HERE IS MY ESSAY THAT MADE ME TO WIN CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE From WORLD TIMES. ARE FOUR PILLARS OF STATE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT AILS PAKISTAN TODAY? OUTLINES: INTRODUCTION ASSIGNED ROLE AND PARLIAMENTRY INEFFICIENCY EXECUTIVE’S ASSIGNED ROLE AND ITS FAILURE TO POLICY IMPLEMENTATION JUDICIARY AND ITS DEFECTIVE ROLE MEDIA AND ITS SENSATIONALISATION CONCLUSION Pakistan currently has been confronted with multiple problems of various nature and severity which has rendered the country a crises-ridden one. Good governance is a dream yet to come true. Economy seems to be at the brink of collapse. Worst security situations have gripped the country from all corners. The monsters of terrorism and sectarianism have been deepening their roots with every passing day. Energy crises are leading the country toward darkness of doom and despair. Evil of corruption has engulfed all the institutions, departments and organizations. Most of the Public Services Enterprises like PIA, Steel Mills, and Pakistan Railways are running at loss without targets being achieved. Country’s faulty education system failed to deliver and pull us out from the crises being faced. Poverty has broken the bakes of masses. Skyrocketing-inflation has made the lives of people miserable. Health sector has been taking its last breath. Unemployment has drained youth’s talent, energy & skills. Human trafficking and smuggling are on rise. More worryingly, the strained foreign relations with its immediate neighbors have been hampering the country to head forward and progress as per international standard. In short, there is no any problem in the world that can not be found in our country. What has led the country in such a sorry state of affairs is the flawed law and policy making, failure to implement the laws in their true spirit, absence of culture of transparency and accountability and the gloomy interpretations of the policies formulated for the good of country. So it would not be an exaggeration to say that all the four institutions i.e. Parliament, Executive, Judiciary and Media have their shares individually or collectively to drive the country in this abysmal state. All these institutions with their flawed and faulty functioning have wrecked havoc with the country directly or otherwise. So the good of the country lies in nothing else but in heading all four estates of the state in right direction. As far as the role of Parliament is concerned, it’s a law making body of the state. It is meant to find and formulate policies for the good and welfare of country by keeping all the aspect of modernity and dynamism abound. Besides, it has to revise and revamp all the existing laws if they fail to deliver. But it’s unfortunate to say that the Parliament has failed in effective and efficient policy making to cater the growing and dynamic demands of 21st century. More importantly, counterterrorism and economic policy making has put question marks over the efficiency of so called law making body. All the laws and policies formulated by parliament to curb the menace of terrorism and extremism seem to fail to a large extent to its objectives. So the absence of pragmatic and effective counter-terrorism policy has provided a fertile ground to this threat to breed and deepened its clutches. Consequently, it has resulted about 40,000 human causalities among these are 35,000 civilian and 5000 LEA personals. Besides, a large chunk of country’s economy has been lost. Owning to terrorism and extremism ridden-security situations of the country almost all local as well as foreign investors has fled and shifted there industries and other financial activities abroad. Rampant corruption is also one of the major issues of the country. So called law making body seems either inefficient enough to design effective policies or its policies already designed to alleviate the monster of corruption failed to bear result. Subsequently Pakistan had been ranked as 34th most corrupt country by the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception index (CPI). Moreover findings of a local report indicate 11 billon corruptions daily. This high level of corruption is enough to derive the country at the verge of economic collapse. As far as the roll of executive is concerned its role seems blurred and dismal. Executive is chiefly a law implementing body. It is meant to ensure the implementation of policies in their true soul and spirit. It has a more vital role as policies are meant nothing unless truly implemented. But ironically, executive seems to be failed in its assigned task of law implementation. As a result the country has been badly sieged by multiple problems of hostile nature and severity. The case of Balochistan is worth to mention here in this regard. The preceding PPP-led government had taken certain initiatives to end the feelings of alienation and frustration of the people of Balochistan. In this connection the federal government announced Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan and some other packages. But owning to the executive’s inefficiency the package is yet to be implemented. It is merely in paper as yet resultantly delivering