Business as usual at halt — fear technology and state by Senator A. Rehman Malik

Governments around the world derive respect from their citizens through good governance and fear and deterrence of law, which they implement indiscriminately. While the governments enforce rule of law through state functionaries, it also provides for due indemnity to the relevant officials who perform their functions within the parameters of law and in good faith.

Every state has evolved a system of punishment to ensure respect for the law and harmony in society. This system instils the belief that fear of punishment would deter crimes in the future.

The prompt and indiscriminate dispensation of justice law not only generates respect for the law but also creates deterrence against breaking of the law.

It is the fear of the law, which creates deterrence to stop the people committing a crime and this deterrence, in turn, becomes an invisible cop to control the crime. In other words, fear and respect of law are correlated in the criminal judicial system. At the same time, the fear carries negative fallout in the society if this fear of law takes the shape of a tool of victimisation based on vendetta, extraction, humiliation and fear of losing their belongings & job and fear of non-protection of their investment and protection of life. Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm whereas deterrence is the act of discouraging an action or event through instilling doubt or fear of the consequences.

The history of various countries speaks of their efforts to address the challenges faced by those countries, including fighting wars, to stand higher in the world community.

On the contrary, it is ironic that our national leaders are themselves demonising the country portraying it as the most corrupt country on the international forums as well as in the media. They are portraying every Pakistani as money launder, drug supplier and rape criminal etc.

The revengeful attitude of the government towards the opposition is never going to benefit the country. The rhetoric of corruption without indiscriminate accountability is not creating any deterrence or fear of law rather supporting the narratives of the criminals.

The ICJ, which leaked the Panama Papers, hit the 140 well-known politicians from around 50 countries of the world. The Panama Leaks within a few hours shook the foundations of power around the world. It triggered the resignation of Iceland’s Prime Minister while President Mauricio Macri of Argentina started getting calls to resign. If we look closely into the names, all of those were regarded as the great or respectful leaders.

I am a great supporter of accountability through courts of law and not through media trial or through publicised investigation and propaganda, which not only negates the maxim of law that “every person is innocent unless proven otherwise” but also brings disrepute to the accused person as well as to the country. The accountability of politicians and bureaucrats through media has, on one hand, caused embarrassment to our own country as well as the countrymen, but on the other hand, we also rant about lack of investment in the country because the investors are fearful of their security and life as well as the fear of loss of their investment due to frauds or unstable investment environment. The fear of the investors is the product of non-existence of any legal deterrence against violation of laws. When the investor feels insecure in terms of his security to life and investment, he takes his investment to other countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Canada, and Thailand rather investing in his own country.

For God sake! The government must undertake the accountability of all the corrupt elements through the application of relevant laws by the competent courts but not through social media propaganda, press conferences or electronic media. The extra-judicial accountability of any person accused of corruption or corrupt practices is having negative effects on the relevant state institutions, which ultimately fail in their duties to protect the rights of the citizen against any injustice.

The bureaucrats, bankers and other officials are now scared, and they are not ready to give their honest input in the files, as they are scared of Interrogation and implication in any case in future.

We, as a state, have only promoted the fear rather than promoting the idea of accountability in our business community and investment sectors through the indiscriminate application of laws. Let me call it as “fear technology” in the name of accountability to terrorise various factions of society, including businessmen and the potential investors. This fear technology is eating away comfort zone for general public and investors, including government officials.

This fear technology has almost paralyzed our bureaucrats with fear of humiliation even in performing their normal duties. The present government has so far also failed to give confidence to the officials and business community to work fearlessly. I have a firm belief that the government is almost at halt at present because of the fear of insecurity induced in the minds of official functionaries. The government has to enhance the sense of security to all the stakeholders for better governance and transparent accountability through accountability reforms. We as a nation have to halt the use of fear technology, which is highly detrimental to the entire governance system. Let us be accountable as a nation for our every act and let the State ensure not to promote or adopt the use of fear technology to overpower the opponents to run the government.

I fully appreciate and endorse the views expressed by CJP Mr Saeed Khosa that “let us also discuss how the legislature can be restricted to its legislative domain and how the legislators can be held back to their legislative role rather than encroaching upon the executive domain through development funds and through interference in appointment, posting, transfer or promotion of public servants which is the main breeding ground for misuse of authority, corruption, lack of merit, inefficiency and the resultant bad governance”.

