The Apology We Need

By Amir Zia
October 6, 2014
The News

To make his mark, Bilawal has to get rid of the wall not just around Bilawal House but also the walls of corruption and greed around himself and his party. 

On September 28 the PPP’s young chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, in an open letter to his estranged party supporters, apologised for all past mistakes and promised corrective measures to regain their confidence. 
Although Bilawal avoided listing those mistakes which forced him to issue this personal apology, it is indeed a bold and courageous statement by the scion of the Bhutto-Zardari family, who celebrated his 26th birthday only last month. This is perhaps too tender an age to jump into the hurly-burly of politics and take responsibility for all those mega-mistakes that are certainly not of his doing. But then Bilawal appears as the last bet for the PPP to revive its waning political fortunes – thanks to its last stint in power at the centre and continuing poor governance, mismanagement, misrule and allegations of corruption in Sindh where it has been holding power since 2008.
Unlike his mother, Benazir Bhutto, who also joined Pakistan’s political fray and was in and out of prisons when she was also in her mid-to-late 20s, Bilawal has a far steeper challenge ahead of him. At least Benazir Bhutto did not carry any political baggage that tied her party to corruption, greed and financial scandals when she took its charge, though she confronted a far ruthless rival in the form of General Ziaul Haq and his civilian allies.
Today, the PPP’s biggest nemesis is not some General Ziaul Haq, but its own actions and poor performance record, which have eroded its popularity. The last general elections reduced the PPP mainly to rural Sindh. The party was not even a close number two in the other three provinces in the electoral race, losing its place to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and other parties.
The public perception about the PPP under the stewardship of Asif Ali Zardari overwhelmingly remains negative. During the previous five-year rule, he only managed to consolidate his reputation as a wily politician, but was unable to shrug-off the stigma or his love of dubious deals, financial scandals and nepotism which even now are reflected in the way the Sindh provincial government is being run.
Bilawal would have done himself and his party a favour if he had, in his apology, identified and listed at least some of those mistakes that disillusioned many of they party’s voters and supporters. The first step towards self-correction starts from honest self-criticism. His promise of ‘rectifying’ those mistakes may appear hallow because he evaded articulating them.
He can come up with another detailed self-critical note on his party’s failings and indicate a way forward and a departure from his father’s style of politics. His much-propagated October 18 rally in Karachi can be the day when according to his party stalwarts Bilawal takes charge.
But realistically speaking, such chances are dim. One can only hope against hope that young Bilawal will be able to come out of the shadow of his father and many political ‘uncles’ and ‘aunties’ with the sway of some magic wand. The PPP of today is too big an enterprise now that it has tied itself with all sorts of vested political and financial interests.
Nevertheless, Bilawal could still take some baby steps in the right direction by offering a sincere apology first to the people of Sindh, who have stood by his party through thick and thin and in return got the gift of Syed Qaim Ali Shah and his continuous rule.
If the PPP’s young chairman has his fingers on the pulse of Sindh politics, he should have known by now that it is one of the most inefficient and ineffective provincial governments – recognised more for its apathy towards the issues of the common man and poor governance than anything else.
The list of the PPP’s mistakes of omission and commission is certainly a long one, but here are some innocent pointers that can make at least a good beginning.
First of all, Bilawal should apologise to the people of Sindh for the overall bad governance and the alleged rampant corruption which have become a synonym for the PPP. Be it fighting crime, providing education, better healthcare or even distributing relief goods to the flood-hit or drought-stricken people, the PPP has been found wanting on all fronts.
The first step to rectify the governance problem in Sindh could be holding the local bodies elections which devolve power to the district and union level. Bilawal should apologise on behalf of his party for not holding local government elections and ensure that they take place sooner than later.
Among many other slips committed by his party, Bilawal should pick up the thread by tendering an apology to the people of Tharparkar – the most backward district of Sindh – where more than 100 children died due to acute malnutrition and disease during the recent drought as the provincial government even failed to distribute allocated relief on time. 
According a SPDI report, the number of people living below the poverty line stands at 47 percent in Tharparkar, the highest in Sindh. Many of the other districts of Sindh paint a similar grim picture with incidence of poverty at 42 percent in Badin, 41 percent in Tando Mohammed Khan, 40 percent in Thatta, and 39 percent in Nawabshah and 38 percent in Larkana. Most of these districts remain a solid vote bank of the PPP, but they all lag behind in all the key social indicators – from health to education. 
These major districts of Sindh are also far behind when it comes to infrastructure and basic provision of civic amenities – from clean drinking water to the sewerage systems.
Bilawal must ask the gurus of the Sindh government why even places like Larkana – the hometown of the Bhuttos – and Nawabshah, his father’s hometown, continue to remain backward dustbowls with potholed, bumpy roads compared to many of the cities and towns of similar size in Punjab and even Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Why, after more than six years of continuous rule in Sindh, has the PPP failed to lift any of these districts to the status of model towns with the seal of his party’s development work?
Bilawal should also apologise to the people of Sindh for more than 6,000 non-functional and ghost schools – one of the biggest source of corruption and money-making for the PPP’s education czars and their lackeys. They have ensured that every seventh school in the province remains non-functional. The PPP will face no opposition from any quarter – barring vested interests within its own ranks – if it wants to make these schools functional again.
The people of Lyari also deserve an apology from Bilawal. This is one locality in Karachi that has remained the stronghold of his party from day one. Bilawal should apologise to Lyariites for the folly of his party seniors, including Zulfikar Mirza, for unleashing gangs of criminals in this neighbourhood, if not for failing to bring development, education and employment here. 
Thanks to the ill-conceived ‘policy’ – if it can be called one – of patronising gangsters and awarding party tickets for the 2013 elections on their dictates, the PPP has seen its political base eroding even in this support base. Can we imagine the PPP under Benazir or Zulfikar Ali Bhutto taking such a wrong turn? Can Bilawal rectify this?
Although Karachi is not the city where the PPP looks for mass support, yet it can initiate a few symbolic steps to create a feel good factor and invest for the future. Here, Bilawal can ask the talented Sharjeel Memon to at least confront the water and billboard mafias that are thriving right under his nose.
The list of the PPP’s mistakes can go on and on – from shady appointments and transfers in the police to its tango with mega-property developers. Young Bilawal cannot confront them all on day one. But he has to make a beginning. To make his mark, Bilawal has to get rid of the wall not just around Bilawal House but also the walls of corruption and greed around himself and his party. 

