Daily Times editorial Oct 28, 2013

Saving Pakistan Soon after returning from Washington, Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif has written a letter to all the political parties setting out the rationale for the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance 2013 and asking for their support in getting it passed by parliament. Making reference to the “spirit and determination” displayed by all the political parties during the All Parties Conference (APC), the PM appealed to them to read the Ordinance carefully and support its passage. The PM’s letter argues that decades of dictatorship and misgovernance by successive governments are the factors responsible for the complete erosion of the writ and authority of the state. Apart from remote areas, the PM points to the safe havens for terrorists in urban areas that have emerged over the years and are a matter of serious concern. At the same time, he has taken the Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to task for their failure to maintain internal security and effectively prosecute criminals. Ineffective legislation has fed into this conundrum, while constant tampering with different laws over an extended period of time has led to a legal vacuum. This has produced a situation where the lives and properties of the people are in grave danger. On the other hand organized mafias are running free. As a result of all these negative developments, the socioeconomic fabric and age-old value system that bind society are in danger of disintegration. The Ordinance, the PM asserts, sends a strong message to organized crime and anti-state elements regarding the will and determination of the state and people to face and eliminate all challenges to the country’s sovereignty and integrity. The PM goes on to remind the political parties that they have been elected by the people to rid the country of the menace of terrorism that has inflicted such enormous losses since the adoption of the post-9/11 policies. He also reminded them of the potential unfolding events in post-2014 Afghanistan. Last but not least, the PM argued that expert opinion had been consulted to ensure the Ordinance was within the parameters of the constitution. Whatever the merits of the PM’s iteration of the scenario bedevilling the country, its reasons and the solution his government thinks offers the best shot for overcoming the present afflictions, and there is weight in his analysis, it is obvious that the PM is reaching out to the parties to ensure the passage of the Ordinance in parliament since the ruling PML-N does not enjoy a majority in the Senate. Without the support of the parties in the upper house, and particularly the opposition, therefore, no legislation can pass. That may be the obvious procedural compulsion for the PML-N to take all the parties with it on legislation that seeks in extraordinary times to put in place powers for the LEAs and judiciary to deal in extraordinary fashion if need be with the existential threat to the country posed by terrorism and the deleterious effects of the breakdown of law and order at the hands of criminal mafias determined to take advantage of the disturbed conditions. The PPP has rejected the Ordinance on the touchstone of fundamental and human rights and it also faces a legal challenge in the Islamabad High Court. This underlines the need for cooperation from all the parties or at least enough of them to allow passage of the Ordinance. As to the PM’s argument that the Ordinance remains within the four corners of the constitution, there is little doubt that the supreme law of the land does envisage extraordinary measures to meet unusual emergencies and contingencies. The moment the civil armed forces are called in by the government, as the Ordinance envisages, and empowered to deal with terrorism on a ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ basis, not to mention searching premises on the basis of suspicion even without a search warrant and disallowing bail to suspects under interrogation, fundamental rights stand suspended. This can be tolerated in situations that threaten the very existence of the state, as arguably the present scenario does, and the hope is that this dispensation will not be misused or extended beyond the exigencies defined above. The PM has also attempted to meet the criticism by Leader of the Opposition, the PPP’s Khursheed Shah, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government regarding the seeming lack of progress on the talks with the Taliban by tasking Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar with keeping all parties in the loop on this issue, in line with the mandate the government received from the APC. Both the letter on the Ordinance and the directive to Chaudhry Nisar reflect the PM’s correct approach of taking the political forces along in tackling the grave crisis facing the country.