nothing to the hapless Balochs. This has further compounded the sense of deprivation and frustration and the Baloch separatist elements are more committed and energetic than ever before to accomplish their aim of seperationism. The surging and growing threat of sectarianism and minority persecution are also the result of executive’s failure to handle this threat. As yet no any anti-sectarian law has been implemented in true sense resulting its never-ceasing and prevailing threat. A recent report of US Commission on International Religious Freedom (CIRF) presents a grim picture of sectarianism in our country. It reads that more than 700 people have been killed in sectarian attacks in Pakistan during the past 18 months. Among these death causalities are included 635 that of Shia community, 22 Ahmadis, 11 Christians, 2 Hindus and 46 death that of other groups. The third estate of the state, perhaps more important one, the Judiciary has a vital role of policy interpretation and accountability. It is meant to examine the laws and ensure their proper implementation by the concerned institutions. Furthermore, to make people accountable if they detract from country’s policies and laws is also within the confines of judiciary. But unfortunately country’s judiciary has failed to greater extent to sooth miserable masses due to its no or delayed justice. A recent report shows that more than 7000 cases are in pending in Superior court and its tribunals. Owning to such apathetic nature of Judiciary and its faulty criminal justice system the victims mostly resort to self justice or prefer Tribal Jirga system to get their issues resolved. A large chunk of population has no trust on courts. So a large number of cases like that of women harassment and acid throwing and many other such cases go unreported. Additionally crime rate in country seems to be on surge as most of criminal are carrying out crimes without any fear of punishment. Beside this, it has failed to resolve country’s large scams like NICL scandal (Moonis Elahi), Hajj scandal (Mr. Kazmi), Ogra scam (Tauqir Sadiq), and Riaz Malik vs. Arsalan cases. These cases of much importance and nature found no space in the gallows of justice resulting a great a set back to country’s image both nationally and internationally. It also provides the critics a room to point their fingers out on the role and efficiency of an important piller of Pakistan. Media, the so called fourth estate of the state is unable as yet to project a soft image of country both internally and in the international fronts. It is actually meant more or less to highlight the issues that are hampering national development in one way or the other. Moreover media is to provide a favorable platform to the masses for opinion formation. Through its news commentaries and critically analysis of government’s various policies by anchor persons and other intellectuals media has to assist the government by pointing out its drawbacks and suggesting viable solutions on sustainable basis. But sadly, the country’s media is not playing its due role to help out the country from such multiple and the multifaceted problematic situation. Owning to its almost self-censored and self-monitoring nature our media is losing the public as well as government’s trust and confident on the grounds of its unnecessary sensationalism & media hype. Furthermore unlike the media of other developed and developing countries our media industry is on its way of money making and cares a very little about the well being of nation and people. In its race of ‘breaking news mania’ which most of our media system resorts, it forgets national image. Media ethics is quite foreign for our media. They care no or very little to keep out people’s privacy or trust. Media’s sense of immaturity can clearly be depicted from recent Islamabad saga, in which media cared a little for the security and the image of country. So in short it would not be wrong to say that our media is yet in nascent state not because of short period to grow but because of hegemonic and myopic attitude of media owners. No doubt the role of all the pillars of the state is commendable to the extent that these have been collectively playing a positive role to promote democratic values, which otherwise were being dubbed by two-decades long dictatorship. Military’s back to barracks, judicial activism, sense of maturity among politicians, a sensitive media and more importantly an active and collective voice of civil society are the products of the collective endeavors by the country’s estates. But this confined role of the pillars of the state is not sufficient to pull country out of the multiple problems and crisis that have paralyzed country’s whole system. In brief, an efficient & effective intuitional working & a strong cooperation among the state’s institutions are the vital factors for the progress & prosperity of a nation. So in case of our country, sound & vibrant pillars are indispensable to pull the country out of multiple & multifaceted issues that have hijacked Pakistan. ALI HASSAN BALOCH, KANDH KOT
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 18:29:41 +0000
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