Making things right in KP, Fata Rehmat Shah Afridi The new IG Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Nasir Durrani comes with a well-earned stellar reputation as additional inspector general of Counter Terrorism Department of Punjab Police. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was reluctant to hand over the services of this very able and honest officer but in the end, KP government’s insistence prevailed over CM Punjab’s reluctance. But being able, honest and having the bright record of keeping the terrorists at bay in Punjab cannot help Nasir Durrani in repeating his performance unless he is also given the facilities which the province from which he has been transferred gave him. Nasir Durrani may be extremely bold and smart, zealous with the ability to bring law, order and peace in KP but he will have to post men of his choice on key posts in the police before he can make his mark on the situation. Nasir Durrani has proved in Punjab that he can do it; but much will depend on the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervaz Khattak. Will CM Khattak resist from interfering in posting and transfer of senior police officers as well as such key positions as SHO’s of police stations in the province? It is a big question. Many claim, and rightly so that political interference and disregard for professional excellence in the civil serves have brought this province to the brink of disaster. I say this because Khyber Pakhtun already has a very capable and honest chief secretary in Shehzada Arbab. He is a brilliant bureaucrat with proven abilities. The expectations were that he will correct the situation very soon. The hopes, however, have not been realized. The common perception is that his hands are tied and there are many impediments in his way. It would be unfortunate for this province if such a man of excellent administrative experience is brought in to fill such high posts and than is not allowed free hand to pick his own team without which this very able officer will not be effective. Right now the impression is that an SHO buys the police station before he is given its charge. Like it is said that the political and assistant political agents buy their posts by paying hundreds of millions of rupees before getting these coveted posts, so is it said in the case of SHOs. It, as such, is understandable that officials who buy their posts by paying such huge amounts, will encourage criminal activities in their jurisdiction and ruthlessly collect bribes to first recover the money they have paid for the posts and then carry on the corruption to earn ten times more. As matter of fact officials are forced into doing corruption. Such officers become the dons and central figures of the criminal underworld instead of working as law enforcement officials. What is worse, not just the criminal elements lose all fear of the law enforcement department but that these police officers use their authority and police force to assist the criminals in their illegal activities rather than keeping the law and order and fighting terrorists. But that is not all, it has been said that most senior posts in the police department are given to officers not on merit. Their qualifications, their experience and past performance is not taken into consideration; rather, they get these positions because of nepotism or by paying their way upward with gold. In such a system most bureaucrats both high and low become traders not the proud civil servants of governments. They buy their posts and then sell their authority to the highest bidder. The salaries they get from the government are little and of no consequence compared to their illegal incomes: the loyalties of these officers and officials naturally go to the sources which pay them the most. Like most senior journalists I can tell of many stories which were signs for me that our nation was degenerating. Most of the time the Frontier Post raised its voice and informed the nation of what was happening but those in charge of the country either took it lightly or were involved in the sleaze themselves. Things in Benazir Bhutto’s premiership were bad in the Haj department. She tried her best to improve things but couldn’t find the right man for the job. The son of the Minister of Hajj and Religious Minister Khan Bahadar Khan of that time used to sell visas for five thousand rupees. This was reported in the Frontier Post. Let me give an example: when I went to Umra, during that time, a Mulim knew of my access to the prime minister, met me. He said he will give me half a million Saudi riyals the next day, and a similar amount in a few months and as many riyals by the end of the year: that comes to of one and a half million riyals. ‘Why would you give me this much money when you are working hard as a Haj Mulim and doing a fine job of it,” I asked him. “Well, I know you can help me to get more than my quota of Hajjis,” he replied. That tell us how such a sacred journey as Hajj can become a source of illegal earnings for those without scruples The DG Hajj Mr Sheikh that year had earned twenty million rupees and that was a very huge amount in those days.. Under the circumstances, I requested Benazir Bhutto Shaheed to appoint Mr. Abdullah as DG Hajj. Mr. Abdullah was a truly honest, to the extent of piety, officer. He streamlined the Hajj system and there hardly was any hitch left which the intending Hajj pilgrims had to clear by paying money illegally. After sometime, I was travelling from Islamabad to Peshawar when I saw Mr. Abdullah standing on the roadside holding a cheap bag. I stopped the car and while exchanging pleasantries with him, I found that he was going to Peshawar too. I asked him to hop in as I was going there also. With the cheap bag in his lap, the top but honest Mr Abdullah was all praises for the Almighty and endlessly thankful to the Lord for his bounty to him. When I asked him why he