Zafar Altaf
SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Is the rotten apple theory applicable to social conditions in Pakistan? The deterioration in the social interaction between the state and the community is worsening by the day. In many ways, it is the culmination of what had transpired very early when the recruitment to the posts was limited by connectivity and cronyism. The police reforms during Musharraf regime did little to help as the diagnosis was incorrect and the policy instrument developed did not prescribe the malady that required reform. For many years I have been saying the relationship between the law enforcing agencies and the community has to be rebuilt on the basis of trust. That trust was lost long time ago and with the new media intents all matters that have a bearing on society are under stress.
Take the case of Model Town firing or the recent episode of the attack on special people on Davis Road Lahore. I was ashamed to be a citizen of Pakistan when I saw the TV clips. In other parts of the country these are special people and are preferred over the normal citizens. There is a duty of care for them. In UK, I went and met a special person and I was told by him that he was on his way with a delegation of other such people to meet the President of the USA and the cost was being borne by the government. He was employed as a manager in a bakery shop!!!
So what does our police require and what should be the criterion for the revenue department to behave decently towards its clients. I have also seen the TV showing of the TV team that had exposed a lot of corruption and may be we are entering a new phase that the politicians have given us. The justification of corrupt practices and the physical tactics that can be used by the government of the day are now very much obvious. The present government[s] in the country, barring KPK has used these tactics against any one that they consider as their enemy. Does dissent have a right to be available to the citizens of Pakistan? I do not think that is the case. The right to live has been taken away by the government that has built its foundations on sand. This cannot last. A lesson we learnt in cricket, ‘you are to be upright to survive in the game’.
So what can the police be trained for? Will these Gwalmandi Bawas deliver decency to the people of Pakistan? I will challenge any one to go to a police station and seek justice from them. They will distort everything. The system has more or less collapsed under its own feet. When intangibles are brought in to play then salaries do not matter. Come with me to all the nakas (police check-posts) and you will see vultures managing the barriers. There are a number of m/cycles and cars standing next to the barriers and these belong to the FC that are on duty there.
The police have two training centres but these are closed shops. Only undergraduate police personal are allowed to teach there. An occasional teacher in law is also to be found. One of these outsiders was so hounded that he came to ask me to speak with some one. Where are we headed? Well if we do not reinvent ourselves and stay with the old and habitual habits, we will have another East Pakistan. The outmoded thought process will take us to the graveyard. Neo-liberalism is not an economic concept as it is much more and the core concept can be applied to every walk of life. All that this concept says is that when policies are not working then an alternate should be tried. We have seen social unrest among the young doctors and they are right in protesting against the tyranny of the health department and the senior doctors. The nurses were set upon and the governments make promises to get over the matter for the time being and it re-emerges soon after. When will the trust and other intangibles be worked out?
How should the police be trained? The personality disorders are not easy to solve. What can be done in the short term is to take the TV footage seriously and provide quick relief to the downtrodden. In the long term social scientists be taken to teach those under training in social subjects. Recently I saw two PhD thesis – one on cognitive research by an Associate Professor of Psychology and the other on returns on raining. The tragedy is that I have known only two senior officers who were also academicians. Both were sidelined for their honesty and their convictions. The servers of society have become the tyrants of the system.
The long term is very long term. I have seen the impact of policing in East Pakistan and I can assure you that the police served the people there. I understand that the KPK police chief has done a wonderful job. Instead of appreciating the work there, the small minds have been critical and distorted the truth. Similarly the revenue department is doing its job without any hand greasing, The Punjab where the culture is required as an example – matters are terrible there. The revenue department is a disaster and the adding up the number of cases in the civil courts is because of their actions.
The training institutes have to be invigorated by the kind of knowledge that has to go forth. What should be the curriculum and what kind of in service or pre-service training is required has to be determined; for that, a number of eminent persons are required. We have demolished everyone in the country and we have all Lilliputians around us. The TV goes on unrelenting on every public person and the generics that are used are unmentionable. There is no law of torts and every sitting government is against it but they wake up when they are in the opposition.
I would like to see change in Pakistan but that is an uphill task and to be judged by the intentions of the government in power. There is a complete let down of trust and mental development amongst policy makers. Will we show our intentions or are we inclined towards making the worst of this society. Shall we wound ourselves a lot more before we undertake the changes that are needed in our society? Remember that WW-II made all the changes that we see now in the western world. Go to the Japanese American Author Fukoyama and notice how trust can be built. All new regimes are going to be tyrannical as time goes on.
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