Administrative unwillingness to administer the state

By Shazia Anwer Cheema

Pakistan’s geopolitical reality is a double-edged sword; one side makes it important by placing it in a stronger position and the other side makes it vulnerable to all kinds of threats and cynical experimentations.

The events of the past two days are textbook examples of how our enemies are operating through domestic proxies but the situation also shows the painful reality of our administrative failure, primarily the failure of district management and secondary the failure of political administration.

If we look at the geopolitical ambiance, humanity is standing at the edge, steps away from falling into the abyss. In this critical juncture of regional uncertainty, expected global unrest reaching our door, chaos, and plight, Pakistan faces an internal dilemma of political and administrative unwillingness to administer a state.

Just imagine, a lunatic and charged mob decides to attack the capital and reaches the announced spot while civil and political administration seems least bothered and does nothing to stop them except trench digging on the Motorway. Are our politicians unaware of the fact that Pakistan is under attack by the masterminds who have been engineering ‘color revolutions’ at several places around the world? Color revolt is always systematic unrest created by foreign agents to exploit the existing ground realities. We all are familiar with the ground reality of Pakistan, such as inept civilian governments, high inflation, unemployment among youth, nepotism, and lack of responsibility to run the civic system.  The adversaries only exploit and amplify these realities.

Pakistan has been undergoing unusual and failed political, economic, and administrative experimentations since 2018 that resulted only hopelessness among youth who have been fully programmed to revolt against the system on the contrary system seems least bothered to address let alone handle this situation.

Having said that let me take you back to the May 9th attempt of mutiny in Pakistan which was an inch away from a full-fledged nightmare if the mastermind would have managed to produce one young dead body. Painfully, in every color revolution, the last step is always a few dead young individuals, and then the tsunami of the public organically completes the task. For recent examples, we can see that in Ukraine and Bangladesh, however, examples from the past will make a long list which is not necessary to provide here.

If every internal crisis is supposed to be handled by the Army then the question arises as to why we need civil administration and westernized Liberal Democracy?

Here the question could be why a color revolution in Pakistan among all other places, the answer could be simple yet complicated because it links Pakistan to the larger Global security initiatives led by China. Pakistan does not want to become a proxy against China which Imran Khan along with his cabinet comprising mostly of dual nationality holders promised his Anglo-Saxon patrons when he was prime minister. The only hurdle is the security forces of Pakistan therefore scapegoating and smearing campaigned against them is still in progress so is the hope for putting their expensive bet Imran Khan back in the office. Are our politicians aware of the gravity of the situation from what Pakistan is going through? Are they able to formulate any tangible framework to handle the situation? Are they serious about collectively achieving targets Pakistan desperately needs to survive?

The point here is if Pakistan is under attack via the Color Revolution project, then why do our civil administration and politicians seem so relaxed, chilling, and giving public appearances while completely neglecting the gravity of the situation?

I believe they think about the situation while traveling in expensive SVUs fueled with the hard-earned money of the public but they always transfer the buck to the Army to handle the situation under Article 245 of the Constitution. Why should they come out of their SUVs and confront charged mobs when they have soldiers who are trained to bail Pakistan out of any critical situation whether it is floods or chaotic law and order situation? Thank God our riot police are still trying to operate and perform duty. God forbid if there were a young dead body on the street, politicians and civil administration would not be responsible but the police and soldiers who are performing their duty on the road.

If the same administrative structure is intact, political governments would continue inviting the Army to handle ‘situations’ and then would blame the Army’s steps on administrative issues

If there are rural/urban floods, heavy rainfall in Murree hills, earthquake in Balochistan, or expected civil/political unrest, politicians and their blue-eyed district administration ask the Army to manage the situation. It looks like the sole institution left working well is the Pakistan Army which is already overburdened.

People like me who live abroad feel frustrated when they hear about the perceivable failure of the economy, civil administration, and constant political tug-of-war in their motherland.

Can a country function like we are trying to run Pakistan, particularly when it is encircled by geopolitical threats, enemies are not at rest, and political infighting is not stopping? The domestic political drama being highly insensitive to a broader outer phenomenon does not care much, hence least interested in sovereignty and image building of the same very nation they want to be democratic by their political theatre.

The civil bureaucracy, supposedly an operational component, has instead proven itself time and again, to be a rusty, faulty machine with multiple operational hazards. It needs a complete overhaul instead of taking stop-gap measures. If the same administrative structure is intact, political governments would continue inviting the Army to handle ‘situations’ and then would blame the Army’s steps on administrative issues. The choice to overhaul the entire system lies with the politicians reshaping the civil administration for the smooth running of the country or inviting non-civilian institutions to fill the gaps because the country has to move on either through civilian or military bureaucracy.

I have another question. Why civil service is disinterested and whether we even need them is a right question at the moment, because if every internal crisis is supposed to be handled by the Army then the question arises as to why we need civil administration and westernized Liberal Democracy that instead of running Pakistan are becoming burden on Pakistan due to their political contradictions? I hope some pro-democrats will soon send me an answer.