Governance

Our governance system is caught between colonial practices and the rising pressures and demands for modern studies in the field of management sciences. This has created a vicious cycle that has been retarding administrative institutions since long.

It should be noted that institutions take a long time to build or retard. Take for example Islamia College Peshawar. It has been successful to resist all the negative influences that have been tearing apart all other institutions. Similarly, many of our institutions are yet to find a standard because they could not evolve due to initial flaws in design. The later is very true of most of our prominent state institutions.

What inherently are responsible for the failure of institutions? Or to take a simpler views what is the essence of institutions? The essence of institutions is human resources. If we are able to manage these resources pragmatically we may transform these institutions. Two most important things in this regard are 1) Looking for the fittest person for a specific job 2) And ensuring that the person has the right aptitude for the job.

Then we come to the leadership issue. Who are to be the leaders? What qualities do we see in the leaders? We have university level courses in leadership and we have a historical knowledge of major successful leaders of the world. But it should be noted that what is true for one society may not be successful for another or what succeeded for one generation may not succeed for another. Therefore, all existing leaders and head of institutions are required to look for what is best for their own people. In this regard popular perceptions about leadership are to be taken into consideration.

People perceptions of leadership and their expectations form leaders are very important. For example, in Pakistan, people want their leaders to be as humble and down to earth as possible. Whenever, people criticize leaders they compare them with Hazrat Abu Bakar and Umar not in the religious sense but the social services they provided to the people. This is the main reasons why do leaders like Baacha Khan, Edhi, Akhar Hamid ur Rahman and similar others won the hearts of the people and brought visible transformation in their lives. These leaders were humble, dedicated and extremely positive towards their cause and the people.  

ANP and PMAP

ANP and PMAP

Traditional Pashtun nationalism or hardcore version of it was centrifugal (if we avoid the word separatist). Its ideology was predominantly in favour of Afghanistan and anti Durand Line though annexation with Afghanistan or a separate Pashtun state of Pashtunistan was never so explicit. To be more exact Pashtun nationalists have been suffering from the contradiction of Great Afghanistan or Pashtunistan idealism versus federalist realpolitik within Pakstan. 

With the passage of time hardcore version of it diluted and the nationalists themselves are now actively seeking more space in the Pakistani politics and demanding more power share through constitutional means.  Apparently this makes them no different from other mainstream Pakistani political parties. 

In the last two decades many Pashtun nationalists have been disillusioned with the ideology professed by Awami National Party (ANP) and Pashtunkhwa Mili Awami Party (PMAP). Many have been in the process of joining other mainstream Pakistani parties  such as PML N, PPP or the recent wave of PTI which has been successful to make inroads into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This also includes many nationalists who are changing their loyalties time and again. 

This doesn't mean that the vote bank of ANP and PMAP decreased. Both the parties have been successful not only to attract fresh blood but were successful to form governments in their respective sphere of influence. Hence there is a visible qualitative decline but quantitative jump for these parties as for as Pashtun nationalism is concerned.

Despite ideological compromises both ANP and PMAP have certain strengths which make them equal to or better than mainstream political parties in Pakistan. Both are democratic, progressive and secular in their outlook. Both represent the true spirit of federalism which only PPP can match. The parties leadership are experienced and well versed in national and international politics. Ironically, it is due to these strengths and not the ideology of Pashtun nationalism that these parties have been expanding within Pashtun population, to say the least. 

Are these two parties in a position to make a shift from ethnic Pashtun nationalism to a more inclusive political approach so that other ethnic groups are attracted towards them? 

Pashtun nationalism and the question of “oppression”

 

Whenever we talk about “oppression” we talk in a political sense. Oppression has mostly remained a political term used extensively by the communists and freedom fighters throughout history. If we look at big movements and revolutions of our recent history the popular slogans of freedom is meant to get freedom from a group of oppressors and to translate this freedom for a relatively larger group of people who are marginalized and whose human rights have been violated. Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther, Baacha Khan, Gandihi, Lenin, Mao and Khomeine are a few examples of such big movements from our recent history. “Oppression” in these cases is largely political or economic.

“Oppression" has also another connotation. Let’s call it social oppression. It may be defined as oppression of one social class against another or oppression of individuals within a society on the basis of religion, gender, ethnicity, economic and social status and so one. The contemporary desire for secularization of the state and society, feminism and social empowerment through other such means are aimed at emancipation of the relevant oppressed classes or individuals.  

The Pashtun nationalists see all kinds of social oppression as subsets of political oppression. They are of the opinion that if Pashtuns get their political rights all other social forms of oppression would be automatically addressed. There is a visible polarization within Pashtun society on this issue  where the traditional nationalist political parties ask for political emancipation while others are in favour of reforming the society from within. Thus Pashtun nationalism is mostly extroverted i.e. holding the outsiders responsible for the ills of Pashtun society.  

It is debatable whether different forms of social oppressions are subsets of political oppression. May be political oppression had been a spur and a reinforcing factor in the course of history. For example colonialism interfered in the indigenous political order and destroyed many of the good qualities of Pashtun social and cultural life. Successive autocratic governments in Pakistan reinforced colonialism, exploited Pashtuns resources and tried to change the very core of Pashtun identify. But it may also be noted that both colonialism and the state structure of Pakistan brought many good things for Pashtuns. Pashtuns were politicized. They achieved a legal status for themselves. They got civic rights, education and many other facilities. The list is not too short.

History may   be important to keep the things in the right perspective but more important than history would be to understand the current status of Pashtuns in Pakistan. The political oppression for majority of the Pashtuns (excluding FATA) is no more strictly political of the historical nature. It may be politically relevant in the sense that Pashtuns need more implementation of the already decentralization of the state. Both ANP and PMAP have formed governments in their respective spheres of influence and they have no great obstacles in doing politics. In this way they are already part of the state structure and strict political oppression is no longer there. The only major political oppression still remains is that the people of FATA are still politically oppressed due to their isolation from the mainstream constitutional arrangement.

There may be certain political slogans which are still relevant like CPEC or countering a more Punjabi oriented government but I think the rest of Pashtuns are socially oppressed. Our problems are becoming more internal as we have to address the oppression of women, children and the poor and the marginalized.