Getting there, we found that the Asian Junior Individual Squash Championship was going on. It was a delight to see scores of kids, both boys and girls, from the age of 10 onwards, from 12 different countries competing hard. I felt proud that Pakistan was hosting such a lovely event with international-level infrastructure. But my pride was shattered when I asked a parent of a Malaysian kid what all they had done in Islamabad. Nothing, he said, because we are confined to our guest house and not allowed to move around because of security concerns.

Each time I’ve travelled to Islamabad of late, I find a new roadblock or security barrier. Twenty years ago, on official visits to Kabul, I would be struck by the number of security barriers there. Back in relaxed Islamabad, one could understand why Afghans wanted to come to Pakistan. We seem to be fast headed in a similar direction, where the flow of migration may be reversed. Why are we in such a fatal dive?

Economy is the more obvious reason; however, that’s not the cause but the result of misgovernance, which is a consequence of a fluid governance structure. This, in turn, is due to the establishment’s arbitrary and unchecked brute power. Even if we look at just the last 25 years — and not the previous 50, which were no different — we see army chiefs either imposing martial law, or when the cost-benefit of taking over directly turns adverse, manoeuvring and strategising for a tenure extension. Politicians, parties and the Constitution were used as pawns to achieve the ultimate objective of an extension.

Without delving further into that argument, as it is dangerous territory, one can say that even if the establishment calls the shots we could have still stayed the course had we possessed a sturdy local bodies system. I say this after watching Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak at a joint session of the US Congress. The way the Congress men and women stood up 53 times during his 50-minute speech to give him a standing ovation was ridiculous. They must have clapped for 30 minutes out of the 50.

The government is in a fix as to how to stop the bleeding.

The managers of our rent-a-crowd jalsas could learn something from the Congress representatives. It seems that those present were under watch and had to show their loyalty and how grateful they were to Netanyahu for massacring innocent women and children. This joint session was a crass demonstration of how effectively the Zionist establishment controls the most powerful country in the world. But despite this helplessness of the US politicians before the establishment, much like in our case, their country runs smoothly.

This, in my view, is due to the fact that their state governments are powerful, effective and independent of the centre, and most civic services, including law and order and the criminal justice system, work smoothly. So the American public would not be unduly bothered if President Joe Biden naps during meetings because their law and order, criminal justice system, electricity and gas bills, etc, are not affected.

A strong local government system with manageable-sized provinces would do wonders for this country, despite the unending shenanigans of the centre, for which there is little hope of betterment.

In addition to our dysfunctional local bodies and disproportionate federating units, there is the issue of mega corruption, where the scale of corrupt gains is beyond the comprehension of the common man. Take the case of setting up independent power producers (IPPs), where decision-making politicians have been claiming it as their contribution to national progress.

The fact is that their decisions, based on unmitigated greed and political point-scoring, has landed the country with a permanent hole in the bucket, haemorrhaging Rs2 trillion every year, which equals defence spending and is almost 25 per cent of the government’s revenue. How could it be anything but greed when four power houses receive Rs10 billion monthly, without producing a unit of electricity? How could it be anything but greed if a power plant based on imported coal were set up 1,000 kilometres away from the port? How could it be anything but greed if more and more power houses were established to take the installed capacity to 44,000 MW when the transmission capacity is only 22,000 MW?

Those who are corrupt have no fear of being prosecuted nor of the recovery of their illegal gains; the government, on the contrary, is in a fix as to how to stop the bleeding in the face of agreements being appealable before the trigger-happy International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. I wonder if the experience gained by the powers that be in fixing a political party could be used to fix the IPPs?

The writer is a former civil servant.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2024