Lacking the capacity to learn
The most important outcome of the Local Government polls in Punjab is that they have exposed Imran Khan’s highly exaggerated claims and cut down the PTI to size. The elections are, however, no guarantee of better prospects for the PML-N in 2018 elections.
Imran Khan will have to stop wasting his energies on toppling the government through street power if a modicum of rationality is left in him. He will have to rein in his temperament and stop fighting with whosoever happens to disagree with him. It will stand him in good stead if he gave more time to party affairs and to resolutions of disputes within the PTI. He also badly needs to discipline his youthful followers who should be educated how to argue the PTI’s case instead of branding every critic as a paid agent of the PML-N.
With Imran Khan withdrawing from street politics, the PML-N government would have no excuse for its bad performance. It would have to blame itself if people vent their anger against the government’s failures to end power and gas shortages or against the negative impact of its economic policies.
It is highly doubtful whether the PML-N would improve its working even if the PTI was to withdraw to the background. Among its other shortcomings, the party is exceptionally slow on the uptake. Nawaz Sharif has limited imagination, a short attention span and absolutely no vision. What is more he is hostage to vested interests, particularly the traders and big business.
Shehbaz Sharif is even worse. He continues to mismanage the province. The chief minister acts more like a chief secretary than a chief executive. His penchant for micromanaging things keeps him engrossed in counting the trees while losing sight of the forest.
Some of the recent events highlight the PML-N administration’s incompetence and its unending subservience to the vested interests in Punjab.
With Imran Khan withdrawing from street politics, the PML-N government would have no excuse for its bad performance
In 2012, fire engulfed a shoe factory in Lahore burning alive 25 workers. The cause: there were no fire exits in the factory in violation of the bye-laws. The factories are regularly visited by over a dozen government departments to ensure that these maintain the prescribed standards. Majority of the small and medium sized industries fail to abide by the rules. It is a common practice on the part of the factory management to bribe the inspectors who then go back to report that regulations are being strictly followed. Being a hardboiled businessman Shehbaz Sharif is well aware of this. He does nothing to end the widespread corruption simply because he is not willing to annoy the business community, which support the PML-N.
Another fire in 2013, this time in the LDA building, forced eight people who feared they would be burnt alive to plunge down the third floor to death. This time again the PML-N government did nothing to strengthen the bodies entrusted with implementing the building laws.
The continuous negligence has now led to the collapse of a four-storeyed factory in Lahore’s Sundar Industrial Estate, killing at least forty workers including child labourers. The chief minister has doled out Rs500,000 each to the families of those who died considering it enough compensation for the death of the bread earner of an entire family. There was no word however about policy measures to strictly enforce the building laws and put an end to the endemic corruption in government departments. Soon an incident of the sort might happen in some other industrial estate.
The failure to do what was badly needed in the wake of three highly tragic incidents shows that the PML-N singularly lacks the capacity to learn.
The Sharifs have ruled Punjab for over seventeen years now. During the period they have displayed a total lack of aptitude for institution building. Even after such a long time things continue to be done on an ad hoc basis. All government departments dealing with the public are inefficient and corrupt. The common man has to undergo mental torture while dealing with them. He is denied his rights, insulted and made to pay bribes.
Nawaz Sharif deceives himself when he says the results of the LG elections constitute an endorsement of his policies. The outcome of the Local Government elections is no barometer of the ruling party’s popularity. Had the voters elected the parties on the basis of their performance, the PPP would have been routed in Sindh. The PML-N too would not have fared better. Had the voters been given the option to vote NOTA, those exercising the right would have constituted majority.
The voters this time were electing members for the local bodies meant to undertake local development. They knew that the funds for the activity were to be provided by the government in power. They understood hat candidates belonging to the opposition parties were less likely to have access to funds and would little have influence on bureaucracy to get their local problems resolved. They wanted to ensure that development work in their localities was not blocked for the constituency being seen as hostile to the government.
As Chief Justice Jamali told the Senate last week there is little point in having fine laws when the organisations responsible for their implementation remain dysfunctional
That the independent candidates won the second highest number of seats indicates the importance of factors that include clan identities and personal qualities of a candidate. Individuals not associated with any party but considered good social workers or helpful and caring persons also tend to gain influence in small constituencies. What is more it is widely understood that as opposed to members of the opposition parties the independents are likely to be treated with more friendliness by the administration in the hope that they might join the government side in the general elections.
As Chief Justice Jamali told the Senate last week there is little point in having fine laws when the organisations responsible for their implementation remain dysfunctional. The country faces a crisis of implementation, he said.
The CJ made another significant remark to explain what happens when governments fail to perform their duty. “While we recognise that implementation is primarily an executive function, it becomes a matter of judicial consideration when rights are denied or violated, at which point the judiciary is compelled to order administrative reforms.”
It is not judiciary alone which intervenes in situations of the type. Bad governance provides an excuse to military men with Bonapartist tendencies to overthrow the government and usher in the dark era of military rule.
The overthrow of a government unresponsive to people’s problems has in the past evoked no significant reaction from the people. There are going to be no unmanageable protests if the PML-N government is sent home on account of its bad performance.
Would self interest make the PML-N act better during the second half of its tenure?
