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WHILST morality lies moribund in this Republic, and its legislators slowly whittle away at whatever `assets` are left to it, the environment of our cities — Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and others — is slowly and steadily being eaten up by the various mafias (official and otherwise) who feel their time is running out. Attack is the order of the legislative day.
Karachi, proud city of Sindh, where much of the country`s wealth lies, is a particular sufferer when it comes to the callous condonation given to build substandard constructions, to the loss of open spaces, greenery and what are known as amenity plots. The `regularisation` syndrome has for too long persisted.
In 2002, the then governor of Sindh, Mohammadmian Soomro promulgated an ordinance that converted wrong into right. He `regularised` thousands of hazardously-constructed buildings which would crumble and kill in the event of an upper-moderate level earthquake (in which seismic zone the city of Karachi lies). His excuse: “widows and orphans” who had “invested their life-savings” in the to-be-demolished-under-court-orders buildings needed to be protected.
He falsely promised to prosecute criminal builders and corrupt Karachi Building Control Authority officials who had colluded in the dangerous construction. As projected by the Association of Builders and Developers, the city stood to make billions in `regularisation` penalties. It was all an eyewash.
Now, a second Soomro `regulariser`, Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro, (in the words of his party spokesman) wants to help “remove the sword of illegality” from over the heads of “poor and ignorant” people who have been deprived of their “hard-earned monies” by unscrupulous encroachers. He proposes, via the `Protection and Prohibition ( sic ) of Amenity Plots Bill 2009` to `regularise` all amenity plots in Sindh which have been encroached upon or `grabbed` during the past 17 years.
Such `compassion` is the hallmark of our politicians in and out of uniform. They protest that they do nothing for their own benefit, they serve the `poor and ignorant`, the `widows and orphans`. But they legislate in the name of progress and equity which merely affects their own pockets and power bases.
It is a statistical fact, undeniable by our `compassionate` legislators, past and present, that during the passage of 64 years under the guidance of generals, governors, ministers and their ilk, the levels of poverty, illiteracy and misery have alarmingly risen in our country.
Right now, with law and order dead to us, citizens of Pakistan are lining up to escape to other lands where strict implementation of the law is the norm. They have realised something that our transient leaderships fling to the dry winds, that an unemotional implementation of law leads to progress: electricity does not fail, water is available, sewage is treated, traffic moves, pollution is controlled, commerce/industry prospers, health standards rise, public order is maintained and life improves.
Pakistan has a long history of `regularisations`. Black money is whitened, smuggled cars are regularised, illegal appointments are regularised, tax evasions are condoned, unauthorised buildings are regularised, land-grabbing is regularised, illegal weapons are regularised, refugees are brought into the mainstream and military takeovers are clothed with the `doctrine of necessity`. This establishes a culture where what is illegal today will be legal tomorrow. It assures the lawbreaker that even if caught, he will not be punished. It proves that crime pays.
On March 1 this newspaper printed a most pertinent editorial: `Threat to public land`. Dissecting the `compassionate` Amenity Plots Bill 2009, it was aptly termed pro-land-grabber, contradictory, contemptuous of town-planning, unconstitutional, and in contravention of the Supreme Court`s recent directive to clear encroachments from parks in Karachi.
It stated: “If the government is sincere about the plight of underprivileged citizens who have been sold plots on encroached amenity lands by criminals, it should provide the affected people with alternative land. Amenity plots should remain amenity plots and the state should protect what little public space is left in Karachi, not aid criminals` efforts to occupy and make money out of it.”
Tomorrow, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry`s bench in Islamabad will learn what the City District Government Karachi has done to implement its Feb 4, 2011 order to clear, within 30 days, the 1,000-plus parks of Karachi from non-conforming encroachments.
The press reported that the drive started on March 2 (a few days before the deadline expired), and apparently the only structures being demolished were libraries, union council offices and gardeners`/sweepers` sheds, all built by the KMC/CDGK with taxpayer money.
In deference to their political and criminal masters, the CDGK demolition squad is not bulldozing the numerous land mafia`s buildings or private houses and commercial edifices on park land. Could the Supreme Court kindly look into this noora-kushti ?
Urban-planning laws forbid amendments to notified development layout plans without an elaborate procedure involving justification of changes, and invitation and consideration of public objections. Corrupt sleazy bureaucrats and politicians have observed these laws in the breach, with the result that the great majority of sub-divisions or changes in land-use have been carried out illegally over the past decades.
The Amenity Plots Cell of the CDGK`s Master Plan department has complete detailed lists and layout plans of all the illegal sub-divisions and allotments for non-conforming purposes in amenity plots in the city. The parks department has extensive information on the misuse of green spaces under its jurisdiction. All this must be properly placed at the disposal of the court so that the land grabbers` extensive efforts to defeat the directives of the judges are foiled.
