Editorial: DAWN - 26 June 2013

 

The longer shadow: Musharraf`s trial

SOMEHOW, when it comes to the army`s political transgressions and holding its leadership accountable for its sins against the nation, the arguments against doing so are quickly and furiously proffered.

Somehow, it is never the right time, there is always something more important to be attended to first or there is encouragement to let bygones be bygones. But beyond the self-serving claims, there is a very real need for a reckoning with the past. Now, the country may finally be inching towards the ultimate reckoning: putting a military dictator on trial for his crimes against the Constitution and the people of Pakistan. Unsurprisingly, there are more questions than answers at the moment. How much pressure will the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry put on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif`s government to see the judges` tormentor former army chief Pervez Musharraf put on trial? How will the present army leadership respond to the trial of a former army chief with the selection of the next army chief on the horizon? Beyond his self-proclaimed desire to move on and strengthen democracy, does Mr Sharif still harbour a grudge that will be hard to suppress now that the opportunity to have Mr Musharraf punished has presented itself? If there is one thing that is clear, however, it is the time frame that should be under consideration when revisiting the Musharraf era: the November 2007 emergency was not the original sin; in fact, it was only possible because of what is actually the original sin October 1999.

And in that original episode were involved a whole range of actors, both in its planning and execution and its judicial validation soon thereafter. For then-Gen Musharraf to have been able to circumvent the Constitution and install himself as Pakistan`s ruler, the cooperation of many other individuals was required a fact that is key to both understanding the basis of military rule and shutting down the route to future extraconstitutional adventures.

By going beyond just MrMusharraf and also seeking to hold other key players to account, the process will necessarily transcend the sense of vendetta or revenge and shift the focus to democracy strengthening.

That necessarily raises the question of why there has been no clarity about whether the events of 1999 are in fact part of the proceedings that Prime Minister Sharif has now said his government will support. In some quarters, the argument has been made that the events of 1999 were given parliamentary cover by the parliament elected in 2002 and so that is a closed chapter, even if the last parliament retrospectively undid that approval. But then the 2007 emergency has perhaps the most authoritative judgement of the Supreme Court itself that laid bare all the relevant episodes of that fact, and a trial of Mr Musharraf is unlikely to yield anything ground-breaking in terms of facts or evidence. Then again, if it`s simply a case of bringing to justice the individual held responsible for November 2007, there is another Supreme Court judgement regarding the 1990 election which also requests the government to proceed against those the court has found involved in stealing an election and that happens to include the present prime minister, Mr Sharif. It appears, then, that everyone is proceeding with caution, fearful of the skeletons in their own closets and worried what a trial of a dictator with nothing to lose may unleash.

Still, complexity and uncertain outcomes and reactions ought not to be reason enough to ultimately baulk at holding individuals accountable for their crimes against the Constitution and, by extension, against the people of Pakistan. In truth, the most difficult tasks are also the most important, but buried within that reason is also the explanation for why they must be attempted. In five years since Mr Musharraf`s exit, the transition to democracy has passed major and historic milestones.

There is no reason to flinch from examining the past anymore.

Bright and dark spots: Energy policy

SO far so good. It seems the government is working along the right lines where the new energy policy is concerned. The thinking going into the policy is to work on a large-scale transformation of the power sector. This is good because a large-scale and comprehensive intervention is exactly what is required to pull the country out of the quagmire of growing power shortages.

Small-scale tinkering here and there rental power plants or impotent new boards of governors for a few entities is what is not needed. The new policy being worked on by the PML-N government appears to be comprehensive, taking reforms in generation, transmission and distribution, as well as fuel supply and operational efficiency to a whole new level.

Perhaps this explains the delay in the formal announcement of the policy, which has been expected since days after the swearing in of the new cabinet. While it is now being reported that the policy will be announced in a couple of weeks, the delays are entirely understandable. Unlike the budget, which betrayed signs of being put together in haste, it is expected that the energy policy, with its extensive scope, will see detailed consultation and thorough homework before moving towards the implementation stage.

So deliberating and poringover the details is time well spent, and the indications on the size and scope of the policy show that the government is serious about taking on this crisis by the horns.

But with large scales, come big questions. Missing from the details so far known is clarity on how pricing reforms will be advanced. We know that some slabs are being reworked with an eye to protecting lifeline and lower-middle-class consumers from the inevitable price increases that are coming. We also know that the new policy will aim to recover the full cost of generation from billing recoveries and do away with any need for subsidies on government account and its attendant problems of circular debt. But what we have yet to see is work to create a market-driven pricing mechanism.

There`s also no sign of augmented powers for the regulator to prevent market failures. And it is unclear where the massive investment required to bring about the operational efficiencies and improved fuel supply chain will come from. Private-sector efficiencies will not come in the absence of privatesector pricing. Admittedly, a comprehensive plan to reform the power sector will be a tale that will grow with the telling, but the government would do well to cast some light on the important dark spots in its thinking thus far.