Should Civil Servants
have a Conscience?
When
I was ordered to arrest Benazir, and I did not
Dr
Zafar Altaf
JUST after the coup of 1977 by General Zia ul Haq, I was posted
as Deputy Commissioner Sahiwal. By that time I had decided that
the job that I wanted to do had little to do with the field. The
Chief Secretary of the time thought otherwise. The Martial law
Administrator was General Iqbal and whose staff officer was Brigadier
Bashir-Bash for short. Bash was the commanding officer of the
9th Baluch regiment.
I
had done three months of assignment with them in the Sialkot area.
The regiment was subsequently transferred to Jessore where I had
the pleasure of being in touch with them as I was posted in the
same region.
Since
I was the senior most of all the officers who were to be posted
as Deputy Commissioner it was widely thought that I would be posted
as DC Lahore. That was denied. The reason the Chief Secretary
gave me was that being a hockey player I would be playing hockey
all the time and not doing my job. Some one corrected him by saying
that he played cricket and the tools of the game was a straight
bat and not a crooked stick. But the Chief Secretary was adamant.
He said he knew his officers well.
The
Zia regime came for three months and stayed on for more than a
decade. Zia and his number two General Chishty came from the same
village in Jullunder. ZAB had been put under house arrest and
it was widely held that Zia and ZAB had an altercation at their
Murree meeting. ZAB had posted Zia to the top army position. Benazir
came to the rescue of her father and she was the new card on the
political scene. She was exciting and during the course of her
election speeches tour she was drawing huge crowds.
Sahiwal was also included in her schedule. Before her mother had
paved the ground by speaking to the local Bar association. Since
law and order was my responsibility by virtue of being the District
Magistrate I decided that I was going to cover the political meeting
that she had convened at Okara on the Okara-Dipalpur junction.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that a huge crowd had assembled
there and that it was mostly women and children turned out to
see her. The common Punjabi statement about her was ‘Dehko
Kinni chotti jai Kuri hai aur piyo da kam sambhal rai aye’
[Look what a small girl she is but she has picked up her father’s
work].
I saw the meeting and was convinced that despite the fears of
the Martial law Administrator the fears of the order going haywire
was not there. Since I was also a national selector and the England
Cricket team was here I proceeded to Lahore for the purpose of
selecting the national cricket team. But at Changa Manga at about
5 pm Police stopped me and enquired whether I was the Deputy Commissioner
Sahiwal and on my affirmation they asked me to go back to Sahiwal
as the Chief Secretary had so directed.
Knowing that there was cricket mania in this nation I asked the
Police Office that if he had been in my position what would he
do, obey the Chief Secretary or carry on with the mission of selecting
the national team. He was downright forthright and said ‘select
the national team. And we will tell the Chief Secretary that we
could not intercept him’.
But
there was no respite. Wherever I went in Lahore the panicky Chief
Secretary had left messages and the last one was with my father.
I contacted the Chief Secretary, who asked me to go back to Sahiwal
as I was urgently needed. I asked him the reason and he would
not tell. So I went back. It was near Okara, 28 miles short of
Sahiwal that I put on the wireless to seek the national news.
Lo
and Behold what do I hear: I had arrested Benazir and had lodged
her in a sub jail? I was astonished for I was still about 45 minutes
from my headquarters. On reaching the headquarters I saw a shivering
second in command with the orders of arrest in his hands. The
hand had developed Parkinson's disease. There were other subordinates
there as well, all ashen white. I enquired as to her place of
abode and on being told that it was the house of a PPP MNA, whose
sons I knew rather well, I proceeded to serve the arrest warrant
on her.
There
was a flaw in the document and Benazir saw it straight away. She
asked me to produce a document that was in conformity with the
law. All I could say was that she could take an order from me
and challenge it in a court of law under Habeas Corpus.
The idea being that I could survive the administration and put
the blame for anything on the judiciary. She would not buy anything
of this sort. But she kept on insisting that she must have the
relevant document. I promised to get it as soon as possible.