left the job of DG Hajj, he said that the bosses could not stand the pressure exerted by the groups with vested interests who did not like a clean Hajj department. What a man, I thought to myself. A man who could have earned tens of millions (one could buy a big house in a posh are with half a million) was now carrying a cheap bag, for that what he could afford, thanking Allah for His bounty. It is men like Mr Abdullah and Nasir Durrani who can make and maintain clean the system running the country. Basically the character of the Individuals running the system is very more important, as the best system can be corrupted by corrupt persons. The character element was ( I feel extremely agitated by using the past tense) in what is now called Khyber Pakhtunkwa and the adjacent Federally administered Tribal Areas (Fata). Pakhtu to many maybe just a language, but it is more than that. Pukhto is a culture of independence, bravery, chivalry, righteousness, respect for the dignity of women and the weak, equality of individuals in society regardless of their status in life, and treating visitors as respectful guests even if they had come to see somebody else. For a Pakhtun his word was much more valuable than gold. This was the reason that many rich men of all provinces felt their millions of assets and the females of their families safe when they employed a Pakhtun chowkidar for few thousand rupees. The respect for women among Pakhtuns was so great that a man could have killed your ten blood male relatives but if his women came upon you in distress, you helped them and most of all protected their dignity and honour that is if you were a Pakhtun and not just a Pakhtu speaking person. That was also the reason that rape was the rarest of crimes among the Pakhtuns. Pakhtuns were averse to nothing more than taking advantage of helpless women. It was below their dignity. Anyone who speaks Pakhtu but does not have these qualities is not a Pakhtun but just a Pakhtu speaking person. Having and implementing these qualities in one’s life is called Pakhtunwali and if a Pakhtun says of somebody, “He has Pakhtu’, he means that that man enforces these qualities upon himself when dealing with others but when he says, ‘He is a Pakhtun,’ he may mean that the person is Pakhtu speaking. As such there is a difference in one having Pakhtu and one speaking Pukhtu. Most of the qualities I have cited above are fast vanishing from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas. Among other things it was the loss of this Pakhtunwali and the resulting love for money because of which the Pakhtun society degenerated. As the noble qualities vanished from Pakhtun society, all the evils broke loose upon it. The love of money at the cost of one’s honour, dignity has become the norm in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Rape has become a common crime. Shying away from armed conflict even for a righteous cause is not considered a shameful act, anymore. That is also one of the reasons that the militants found roots in the Pakhtun society in general and the tribal areas in particular. Some of the tribesmen started loving money so much that they exchanged it with safety and security of the area and gave safety havens to the militants. This moral degradation in Pakhtun society came from the top. Their top politicians without realising that acting as Pakhtuns helped them becoming good human beings and good Muslims, fell to the greed of money and sold their people. It is for his honesty and his refusal to fall victim to the greed of money that I praise Mr. Abdullah. This is also the reason that I welcome such an honest person like Nasir Durrani as IG Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. But I request the chief minister of the province to give him the men of his choice and equipment; also, give him authority to make plan and then tell the new IG, “After giving all this I want results.’ A lonely good man is not much good even if he is chief of his department. He will need good and reliable men around him to carry out his plans and orders. The responsibility of it now is with CM Khattak to provide the men, equipment and authority to the new IG before he asks for results. He should also not only refrain from himself exerting political pressure on the new IG but also restrain his ministers and others close to him from doing so. The chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should also try to put such men as Nasir Durrani on top positions everywhere in his government. He should try to collect the top talented men and women in his provincial government and if they have been thrown away into some unproductive posts, he should bring them to the top in his establishment. But that is about the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) will only be brought in the mainstream and freed from the hold of Taliban and other kinds of extremists if that area is made into a separate province. We should remember, that while the majority of the residents are of Afghan stock as almost all the tribes in Fata are, neither should both the areas nor their residents be rolled into one. A separate province be given to those who dwell in the tribal areas. Politically, it is the easiest thing to do as Fata has been a separate entity all along and never has been part of the settled area of Pakhtuns which is called Khyber Pakhunkhwa. Besides, making Fata into a province will also not disturb the boundaries of other provinces. Once the tribes have their own province, they will be on the marched to a life of organised democratic set up. They already are the most democratic minded people in Pakistan. With a province of their own they will be able to take care of the many moral, economic and social ailments which have imposed the many evils there.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 20:13:26 +0000
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