The bureaucrats need constitutional protection for their legal and honest actions taken in good faith whereas politicians need to be treated with respect rather are subjected to media trial. Similarly, the business community needs to be respected and protected for their services to the country and any action against above all should be initiated only once a crime is established. The accountability laws should be reformed to put an end to the victimisation and accountability agencies should follow the law strictly and should be liable to accountability and punishment in cases of false prosecution.

The Article has been Published in ‘’The News’’ on January 22^nd, 2019

The Link to Article is: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/421969-business-as-usual-at-halt-fear-technology-and-state

NTRC via new enactment or referendum on national failures and way forward by Senator A. Rehman Malik

The country is passing through unprecedented turmoil where the economy is falling day by day, the adverse effects of which are now visibly seen in the form of price hike and this deteriorating economy will further affect common men's security.

The political history of Pakistan is full of political deals, wheeling and dealing, sacking of democratically elected governments, economic disasters and dictatorial policies imposed on the people of Pakistan.

There has been propaganda of accountability covering a minor portion of corruption with built-in tools to keep the power in hand whereas nobody demands the accountability of intellectual dishonesty/corruption in this country taking place since its independence, which remained a major factor of a stumbling block for the prosperity and development of the country in the hands of the rulers.

Time has come to expose those hidden hands and the faces, which have brought our country to this worst level in almost all walks of life. The country is continuing to move on a slow pace with the main motto of rulers to remain in power. Unfortunately, the ruling elites failed to impose the rule of law including the present government. The in-depth study of law enforcement shows that most of the laws were made to rule the public and not to serve the public in defiance of rule of law. These laws have failed to create real deterrence to block those who take the law in their hands to use in their favour. Pakistan is not the first nation, which is facing this kind of dilemma of internal dissatisfaction and wedge within various segments of the society including political polarisation.

The nations do not progress unless the people are made the real and the only stakeholders in the decision-making. The elite class always remained the main governing power in the government whereas the common man continued to face the same turmoil, which he was facing during the colonial time through exercise of same colonial laws. The Parliament, partially representing a common man, is being totally ignored. The government is making its major decisions without taking the parliaments into confidence, which in fact is a sign of distrust in the public wisdom.

The blunders committed at the national level by all the stakeholders, particularly the rulers who are needed to be identified not for the sake of court or media trial but to learn a lesson from the mistakes and to find a way forward for our future generations. The model of South Africa given by Nelson Mandela is still applicable in many countries like us where National Truth and Reconciliation Commission (NTRC) has successfully performed in their national interest.

It is high time to review our blunders and on the basis of our past mistakes, we should find the way forward for long term solution. The way forward is now a real deal with the people of Pakistan, which can only take place if middle and lower middle classes are considered as main stakeholders of the country and their participation is ensured at all levels.

The concept of National Reconciliation was conceived by Nelson Mandela and implemented in South Africa to create harmony within the ethnic groups emerged over a long period. We have also got similar issues in our country and people of Pakistan now want intellectual accountability besides addressing the menace of financial corruption.

The need of the hour is the National Truth & Reconciliation Commission (NTRC) to highlight the real factors and causes of intellectual corruption and to name and shame those who had been responsible for polarisation in the country and the society. Mr. Mandela decided that the best thing for his nation was reconciliation at the national level wherein he took some political parties on board to bring about some political solution to the disharmony and distrust amongst the different factions/segments of the society.

Admittedly, there is no provision in the Constitution to have such broad-based powerful and independent commission, which could undertake the national task to expose and dissect all those blunders done by powerful and influential bureaucrats, politician and dictators in the past. Hence, I propose that nation must consider a referendum on National Truth and Reconciliation Commission to take the opinion of a common man, as it is very important for profiling the blunders, errors, lack of responsibilities by many actors in the arena of bureaucracy and politics.

This is not with the intention of criminal prosecutions but an exercise of a national assessment of our lapses and national failures. People of Pakistan want the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which should be based on the following objectives and TORs of national importance:

1. The Commission to collect all the authentic national archive highlighting the causes, factors and actors, which has brought the country to this level of what is happening today.

