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 16th, 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
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