LAHORE: A report by an Islamabad-based think-tank shows weakening of the civilian government’s writ, mainly because of, “activism” and “visibility” of the military leadership in formulating the country’s foreign and internal security policies.
Democracy has not yet recovered from the shock it suffered during the 2014 Islamabad sit-in (by the PTI against alleged rigging of 2013 elections) as informal and ad hoc platforms took more precedence over institutional ones, says the report prepared by Pildat encompassing the year 2015.
The report is based on data analysis and scores compiled by a Pildat team, a national consultation on the subject and an opinion poll conducted in June 2015.
The think-tank claims to have also closely monitored and analysed the developments affecting democracy during the year and an assessment of the quality of democracy based on scores by Pildat’s Democracy Assessment Group.
It says the dharna saw humiliation of the elected government at the hands of the protesters and the subsequent ascendancy of the military influence.
The governments also avoided institutional decision-making and preferred informal and ad hoc platforms like “all-party” conferences and “apex committees” for raising and resolving various issues, ignoring the parliament and cabinet.
For instance, the federal cabinet met four times during 2015 against 52 times as required under rules, while not a single sitting of the National Security Committee could be held during the year. Contrary to it, the prime minister and army chief met 78 times since Gen Raheel Sharif assumed the charge as COAS on Nov 27, 2013 till Dec 31, 2015. And in just 21pc of these meetings, Defence Minister Khwaja Asif was present.
At provincial level, the apex committees formed to counter terrorism met more than the provincial cabinets in all the four provinces. In Punjab, the cabinet met thrice against seven apex committee huddles, in Sindh it was six vs 11, in Balochistan five vs eight and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa five against nine sittings of the apex committee.
The federal government has so far convened three APCs on security and political issues and, ironically, each time the parliament was in session.
The report says, “The quality of democracy in Pakistan in 2015 has seen improvement. However, except for holding of local government elections across all provinces …, it still appeared to be battling its way out after the 2014 turbulence.
Barring some sparks, particularly in Senate, no substantial improvement was seen in the performance of legislatures as the MPs spent most of their time and energy on constituent service rather than legislation, oversight and representation, it says.
Both Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and PTI leader Imran Khan seldom attend an assembly session, indicating the low priority they assign to the parliament, it says. Opposition Leader Khurshid Shah attended 88pc of the total sittings.
It says speedy and economical justice remained elusive as pendency of cases increased at lower courts. The military courts formation manifested non-functioning of the judicial system, which awaits reforms. As a result, people are increasingly seeking informal and alternative methods of dispute resolution like the so-called Sharia courts of Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
It mentions incidents like disappearance of case files of SGS and Cotecna cases against Mr Asif Ali Zardari and the disregard shown by Gen Pervez Musharraf for court proceedings resulted in weakening of rule of law.
The report says the National Accountability Bureau continues abdicating its responsibility on the list of 150 mega-corruption cases.
It says control of media by ‘establishment’ and various business interests has introduced a new dimension of the constraints on the freedom of expression.
It sees sparks of activism by the civil society in the protests against blocking of YouTube. But sees no systemic improvement in this regard.http://www.dawn.com/news/1259312/military-leadership-activism-weakened-govt-writ
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