Political Maturity Not Weakness

By Amir Zia
The News On Sunday
October 7, 2012

The PPP-MQM duo will have to remain persistent and ride through the patchy waters to make the nascent local government system work

The minor stakeholders in the Sindh Assembly and small nationalist groups are all out to whip-up emotions and raise a storm over the swift approval of the local government bill on October 1 by the treasury benches. Only 13 members in the 168-member house opposed the bill, which was passed with a thumping two-third majority by the ruling Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and its key ally the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) more than three weeks after it was promulgated as an Ordinance.

Some political pundits predict that the new local government system would increase ethnic and political polarisation in an already troubled province where political assassinations, mob violence and rampant crime remain the order of the day, especially in the provincial capital of Karachi.

Others say that the opposition by the small political parties and fringe nationalist groups within and outside the assembly hardly pose a serious challenge to Sindh’s ruling coalition, which still has the support of more than 140 members in the provincial assembly despite the defection of its minor allies including the Awami National Party, the Pakistan Muslim League (F) and the National Peoples’ Party.

But the new system, christened as the Sindh People’s Local Government (SPLG) Act, 2012, has certainly triggered a heated debate and resulted in partial strikes and minor protests in parts of Sindh that is seen to have a potential to snowball into an explosive issue amid allegations by the nationalist and opposition parties — that it is aimed to divide the province.

This criticism, however, appears more emotional and political than going into the nitty-gritty of the new system, identifying its flaws and suggesting improvements.

Under the SPLG, out of 23 districts in Sindh, five urban centres — Karachi, Hyderabad, Larkana, Sukkar and Mirpurkhas — have been declared for the first time as Metropolitan Corporations, headed by mayors and deputy mayors. Earlier, Karachi used to be the only Metropolitan Corporation in Sindh. This reflects the growing urbanisation in Sindh and a right step to manage the challenges of major and secondary cities.

