Editorial: DAWN - 29 June 2013

More steps needed: Tackling circular debt

DAYS before the curtain is due to drop on one of the most profligate fiscal years of our history, the newly inducted government is ready to utilise a jaw-dropping Rs326bn to retire a large chunk of the circular debt. The amount will add another percentage and a half to the country’s fiscal deficit, expressed as a proportion of GDP. Once completed, this will be the largest single retirement of the circular debt ever attempted, with at least two other examples from the past of similar efforts to douse the problem in a single move. In both cases, the circular debt resurfaced within six months.

Debate has continued over the structural reasons behind why the debt is proving so stubbornly resilient to eradicate. One view says the tariff itself is flawed, where the cost of generation averages out to Rs14 per unit (due mainly to our reliance on pricey oil imports) but the cost at which the unit is sold averages to Rs9. Another view puts emphasis on efficiencies, pointing out that transmission and distribution losses are the root cause. In the past proposals have been considered to pass the cost of the circular debt — such as the penal interest rates the power producers charge to the government for late payments — onto consumers as a special ‘surcharge’ on their power bills. Other proposals have sought a raise in the tariff, even though an almost 75pc hike in power tariffs since 2008 did little to eliminate the debt, since the cost of generation keeps climbing with every tariff increase.

This is the first time we are hearing of large-scale structural changes to be brought about in the aftermath of a massive payout by the government. Given the amount being disbursed, it is only fair for the government to seek a relaxation in the terms of the power producers. But it’s difficult to escape the impression that more needs to be done by the private sector in return. Capacity charges should be scrutinised again and technical audits conducted to ensure the power producers are properly stating their efficiencies. New legislation should be drafted immediately for a revamped and strengthened regulator empowered to play the role of referee and not act like a timid tariff-setting body. The first steps are encouraging, but if they are not followed up by equally strong measures to provide oversight to the power sector — public and private — it is reasonably feared that like before, the circular debt will resurface all over again.

Travesty of justice: Illegal detention centres

DESPITE the lapse of an inordinate amount of time, the back and forth between the security apparatus and the court system over illegal detention centres in the northwest refuses to reach a resolution. In its latest iteration, on Thursday, the Peshawar High Court refused to accept the defence ministry’s claim that 177 missing persons were not in the custody of the security agencies and said that it had credible information that the agencies had been maintaining such detention centres in areas including the Mohmand, Orakzai and Kurram agencies. The deputy attorney general argued that relatives of missing persons filed cases before the courts but in actuality these men were fighting against the security forces; while acknowledging this possibility, the bench nevertheless expressed its resolve to see an end to the controversy.

There are two broad dimensions to this issue. First, it is true that the security apparatus has a tough task on its hands to successfully prove the guilt of people detained in militancy-hit areas, given challenges that include the lack of independent witnesses and evidence and the militants’ fear-inducing tactics. Nevertheless, due process must be followed. If the law-enforcement apparatus is also guilty of resorting to illegal means, just as the militants do, this will undermine its legitimacy and the goodwill offered to it in its capacity of representing the state. Second, leading on from this is the fact that illegal means to combat militancy and extremism can have the counterproductive effect of increasing radicalisation. As an example, take the town of Ghalanai in Mohmand Agency, where security and Levies personnel conducted search operations against militants last September: the townspeople complained that they felt harassed, saying that they were loyal to Pakistan. Innocent until proven guilty is a basic tenet of the law. As the courts have emphasised time and again, resorting to illegal means to combat militancy and extremism will only exacerbate the problems. It is time the security apparatus internalised this.

The power of language: Gender stereotyping in Assembly

EARLIER this week in the Sindh Assembly, amidst the heated debate engaged in by both male and female legislators on the budget and law and order issues, gender stereotyping remained alive and well. Even though, in a society tone-deaf to sexist language, it raised barely an eyebrow. The incident in question took place when MPA Sharmila Farooqui, vehemently objecting to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s “ultimatum” to the provincial government to bring law and order under control within a month, said, “Hum nein choorian nahin pehen rakhin” — an expression in Urdu that equates femininity with ‘weakness’ — implying that the PPP, the ruling party in Sindh, was not so feeble, ie ‘feminine’, as to be unable to counter such directives.

While gender-biased language is scarcely exclusive to this part of the world, when it occurs in an unabashedly patriarchal culture such as ours, it perpetuates the lower status of women within it and justifies men’s dominion over them in many aspects of life. That in turn forms the basis for much violation of women’s rights — the right to education, to work, to reproductive health, to choose a life partner, among others. One could make the case that in such societies the responsibility to consider the impact of one’s words is greater than usual. The fact that gender-biased expressions unthinkingly slip off the tongue even in the case of an educated woman such as Ms Farooqui illustrates the extent to which such language, along with its subliminal messages, has been internalised by society and become part of everyday lexicon. As the peoples’ representatives, legislators — particularly female ones — must serve as role models and actively eschew language that serves to denigrate women while reinforcing the culture of machismo that prevails in Pakistan.