BOOK REVIEW: Devolution and Governance: Reforms in Pakistan
Editors Syed Mubashir Ali & Muhammad Amjad Saqib;
McGill,
Pages 353

Administrative reforms is always a fascinating subject,, more so in a country like Pakistan where democracy has not taken roots and experiments in local administration have been subject to the whims and fancies of military rulers.  The book under review takes a close look at the Devolution Plans 2000 pursued by Gen Pervez Musharraf. His plan was primarily aimed at creating a new structure that will be loyal to him and give his rule a legitimacy (which remained elusive till the end) though he sold the idea as his version of good governance.

Some of the problems that the book looks at in the context of local governance in Pakistan are not particular to Pakistan alone. All the countries in the Sub-Continent are grappling with them in varying degrees. Where countries like India and Sri Lanka score are the nurturing the traditional institutions of Gram Sabha had received and the way both countries took enough care down the past 60-years to nurture local bodies as the nurseries of leadership.  People cannot live on big ideas and very big promises. Their requirements are neither federal nor global but purely local – food, water and shelter.  Local development, pure and simple.

There is a close study of police by Sikandar Ahmad Shah, Moeen Cheema and Waleed Khalid. It is a must read. Because in Pakistan to a large extent and in other SA countries to a lesser extent, police station is seen as a part of local feudal set up and people still are not forthcoming to approach the ‘Thanedar’, who with his baton carries enormous clout.   Police reform was a subject of as many as 25 Pakistan reports; that itself shows the urgency of reorienting this instrument of State which also happens to be the cutting edge of the administration. For a man in the street or village, the policeman with whom he comes in direct daily contact is the ‘maa-baap’ and ‘sarkar’.

The paper looks at the hidden factors that have made policing weak and even incompetent going as far as 1861 when the first Police Act was enacted in British India and which is still held relevant in today’s Pakistan. The colonial penal code has been tinkered with from time to time and police turned into a monster, making the British era police men appear as an angel.

Musharraf’s contribution to police reform is making the policeman responsible to the elected Nazim at the district level. Till then, police functioned under the top civil servant in a district, namely the District Magistrate, who was known in the British era as Collector because of his preoccupation with revenue collections. After independence the Collector’s post acquired a new importance as the institution was saddled with development tasks as well.  It is clear from a reading of this paper, the garrulous General failed as his reform package was ‘half-implemented’

After Okara Farm controversy, image of Musharraf took a beating  and people began to perceive him as an insensitive army man out to help out his own army clan. And this was in no less responsible for public support to the lawyers’ movement, which in turn led to his downfall.

 T he Okara Military Farms and the controversies they have generated were examined in great detail by Aasim Sajjad Akhtar and Ayesha Salma Kausar.  Army directly and indirectly holds sway over the lands in the tehsils of Okara, Dipalpur and Renala Khurd in Okara district. Some say army has dubious ownership over land. Farmers are poor and are in no position to pay farm rentals demanded by the ‘owners’ namely half of the produce in cash. Protests became a ‘routine’ law and order problem, and as the authors bring out very clearly, the resultant poor image of Musharraf  – the insensitive army man out to help out his own army clan  – was in no less responsible for public support to the lawyers’ movement, which in turn led to his own downfall.