2. To provide a platform for the general public to tell their stories and facts to put the national record straight.

3. Failure to provide the full basic right of education, health and easy justice.

4. Failure of implementation of rule of law and non-implementation of many provisions of Constitution of Pakistan including the 18th Amendment.

5. To recommend legislative, structural or other changes to avoid a repetition of past abuses and amendments for speedy justice for a common man.

6. Establishment of a superior court for constitutional matters.

7.To name those who were responsible for providing shelter to those who had extracted huge banks loans besides those who had written those off at the cost of national economy.

Our history is full of record where many understandings were created to accommodate each other for political benefits by ignoring the main stakeholders, which were common men. These were, in fact, marriages of conveniences between the dictators and political parties and sometimes between political rivals to advance a common agenda and all such compromises need to be identified for a proper consolidation to be part of Pak history.

I was wondering as to why the people of Pakistan were totally kept in dark in such processes of deals and indoor decisions sometimes in the assemblies and the governments avoided placing important decisions before the Parliament. I am also worried as to why there is no provision in the Constitution which prevent deals between vested political and non-political entities to grab and prolong their power with mutual protection?

Similarly, there is no provision to regulate and watch the behaviour of our economy besides foreign and internal security, which is presently managed by the bureaucracy alone. Why could the successive governments not devise and implement an inbuilt system to keep a check and balance on the behaviour of the economy and other matters of greater national interests at all stages of its process? It is another issue, which needs deep analysis and probe to find out as to how the political polarisations and political wheeling-dealing by vested interests had contributed to the decline of the economy and crippled other vital organs of the state.

We are in trouble because our present system is failing to manage the ever-increasing issues. The concept of the National Truth & Reconciliation Commission is not new to bring the truth of the polarisation and "political deals" to the people of Pakistan - the actual stakeholders - to understand the background and factors behind such indoor deals ultimately compromising national interests. The PPP under the leadership of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had proposed the establishment of such commission in the historic Charter of Democracy and she had been advocating for it till her last breath and she wanted this concept to be transformed into reality.

Let us not shut our eyes and allow the country to slide into irreversible troubles zone and work collectively to halt it by playing our role to save the future of our generation instead. We must also find a collective and workable solution to drag the nation out of these deep multiple crises as the government alone will not be able to pull out the nation out of this coming economic tsunami and external political pressures.

I propose that either a joint Parliament session be considered to undertake these discussions and proposals to take upon this national duty of National Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the form of a broad based parliamentary commission from all political parties with the above proposed TOR’s. Alternatively, the Parliament may allow a referendum through a resolution to allow a common man to give direct opinion on the above multiple crises via referendum for the formation of an independent and transparent NTRC as earlier proposed by many senior leaders. The TORs can be formulated with the collective wisdom of all the parliamentarians through votes and not by a selective group within the Parliament.

I hope the government will take the initiative by taking the opposition into confidence and perhaps bring a special draft enactment on the constitution of NTRC if not through referendum

N.B: These are my personal views and not necessarily represent the views of my party.

The Article has been Published in ‘’The News’’ on January 16^th, 2019

The Link to Article is: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/419581-ntrc-via-new-enactment-or-referendum-on-national-failures-and-way-forward

SAARC on ventilator by Senator A. Rehman Malik

SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) was established in 1985 by the nations of South Asian region that include Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan. Upon creation of SAARC each country agreed to cooperate in formation of trade bloc and to perform together for the economic and political development of the region.  However, SAARC is losing its importance by every passing year. It was established with great doable charter for its member countries. 

South Asia has multiple issues due to certain bilateral-complicated issues, which is one of the factors for the political division. South Asia is one of the backward and underdeveloped regions in the world and there is a dire need for development and a higher rate of economic growth in all the member countries of the region, but no favourable steps have been taken by the members to fulfil the need.

The region hosts 24.78 per cent of the world’s population but accounts for only $11.64 trillion of the world’s GDP (at PPP). Factors like poverty, illiteracy, inequality, unemployment, low productivity and malnourishment are haunting the population of the region.   It is pity that this forum has fallen victim of regional politics and could not grow to the expectation of the people as the member states have not been able to strengthen their economic ties to a significant extent to work together towards the development of the region.

There is a need of collaboration for developing their industrial and social sectors and improving their political ties.

