Editorial: DAWN - 22 June 2013

VIP duties: Need for rethink

IN Pakistan, law-enforcement personnel are largely seen as working to protect the powerful, not concerned about the security of the common citizen.

Hence the interior minister`s decision to remove Rangers and Frontier Constabulary personnel from `VIP duties` is commendable. Chaudhry Nisar told a press conference on Thursday that only the president, prime minister and chief justice would be provided personnel from the aforementioned LEAs for guard duty. However, the move should also prompt an official rethink about the ramifications of using police personnel as guards for `VIPs`.

No doubt some public officials and private individuals face credible threats to their lives and need extra security, as was brutally illustrated by MQM provincial lawmaker Sajid Qureshi`s murder on Friday. But it is also true that our police forces are understaffed and under-resourced. What is more, having a small army of guards in tow is seen as a status symbol in this country, whether one needs the extra security or not. Moving around town with gun-toting guards and causing traffic to be suspended as one`s entourage passes are ways to show off one`s importance here. Also, the term VIP is thrown around very loosely in the local con-text. There are no defined parameters about who genuinely needs extra protection, the rule of thumb being that if you have the right connections, arranging a police escort should be no problem.

The answer is perhaps to raise a special force in each province, dedicated to the protection of public figures under threat, one that does not affect the financial or manpower situation of the regular police. Such units do exist in some police departments, such as the Sindh police`s Special Security Unit. Yet the manpower for VIP duties is drawn from the regular force, which leaves the police short-staffed. For example, figures from last year show that only 11,000 men were available for regular policing in Karachi, as around 6,500 personnel were deputed for VIP duties. Simply put, it is not practical to provide security cover to every lawmaker, government official and private citizen who wants it. Those who genuinely deserve security must be granted it after an impartial analysis of the threat they face, with men coming from dedicated units that don`t affect regular policing. Others who want extra guards from the police force can also avail the facility, but after they or their parties pay for it, thereby not burdening the taxpayer.

Revolutionary decisions: Balochistan budget

THE first budget of the new Balochistan government represents a major policy departure from the past. It seeks to raise provincial tax revenues through firm decisionmaking which the previous government had avoided because of political reasons. And it shifts investment-spending priorities to improving the quality of social services like education, healthcare and drinking water a welcome deviation from the traditional `brick and mortar` development. The document also allocates a substantial amount for infrastructure in order to expand agriculture, industry and trade to generate new jobs and cut poverty.

The role of the lawmakers in development spending has been eliminated, at least for now. This has allowed the government to keep down the number of new development schemes it plans to execute and to allocate sufficient funds for these. This will help the early completion of schemes that will benefit the people.

The budget clearly reflects the vision of the new government and what it is aiming for. More commendable is the fact thatthe chief minister has tried to evolve his government`s investment-spending priorities in accordance with the social and economic indicators of his province.

If education is allocated 23pc of development funds, it is because the province lags far behind the rest of the country in literacy. But the implementation of these priorities will be a challenge for him. The government must focus on improving governance, which has deteriorated considerably over the years, to cut hefty current expenditure and ensure efficient use of the money it has for development. Then, it will be required to work hard on improving the security conditions. Islamabad can help by ensuring that Balochistan gets the promised federal development funds and addressing the causes of violence in this part of the country.

Paucity of funds and violence are major constraints to development as well as among the causes of the deprivations faced by its people. While only a political solution will bring sustainable peace in the restive province, development can help to reduce tensions.

Objectionable comments: PTI MNA`s remarks in parliament

NOT only were the comments of PTI MNA Mujahid Ali Khan objectionable on their own, they were rendered more so by the venue where he uttered them on Thursday. The National Assembly is dedicated to the enterprise of steering the ship of state; it is not a soap-box vantage point from where personal opinions can be aired. That any member should consider it an appropriate site to announce that a selfconfessed and convicted killer should be released, and that too `honourably`, beggars belief.

Simultaneously, there is cruelironyin thefactthat these remarks were made in the very house where legislation is devised and revised Mumtaz Qadri shot and killed Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer in 2011 for the latter`s efforts to have legislators review the blasphemy law.

True, after taking some time, the PTI did distance itself from Mr Khan`sopinion and said that it was the `view of an individual`. But this hardly goes far enough. As the party to which Mr Khan belongs, the PTI too has an ethical liability. It must question why its representative apparently deviated from the standard norm of following party policy, particularly at a forum as formal as the National Assembly. Further, the PTI must review its ranks and its own ideology to see what and how far regressive tendencies exist, and how they can be reversed.

On this last point, Pakistani society in general from the highest echelons to the lowest would also do well to introspect. While violent extremism is of course a major issue, it is also true that there are backwards looking and even extremist people amongst those who do not directly deal in brutality yet. This is the reality that must be altered to root extremism out of Pakistani society.