DAWN - Cowasjee Corner; 22 November, 1998

Governer's Rule

By Ardeshir Cowasjee

ON October 30, the corrupt, inefficient political government of Sindh, together with its chief minister, was suspended and governor's rule imposed on the province.

Almost immediately thereafter, the governor was shorn of his powers by two ill-conceived notifications issued by the federal government. The governor was expected to captain a team selected by the manipulators of Islamabad. His opening batsman, his googly bowlers, his wicket-keeper and the umpires would be appointed by and be answerable to, them, but he would be expected to win. Not on.

Thereafter, sense prevailed, the notifications were withdrawn over the weekend of November 14-15, and thus governor's rule effectively began the next day. The prime minister is responsible for the waste of over two weeks of remedial administration.

Anwar Zahid, the prime minister's adviser, does not share the people's view that it is his responsibility to advise the PM at all times. He advises only when advice is sought. However, in the present case it was he who wisely gave unsolicited advice and prevailed upon the PM to undo the wrong and withdraw the ridiculous notifications. Whereas it is known who set matters right, it is not known who are the tricksters of Islamabad. The governor is still burdened with the IGP Sindh and the DIG Karachi, both foisted upon him from above.

Back to the second half of 1990 when the then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan sacked the first Benazir Bhutto government, and installed in Sindh Jam Sadiq Ali to ensure that the PML, by which he had been assured a second term in office, would gain the upper hand in the province in the forthcoming elections. To assist him as the perfect hatchetman, Jam recruited as his secretary the then DC Larkana, Imtiaz Shaikh who remained with Jam until his death. Muzaffar Shah took over from Jam as chief minister, Sindh, and rewarded Imtiaz with a double promotion, jumping him from Grade 18 to 20. When the second PPP government came in, Imtiaz was suspended on various charges of corruption. Having amassed sufficient ill-gotten gains, he managed to pay his way and remain out of jail.Imtiaz managed to get his brother, Maqbool, elected as a PML MPA of Sindh. Since governor's rule, Imtiaz has ingratiated himself with the fixers of Islamabad and has guaranteed that he can fix the formation of another PML government in the province, and the election of a Karachi metropolitan PML mayor to boot. The infamous Islamabad notifications would have enabled Imtiaz to creep back into service in Sindh, ending up as the governor's secretary. Our governor, a discerning man, put his foot down and blankly refused to have the man in his province.

On Monday, November 16, the governor was badly let down by his administration. The speaker of the suspended Sindh Assembly had called a session on that day. Instead of allowing the suspended members to assemble and let off steam, the administration acted hamhandedly and barred all roads leading to the assembly building. Had they been allowed to meet, they would have attracted low-key headlines describing the heat generated rather than banner headlines, blasting the administration's inability to think before acting.

The administration's hamhandedness caused us citizens a lot of inconvenience in that the traffic was jammed for hours all around the assembly area. But that was not all. That same evening, on the Shahrah-i-Iran, there were also traffic jams and much noise, inconveniencing those who live in or have to pass through the Clifton area.

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For reasons of propriety, public interest and convenience, public parks and gardens falling within the administrative control of the KMC and KDA, or any other civic body, are not allowed to be hired out and used for private parties.

This ban was imposed a few years ago, to the benefit of the people and of the parks. However, many of our politicians have misused their clout and arranged for these open spaces to be used to the people's detriment. Selfish and uncaring, while they save their ill-gotten wealth, the people's money is squandered, and the people of the area are deprived for at least three days at a stretch of the use of their park. On day one the caterers dig holes in these grassy open spaces and put up their shamianas; on day two hundreds of people stomp about, chucking chicken bones and other litter about; and on day three some cleaning up is done, leaving behind a mangled and damaged park.

On November 16, the park in Clifton, administered by the KMC, that opens on to Shahrah-i-Iran was handed over to former minister of Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah, for the marriage party of his son. Municipal administrator Syed Arshad Ali, respecting the ban, had refused permission. Bypassing him, the ex-minister extracted permission from the Sindh secretary of the department of local government, Jamil Ahmad Siddiqui. Why did he defy the ban? Chief Secretary Salik Nazir Ahmed said he had no knowledge of all this, but, under governor's rule, neither he nor the secretary can be absolved for this wrong.

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Then, on November 18, thousands of citizens of Karachi, dependent on public transport, were stranded. The traffic and general police in various districts were halting loaded buses, off-loading passengers midway to their destinations, and forcibly taking possession of the vehicles for using them the following day to cart off rented crowds to welcome the prime minister when he arrived for the plaque unveiling ceremony of his highly-priced, unnecessary highway project. Dawn reporter counted 61 confiscated vehicles in the compound of the DC Malir and over a dozen outside the Malir police station. All very disturbing. Why further harass the already harassed people so that a rented crowd may be herded to wherever to shout 'Nawaz Sharif Zindabad'?

Other reports that day told us that the DCs paid for the taken-over vehicles at the rate of Rs.2,000 per day. From where did the DCs obtain the funds, and under what rule of service did they act in such arbitrary fashion?

That same day, the evening paper, The Star, reported "According to a spokesman of the Commissioner's office, the Commissioner of Karachi, Mr Shafiq Piracha, has ordered the release of all vehicles requisitioned in the last 24 hours. However, none of these vehicles have so far been released.....".

That many of the ignorant officers now serving are unaware of what happened between 1988 and 1992 is believable though not acceptable. The Sindh governments of those days were wont to order the DCs and the police of Karachi to hijack all parked vehicles capable of carrying a fair amount of passengers to be used to transport rented crowds to bolster prime-ministerial arrivals and meetings in the city. People who had parked their cars and gone into a restaurant to eat, used to come out and find their cars had disappeared. The situation was becoming untenable. The official response: "Do what you like."

In those days, Sindh was fortunate in having High Court judges possessed of two vital physical attributes, and independent minds. The High Court was presided over by the then fearless judge, Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid. Public-spirited citizen Nazim Haji, then chief of the CPLC, wrote to the CJ for help. When this became known, Nazim received 'messages' suggesting that it would be wise were he to withdraw his plea for help. He ignored them.

Chief Justice Zahid converted Nazim's letter into a petition and admitted it for regular hearing. The advocate-general and law officers were summoned and asked to cite the provision of law under which private vehicles were requisitioned. None could cite any, and, as the judge wrote, all they did was request that the hearings be postponed.Justice Zahid wrote his judgment in October 1992. It ends : "In the circumstances, this petition is allowed and it is declared that the requisitioning of private motor vehicles by the provincial government authorities is wholly illegal and without lawful authority. Provincial government, its functionaries, including police and also magistrates, are restrained form requisitioning or procuring private vehicles.

"Constitutional Petition No.D-144/1992 stands disposed of accordingly. Copy of this order may be sent to the Home Secretary for giving necessary instructions to all the concerned functionaries, including Inspector-General of Police, Magistrates, Senior Superintendents of Police, Superintendents of Police, and Station House officers. "

This judgment is reported in PLD 1993 Karachi 83. It should be framed and hung on every wall of every office of every DC, and in every police station of the country.

Ignorance of law is no defence. The governor of Sindh would send a salutary message were he to sack all concerned with the requisitioning of transport and with the desecration of our public parks. If leniency must prevail, the culprits should at least be transferred to inferior postings. Unless punitive action is taken, there can be no cure.