Under the new system, the remaining 18 districts of Sindh will be led by chairmen and their deputies, having same functions and administrative and financial powers as that of their urban counterparts.

By-and-large, the structure of the new system is akin to that of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf era’s local government, though fairly diluted in terms of certain powers.

The SPLG ensured that commissioners and deputy commissioners continue to hold central positions in the administrative structure, which they lost under Musharraf. In health, education and excise and taxation departments, the SPLG allowed only partial devolution, while the provincial minister continues to call shots when it comes to the overall revenue collection.

What has been retained from the old system is its overall spirit of giving representation to the elected representative at the unions, taluka, town, district and metropolitan bodies’ level.

The MQM managed to prevail in ensuring that Karachi be treated as one district comprising 18 towns and 178 union councils. It will bring more than 2,300 elected representatives to serve their respective constituencies with equal powers and financial resources. These representatives will come from different ethnic backgrounds and party affiliations, depending on the demography and political leanings of their voters, who will be able to hold them accountable in much more effective manner.

Overall in Sindh, there will be more than 10,000 such representatives addressing the day-to-day civic issues and infrastructure challenges, which in no way should fall under the ambit of provincial and national assembly legislatures, who have a different constitutional role to perform and practically remain beyond the reach of majority of the people.

The MQM wanted the PPP to revert back to the Musharraf-era system in totality. This demand was unacceptable to the PPP, which saw it infringing upon many powers of the provincial government.

The long stalemate over the issue remained the main bone of contention between these two major parties of Sindh straining their ties during the last two-and-a-half years. Neither side budged from its stated positions during the countless rounds of talks, but the alliance was saved from an imminent collapse following direct intervention from President Asif Ali Zardari and MQM leader Altaf Hussain. As a result, both sides conceded ground and introduced a local government system that has been prepared by the political parties under a democratic order. In the past, it was mostly the military rulers who pushed the local bodies system to fill in the vacuum of elected representatives at the provincial and federal level.

The give-and-take by the two biggest political parties of Sindh on local bodies system and developing a consensus should be seen as a healthy sign for the country’s frail democratic system.

The very fact that the PPP could have any bill passed by a simple majority with its 90 plus lawmakers in Sindh Assembly, but it chose to keep minority partner on board despite pressure from hardliners, underlines political maturity and not a weakness.

Similarly, the MQM leadership too faced demands from within the party to pull out of its uneasy relationship with the PPP, but its central leaders particularly Altaf Hussain managed to keep the partnership going.

This bodes well for the multi-ethnic province as an outright PPP-MQM clash would have aggravated the law and order problem, particularly in Karachi where the coalition government keeps a dismal track record in curbing crime and political-cum-criminal mafias, which have penetrated their own rank-and-file.

While these two major stakeholders of Sindh need to improve performance manifold when it comes to maintaining peace and rule of law in their domain, the very fact that they continued to share power is no small feat, given their apparent conflicting political and financial stakes in the province.

On principle, few can argue that huge urban centres like Karachi could be run without an effective local government system. No big city in the world has the concept of being administrated in the absence of a powerful mayor and local government system. The same remains true for other major urban centres of Sindh where effective local government system would help address the basic civic, development and infrastructure issues in a more efficient manner.

Even small towns and villages need local representatives who have a hands-on approach on these issues. This is how the system works in most democracies of the world. But here in Pakistan, it is unfortunate that for short-term tactical political advantages, local government system is being opposed by creating an issue out of non-issue and fanning conspiracy theories that the move is aimed at dividing the province.

The majority parties have every right to legislate, which is the true spirit of democracy. They can ignore or bring on board the smaller parties on any issue. It is their sweet will, but majority parties cannot be dictated by them.

In the rough, tough and mean world of Pakistani politics, games are seldom played by the books. Therefore, the PPP-MQM duo will have to remain persistent and ride through the patchy waters — at least in the short-run — to make their nascent local government system work.