I myself represented Pakistan in SAARC Meeting of Experts on the implementation of the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism, Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1990.  My proposal of establishing SARAC-POL (Like INTERPOL) despite approval could not be established.  As part of the SARAC charter the signatory countries agreed upon the following five areas of cooperation:

 Agriculture and Rural Development

• Telecommunications, Science, Technology and Meteorology

• Health and Population Activities

• Transport

• Human Resource Development

As keen observer of development of this region I regret to note that there has been no notable achievement made by SAARC so far.  SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Area) was made by SAARC, which came into force on the first day of 2006 but this agreement has never been implemented till today.

They also established fields of cooperation like environment, economic development, energy and sharing criminal data of criminals, but again, none of this either proved to be fruitful

SAPTA South Asia Preferential Trading Agreement was also formed by them in 1995 in order to promote trade amongst the member countries. 

At the time of creation of SAARC, it was decided unanimously that no bilateral issue would be discussed at this forum but these issues have always dominantly emerged affecting the performance of SAARC. The blame games and the inter-states conflicts amongst the member countries have caused further harm to the foundation of SAARC.  It is unfortunate that instead of dealing with the problems jointly the members are blaming each other for the terrorism, violence, extremism and sectarianism happening in the region.

The inclusion of Afghanistan, back in 2005 is said to be the calculated move by India to undermine Pakistan’s position in SAARC. The increasing ties between India and Afghanistan and India’s financial support to Afghanistan are a clear signal that both are willing to destabilize Pakistan.

The region is further encountered with many unresolved border and maritime issues including terrorism by Afghan Taliban, refugee crisis, smuggling, narco-trade, Kashmir dispute, disputes between India and Sri Lanka over nationality of Tamilians, India and Nepal issue over border, disputes between India and Bangladesh over Chittagong refugees etc.

I would like to say that over the period of time India has developed its high level of influence on Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan as it has 70% area amongst all SAARC countries. Also the small countries do not share border with each other except for Pakistan- Afghanistan.  These countries have become like satellites of India. In many of the occasions, India either by itself or by using other member country seizes the authority to cancel the meetings of SAARC.   Pakistan tried to hold and host the meetings twice in the past but India did not let it happen because of number game to block any meeting. The details of these two incidents damaged the credibility of the SAARC.

The continuous time to time delay in different SAARC summits following various pretext particularly at the behest of India have paralysed the organisation. It can never function independently and effectively unless it gets out of the clutches of India. Due to this assumed dominant position of India in the region it has a hegemonic role in the region creating the sense of insecurity among other members of the association.

In 1988, at the conclusion of three-day Summit, then Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto addressed the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which was attended by the premiers of seven member states; Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi, Sri Lankan President Junius Jayewardene, President Hussain Mohammad Ershad of Bangladesh, King Birendra of Nepal, King Sigme Wanchuk of Bhutan and Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. She was the elected chairperson of SAARC for the next year at the inaugural session of the summit. It was the fourth such conference since the association was founded in Dhaka in 1985.

In her address to the delegates of the summit she said

‘Mutual suspicions and rivalries have divided our countries in the past and kept them from coming together whole-heartedly in joint endeavours for the good of all our peoples,’  ‘Some of us are spending too great a proportion of our national resources on defense, maintaining large military forces that face each other. The truth is that our people face the same common problems - poverty, disease, slums and ignorance -- and it is to the vanquishing of these enemies that we should direct all our efforts.’

It was an idea to become one economic strong block in the interest of citizens of each country.

Let us confess that the SAARC has failed to achieve its original targets.  I propose veto power must be done away with.  What happened in Maldives at the behest of its neighbouring country is a matter of record. Nepal continues to be terrorised by India and has become subservient nation to it.

It would have been a historic achievement if SAARC had played its role to resolve the issues between Pakistan and Afghanistan or Pakistan and India. I have hardly seen even a single effort to resolve these pressing issues.

The Article has been Published in ‘’The Nation’’ on January 12^th, 2019

The Link to Article is: https://nation.com.pk/12-Jan-2019/saarc-on-ventilator

Developing defence-diplomatic policy by Senator A. Rehman Malik

It is common knowledge that the world powers are now more dependent on their defence policies rather the foreign policies. It looks now that the foreign policies are supplementing their support to defence strategies.

It is seen in the most recent times where even President Donald Trump preferred to go to the Middle East with defence policies with the strategised plan. Similarly, many others have adopted the same mode of cementing friendship and future cooperation.