This `regularisation` syndrome must be nipped in the bud, before it spreads all over the country. As our PPP government maintains, democracy is the best revenge. Under military rule in Pakistan, man exploited man. Under democracy today, the opposite applies.

WITHIN a couple of weeks two well-known commentators, both familiar with Pakistan for many a year, one American and one British, have come out with papers suggesting reasons why Pakistan may finally prove to be a failing state — or collapse.
Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institution we all know well. In February, he prepared a policy brief for NOREF entitled Coping with a failing Pakistan . He propounded on the various and varied reasons why `failing` is an option. “States are glorified bureaucracies,” he writes, “nations are ideas that are more or less viable.”
To its credit, Pakistan, against all odds, has survived for over 64 years, albeit not in its original form (political machinations took care of that). It has hung on grimly by the skin of its wobbly teeth and since the decade of the 1970s there have been murmurings and mumblings about it being a `failed state` without failure ever materialising. A banana republic, yes, one can easily put it in that category as it has forever been in hock to the highest bidder.
To state the obvious, it is the mighty army — united, disciplined, rich beyond belief, an industrial giant in its own right (porridge being one of its products) — which has never failed to ensure its own survival and thus that of the country that keeps it on top of the national heap, living on in the manner to which it has become accustomed.
As for the economy, according to Cohen, Pakistan has “fantasised over its economic prospects”, blaming others for its shortcomings and it has been unable or unwilling — expediency dictating — to do what it should do which is to tax the fat milch cows that sit in parliament and in the many different power houses that run the country.
The civilians and the military have both refused to deal honestly with a continuously failing economy which has rendered the country ungovernable by either and unlivable for a large majority of its burgeoning population.
Demographically there is danger. As with the economy, where the feudal, landowning, industrial lot has protected themselves, population control has been held hostage by the religious right and population growth has been unchecked due to the policy of pandering to the mullah masters.
Since the 1960s, no government has acknowledged the problem of the galloping population growth with which the country cannot cope. This criminal negligence — and the same goes for education — has contributed towards the inability to govern and fix the economy.
Cohen talks of political instability, the use of the free media by the militant-minded to undermine governance, deteriorating international relations, separatism and sectarianism, and an inability to rebuild state institutions. His summation is that a failing Pakistan which is how we apparently are regarded is damaging to any prospect of restoring South Asia`s strategic unity. The interested world will therefore have to put its collective heads together and think in terms of policy changes.
Anatol Lieven, who has been commenting on Pakistan for decades, has written a lengthy piece for the March/April issue of The National Interest , a bi-monthly US-based journal. His opening focus is on the impossibility of complete cooperation between Islamabad and Washington in the Afghan campaign. Pakistan will not and cannot deliver to the US what the US wants. That is one firm thought. He also premises that the US interest in Afghanistan is but fleeting whereas the preservation of Pakistan as a viable state is its vital concern.
The title, `A Mutiny Grows in Punjab` reveals all. It is Punjab and the military, which largely hails from that province, that are at the moment gluing Pakistan together. It is in Punjab that Pakistan will collapse or ultimately pull itself into shape.
With 56 per cent of the population, it naturally dominates the bureaucratic and military establishment. It has the most productive industry and agriculture — no arguing with that. But what it also has is militancy of the religious type, with banned outfits such as the Lashkar-i-Taiba nurtured and supported by the provincial government and those shadowy things known as the `agencies`.
On this subject, Lieven quotes my old friend Chandi — now better known as Syeda Abida Hussain, a high-flying member of the PPP (changing horses presents no problems to her). She has most aptly and wittily dubbed Punjab the `Prussian Bible Belt` — well done and bravo.
In this `belt` live and increasingly thrive the militant groups of the religious right; they are far more organised and efficient than their counterparts up in the frontier areas. And they have ties and links of various and varied natures with the mighty army that is the child of Punjab.
Therein lies the threat, the grave threat. And therein lies the possibility of a mutiny should unexpectedly the unlikely happen — in this country it has so often been (and is at the moment) the unlikely that prevails. Should there be some spark that splits the army ranks, that brings about a mutiny, Pakistan is sunk. Any fissure in the mighty army would surely bring about the collapse of the state — finally and ultimately. It is here that the deadliest danger is posed to the US and its allies.
What preventative measures can be taken? Well, says Lieven, “Above all, however, the removal of the hated American presence, and the end of US attacks inside Pakistan, would greatly diminish impulses to radicalise in that country, especially if the United States can help develop that state economically (admittedly a horribly difficult process, especially under the present Pakistani government).”
Amazing it is, how others, sitting on the outside, manage to see us as we fail to see ourselves — as we persist in our state of denial.