I
rang up the Home Secretary and asked him if the document could
be sent any time. It took 15 days for the letter to arrive. I
was astonished because civilians are supposed to drag their feet
not the military. They are normally very prompt and discharge
the bullet as and when required.
What were the political reasons behind this delay? It later transpired
that they were afraid of two aspects. The elections were still
on track. The crowds that Benazir was pulling were very large.
She had taken the country by storm. She was vigorous and she was
fresh and exciting. The charisma of ZAB was at work. But to that
charisma was added this girl's own strengths. She was upheld as
a power in her own right. Since I was covering that meeting I
went around hearing all kinds of opinions. They were positive
vibes and I realized that she would be a political strength.
So
when I was asked to arrest her I had my own trepidations. The
authorities went into a huddle. My request for proper document
could not be met because there were still some doubts in the minds
of the people as to the route to take. I went to Bash the brigadier
with a difference and I asked him why Sahiwal and I were picked
as the venue. The answer surprised me. He said every one said
that since the Deputy Commissioner is a sportsman he would be
able to handle this difficult assignment. The very reason for
my not being given the posting that should have been mine was
the reason for my being given the assignment that I had.
Sahiwal
is notorious for housing politicians. When ZAB was arrested in
the Ayub regime Muzaffer Qadir [one of the best as they come]
was the Deputy Commissioner and he lost his job the day ZAB came
to power. Was history in the process of repeating itself? I had
my views for playing the dirty game of those that had violated
the rules. What is a civil servant supposed to do? Should he go
with the line of least resistance or should he stake his job every
time such a situation was to arise against his conscience? There
are no answers to the ruddy question of conscience. No one is
a conscience keeper and no one has the guts to say no at the time.
The easiest route of survival is used. The self-censorship system
breaks down.
The civil servant is left handling the cans of worms that follow.
What will be the outcome of this to the civil servants of this
change that is coming about now will only be determined when the
extension of this government comes to an end and a truly representative
government comes to power.
But
Bhutto was gracious. As she took power she was the Prime Minister
and she had a hiccup with the sitting Federal Secretary Agriculture.
She asked the Cabinet for a replacement. My name was taken by
some seniors who thought well of me (?). I was junior in the line
by about 200 positions and knowing the civil serpents [not servants]
I knew that sooner or later I would come in for hate and malicious
actions by them. That was to happen. It did happen but that is
another story. The fact is that Benazir tolerated me despite the
past. In fact she tolerated me for three and a half years despite
the constant adverse feed from her party bosses. In frustration
I had asked the Minister agriculture as to why I was being tolerated
and not transferred? His reply was simple ‘forget it you
will not be transferred. The performance of the ministry is verging
on the very good. Yes she will play havoc with you and me but
that is politics and we have our enemies’.
Years passed by and I had become OSD on a number of occasions.
I was told by a senior politician ‘Your credentials are
excellent. You have been OSD under all shades of government. We
can see that you are not subservient to the powers that be and
that you carry your own mind. There is a penalty to pay for that.'
Zia
put off the elections and the public suffered for over a decade
while the most spiritual leader kept on telling lies to the country
and kept on ruling brutally. Can any one answer for the scars
on the backs of decent people who were convicted by kangaroo courts
called gashti [mobile not the other one in Punjabi] adalats?
The scars, yes, the scars remain.
The
moot question still remains ‘how does the conscience work
when such Himalayan decisions are to be taken’. Why in any
case is this thing called conscience. Why is it so variable? Is
power such a heady thing? Is there such a thing as divine will?
Has any one the right to incarcerate any one other than one who
is a disaster to society?
The
new Musharraf National Assembly has finally met. Hope has rekindled.
Governance is going to be debated and will not be the hand maiden
of half a dozen matriculates. I wish the elected representatives
well for the country must debate openly and without fear or failure,
the future of this country. That may be the only way to get rid
of our inner dimensions of hate and meanness, not to speak of
rapacity.