Defence strategies of every country have gained more attention after 9/11 and it is fetching more and more importance. President Donald Trump promised Saudi Arabia protection against any aggression by supplying them defence equipment. Russia is using their defence strategy not only against his enemies but helping all the opponents of USA starting from Syria to Yemen and other trouble pockets. Similarly, China is paying more attention to enhance its defence-diplomatic policy and this new term given by me is, in fact, an emerging trend.

The three world powers USA, China and Russia are not respected because of their diplomatic skills but for their defence skills; hence, the defence might is a more effective tool to promote their national interest. The countries worldwide are extending their defence budget as this realisation is now increasing that diplomatic romance can only work to some extent but it fails to protect the boundaries and aggression.

Iranian King Raza Pehlvi was the best diplomat and had the best of relations with the West but even his diplomacy could not save him. I met his son Ali-Reza Pehlvi in Washington over a dinner and had a long chat with him. I was sorry to see how his family was forced to scatter out and the feeling was that they depended more on diplomacy and lesser on their defence strategy. Why the USA got Iranian Kingdom to fall is another story of a war between communism and imperialism. Now the worldwide impression is that the first thing to protect a country from foreign aggression is to have a strong defence policy coupled with the strong well-equipped defence strategy.

Saudi Arabia has always been under threat from Yemen despite the fact that Saudi Arabia has been supporting the tribes between Saudi Arabia & Yemen but it continued source of trouble. Similarly, the dispute between Iran and UAE will continue, as both sides are not prepared to give in vis-à-vis control on three islands at the mouth of Strait of Hormuz.

In the present Middle Eastern situation, only Pakistan is the country, which had strengthened its defence. Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had the vision and he decided to pursue nuclear bomb in the wake of the hegemonic stance of India and surrounding geopolitical changes. He had practically seen that the diplomacy alone could not save East Pakistan and the foundation laid by ZAB made us a first Muslim nuclear state and that is our strength.

 We are also a source of strength for friendly countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE, which have very rightly chosen us to be part of Pak defence strategy and Pak Army is presently providing full defence support both at internal security and training to the forces of these countries. We are glad to note that even it is our Army, which is protecting the vital installations including Royal palace, and this confidence has been given by our COAS.

I also have first-hand knowledge that the recent deposits of $3billion each are in fact the reward of silent diplomacy of Gen Bajwa who has given a great level of confidence to the top leadership of both the countries.

I would like to highly commend H.H Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan for his generous support to Pakistan by depositing a hefty amount of US$3 billion in the State Bank of Pakistan. The people of Pakistan are thankful to UAE Government and the UAE Crown Prince for his support in difficult times when Pakistan is passing through a financial crisis. UAE’s generous support in our difficult times to boost Pakistan economy will further strengthen the relationship between two friendly and brotherly countries.

The credit of receiving this generous support from UAE and Saudi Arabia doesn’t go to the present Government. The credit actually goes to our defence strategy under the command of COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the continuity of Bajwa doctrine and his consistent efforts made possible that both Saudi Arabia and UEA deposited their amounts i.e. US$3 billion each in the State Bank to enhance Pakistan’s liquidity and monetary reserves of foreign currency.

The people wonder as to why the government is unkind not to give this credit to the silent and shuttle diplomacy of Gen Bajwa, which actually made it possible. The government should have shown magnanimity by giving full credit to General Qamar Javed Bajwa who managed huge funds for Pakistan. Pakistan’s policy on the Middle East and South Asia is more of our Defence Strategies instead of any bilateral ties and time is proving that it is a less foreign policy and more defence strategy, which is playing a vital role in building relations with other countries. I hope that the government will give full credit of this achievement to the Bajwa doctrine and will hold to take credit under the cover of bilateral relations with these countries —-Thanks General Qamar Bajwa for restoring the friendly communication back between Middle East & Pakistan.

I actually have pointed out that your defence strategic achievements are the real national strength and today our friendly countries can blindly trust us.

In fact, pure defence is the best defence of Foreign Policy in this complicated and complex world.

The Article has been Published in ‘’The Nation’’ on January 5^th, 2019

The Link to Article is: https://nation.com.pk/05-Jan-2019/developing-defence-diplomatic-policy