Editorial: The News - 30 June 2013

 

Bucks stopped

For years – and not just for the life of the last government – there has been what can only be described as a culture of impunity when it came to state institutions paying their dues. Thus virtually every state owned entity, from PIA to the Pakistan Steel Mills to the Pakistan Railways to provincial governments and large corporations and the power generation and distribution sector as well, were defaulters on taxes and utility bills. This was equally reflected down to the micro level where individual but powerful households failed to pay their dues, but expected the services to continue despite never being paid for. Over time the nation became massively indebted to itself. This, eventually becomes completely unsustainable and the PML-N government inherited the governance of the country at a point at which its self-indebtedness became an existential threat – and it cannot evade the consequences. The government is twisting to and fro in the transitional period, uncomfortable with the conditionalities that the IMF is going to impose for instance on any future loan, and is giving out conflicting political messages.
Confused it may be in some aspects, the new government is also making attempts to rebalance the books by calling in the defaulters. The Federal Board of Revenue has ‘attached’ – effectively frozen – the bank accounts of PIA, the Capital Development Authority and the Islamabad Electric Supply company for the non-payment of taxes. It has been forced to do this because of the shortfall on tax collection that was so troubling the IMF team currently in-country and in discussion with the government team regarding future loans – loans which are far from being a foregone conclusion. The FBR has so far collected about Rs1,890 billion against a target of Rs2,007 billion. Whether it can make up the shortfall in less than 24 hours has to be doubtful, but the intent is clearly there and the direct sequestration of funds must be a possibility being considered. This is going to cause considerable pain to those that are indebted, as is the future disconnection of gas and electricity supplies to those who had considered themselves immune to intervention and pressure, including some powerful politicians whose business interests are major defaulters. Services like electricity are not provided as a ‘human right’ and, like it or not, we have to pay for what we consume. Challenging such an embedded culture of impunity is a Herculean task and is not going to be achieved overnight. A herd of bucks have stopped at the front office of the PML-N. Managing that is going to bring almost unimaginable political pain, but as the old cliché goes – ‘no pain, no gain.’

The Bugtis’ plight

While talk in the country hovers around the myriad issues we face, there are some matters that have been all but forgotten – lost in the mists of time. One of these is the displacement of some 200,000 Bugti tribesmen from Balochistan’s Dera Bugti area during General Pervez Musharraf’s era when a military operation was conducted in the region. Those driven out have, in most cases, been unable to return since. The plight of these IDPs, about whom there has been a virtual silence, was driven strongly home in an emotive press conference delivered on Friday in Dera Bugti by Guhram Bugti, a grandson of the late Nawab Akbar Bugti who was killed in August 2006. Anger over his death fuels the Baloch insurgency to a considerable degree.
In his strident comments Guhram Baloch demanded that the 200,000 Bugti tribesmen be brought home. Highlighting the dismal condition of the make-shift settlements they live in, he also stated that thousands among them had died as a result of where they were forced to live for years. Bugti stated that these IDPs had been prevented from returning, most recently in April this year, and that their repatriation to their home areas would in itself help solve many problems. The exit of the Bugti tribesmen from their native areas is complicated by the fact that in the mid-2000s rival tribes had been propped up by authorities against them in the power struggle taking place at the time. The situation of these Baloch IDPs, who live in the most miserable conditions, has been reported before but they have unfortunately been left to their fate. On the basis of both humanitarianism and morality these tribes-people should not be kept away from home any longer. In his talk with the media, Bugti has also pointed out that before assuming power following the May 11 elections, PML-N leader Mian Nawaz Sharif had promised he would facilitate the return of the Bugti tribesmen. The prime minister now needs to live up to his promise, and show the Baloch that he intends to help them. The IDPs issue is just one of the problems of Balochistan that the prime minister will need to look at in detail. It is no small matter though and must be resolved as a part of the wider concerns of that territory. Attention has to be turned to the issue immediately to avert a worsening in the situation, and an increase in the intensity of the crisis and alienation that currently confronts Balochistan.

Asylum for Rimsha

After an interval of many months, we return to the story of teenager Rimsha Masih, accused of blasphemy in her village near Islamabad in 2012, but subsequently freed by a court that found that the charges brought against her by a local cleric were completely unfounded and apparently intended to frame the Christian girl who also has Down’s Syndrome. After being freed from the prison cell where she was being kept, Rimsha and her family had been forced to leave their village and had to be moved to an undisclosed location. Just the fact that they could not return home, even after being found innocent, indicates just how unsafe life is for people who are prosecuted under the country’s blasphemy laws which human rights organisations say continue to be blatantly misused.
There is now some good news for the family. Rimsha, her parents and siblings have all been granted asylum in Canada after applying for it on the grounds of religious persecution, and are reportedly already in that country. Their whereabouts had not been known about for months. Presumably, in Canada a better life may lie ahead for the family which has faced so much misery for no reason at all. Prejudice and intolerance alone explain what was inflicted on them. It is sad that we, as a nation, have so miserably failed to protect our citizens, notably those who belong to the minority communities. We need to think why so little was done to protect Rimsha and her family at home. We must consider what we need to do to stem the growing levels of apathy and callousness within our society. While Rimsha has finally been able to escape, there are other Christians who till a short while ago had been displaced from the same village due to fear following the blasphemy charge and forced to take up residence in miserable camps located around the area. These people continue to pay the price for belonging to a community and class that remain a target of oppression. Their plight too needs to be looked into and help provided, enabling them to reclaim shattered lives.