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| Pakistanis 'craving for the rule of law': Mubashir | | To design new dispensation for J&K is complex venture | | NEW DELHI | MAR 2
Mubashir Hasan, former Finance Minister of Pakistan, has just warned that unless the governments of India and Pakistan and the leaders of Jammu and Kashmir pause and ponder and discover the basic feature common to the three states of the subcontinent, that has caused gross problems of governance, and avoid embedding it in the new dispensation of J&K, there shall be no security of life or property and no fruits of human liberty in the new J&K that might emerge as a result of the ongoing peace process.
India and Pakistan, Mubashir Hasan has pointed out, will continue to accuse each other for the causes of the unrest in the polity they create. The process of normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan will not be a success, he says in his latest write-up, copies of which have also been made available to India's Foreign Office and to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
Mubashir Hasan has prefaced his analytical write-up by saying: "Now that the process of resolving the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan is reported to be proceeding satisfactorily and a new dispensation for the former State of Jammu and Kashmir is being worked out, it is time to pay attention to a vital aspect of the terms of the resolution". Mubashir insists: "We have to be extra careful and cautious in crafting the dimensions for another area".
And Mubashir Hasan's conclusion: "To design a new dispensation for an existing state or part of a state is a complex and unpredictable venture. The subcontinent has had more than its share of failures. India has hardly met its 'tryst with destiny' as Jawaharlal Nehru and his Congress party had envisaged. Pakistan is not what its great leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah had envisaged. Bangladesh has turned out to be quite different from what the massively popular Awami League and its leader Sheikh Mujibur Rehman wanted. The present-day Pakistan has experienced upheavals, which Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the Constituent Assembly that unanimously legislated the 1973 Constitution, could not possibly imagine. We have remained poor and restive, craving for the rule of law".
Stating that the laws of Pakistan and India, as of Bangladesh, bestow the duty and authority of protecting and defending the goods, services and freedom of citizens to permanent salaried officers of the state and their subordinates, Mubashir laments: "Their tactics are harassing and brutal. The people do not trust the police and they have no faith left in the working of the system of justice at the level of the district and often at the level of the higher judiciary. Over the years, a high degree of antagonism has come to exist between the people and the functionaries of state apparatus. The tensions and confrontations between the people and the state are at a high level. More and more people are taking law into their own hands. The effectiveness of the writ of the government is steadily declining. Insurgencies abound".
According to the former Finance Minister of Pakistan, the prevalent mode of governance coupled with the iniquitous property relations has produced an extremely affluent and powerful minority, which rules through the application of brute power over a billion-plus, the weak and downtrodden majority, and snatches a disproportionate share of their labour. His equally significant finding: "Honest, sincere, even highly popular political leaders have proved to be powerless in reversing the adverse tide of bad and authoritative governance and huge disparities of wealth and power".
Mubashir Hasan has urged New Delhi, Islamabad and the leaders of Jammu and Kashmir to ensure that the successful culmination of the current peace process does not result in creating a dispensation, which embeds the mistakes made at the time of working out the dispensations for Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Says Mubashir: "At present citizens play no part, whatsoever, in defending and protecting with their common force the person, goods and services of each individual in village, town or city. The governments have to ensure that justice is not only done but also seen to be done".
Mubashir Hasan has called for changes in the Criminal Procedure and Penal Codes, Civil Procedure Code, the Evidence Act, the statutes establishing courts of law and in other laws. He insists: "Only in this way, unlike in India and Pakistan, lasting peace and stability shall be achieved in Jammu and Kashmir".
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