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Express Tribune, Oct. 30, 2011
http://tribune.com.pk/story/284687/our-right-to-know/
Our right to know
About the same time as Secretary Clinton and other powerful members
of the ‘Company Bahadur’ were landing at Islamabad airport last
week, a US citizen was quietly assuming his responsibilities as the
Governor State Bank of Pakistan. Another US citizen enjoys the
unique distinction of being Pakistan’s ambassador in his own country.
A week earlier the Governor of Sindh a British subject, in complete
violation of the university rules awarded an honorary PhD degree to a
fellow British citizen, who also doubles as the Interior Minister of
Pakistan. The Leader of MQM has taken oath of loyalty to the Queen of
England, her heirs and successors, while the Auditor General of
Pakistan is a Canadian citizen. Dozens of other constitutional
appointment holders including an estimated 30-40% of all
Parliamentarians possess foreign nationalities and owe their loyalties
to other countries. This is despite Article 63 (1) of the
constitution which clearly states that a person shall be disqualified
from beingelected or chosen as, and from being, a member of the
Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament), if he ceases to be a citizen of
Pakistan, or acquires the citizenship of a foreign state. It took
some 150 years before the East India Company could begin to place
British officers in position of authority in India. It took much
lesser for the new imperial order to do so in Pakistan.
There is evidence to suggest that the phenomenon of foreigners
occupying top decision making slots in Pakistan is far deeper,
widespread and systemic. Who all and how many is a closely guarded
secret and foolproof mechanisms are in place to protect this
information from getting public. The only lawful recourse for a
citizen to uncover this information is by invoking the ‘Freedom of
Information’ law. Unfortunately this law is one of the most talked
about ('seminar prone') and least utilized laws of Pakistan. It has
the great ability to defeat, deny, cover-up, remain silent or deflect
any attempts at seeking any information, and there is nothing one can
do about it. Here are some examples of how all the government
functionaries suddenly closed ranks and took a common stand on hiding
the truth, trashing the law and refusing to provide any information
about hundreds of foreigners who hold vital constitutional and
decision making assignments in Pakistan.
On Sept.12, 2009, under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Ordinance
2002, I requested the Ministry of Information Islamabad to provide
names of all parliamentarians, Ministers and Senators who hold
nationality, passport, green card or permanent residence for any
other country, besides Pakistan. When no response was received for
four months, the Wafaqi Mohtasib was approached to order the Interior
Ministry to do what they ought to have done in 21 days. On the
intervention of Wafaqi Mohtasib (letter HQR/0000854/10 dated
27-01-2010) the Ministry of Information sent an interesting response
(Letter 3/2/2009-citz dated Feb.11, 2010) stating that “this subject
does not relate to the Ministry of Interior and falls within the
domain of Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.” This
bureaucratic technique of not providing the information may also
called ‘denial through deflection’.
The dead FOI law was flogged once again and the Ministry of Law,
Justice and Parliamentary Affairs was asked to provide the
information on those who hold dual nationalities. The Ministry’s
response (F.23.35/2000-PA-Admn dated 27thApril 2010) was simple. “The
information is neither available nor falls within the ambit of this
Ministry and may be obtained from other organizations such as Cabinet
Division, National Assembly, Senate etc.” It was getting clear that
the concerned ministries were using the standard operating procedure
of ‘passing the buck’ to hide the information on the foreigners who
rule this country. Without waiting for further ‘ask so and so”
responses, in May 2010, I decided to directly seek this information
from five key institutions, the National Assembly, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Senate, Cabinet Division and of course the most concerned
(and the least interested) - the Election Commission of Pakistan.
As expected, there was a stony silence from all five departments and
the Wafaqi Mohtasib had to be once again requested to intervene. The
response however was only a repeat of what others had said before -
“we have no information and this subject does not fall within our
ambit”. One can only conclude that there is not a single ministry or
department in Pakistan that either knows or is willing to provide
information on the foreigners who sit in our assemblies and hold
various key appointments. The only bewildering piece of information
that trickled through this watertight information prevention network
was a response from National Assembly Secretariat (Letter no.
8-1/2010-C&L dated 22nd July 2010). It states “as per available CVs,
259 of the Members of National Assembly, the Honourable Members hold
Pakistani Nationality”. The response is worth placing in a museum to
demonstrate the apathy and disinterest of a Parliament in finding out
the nationality of its remaining 83 MNAs or to determine if the 259
“Pakistani” MNAs hold a dual nationality or not. Are we as
citizens not entitled to know the ‘other’ nationality of our rulers
and also establish if they will throw their weight behind Pakistan or
a foreign country in a situation of moral or military conflict?
Naeem Sadiq
------------------------------
http://tribune.com.pk/story/284687/our-right-to-know/
Our right to know
About the same time as Secretary Clinton and other powerful members
of the ‘Company Bahadur’ were landing at Islamabad airport last
week, a US citizen was quietly assuming his responsibilities as the
Governor State Bank of Pakistan. Another US citizen enjoys the
unique distinction of being Pakistan’s ambassador in his own country.
A week earlier the Governor of Sindh a British subject, in complete
violation of the university rules awarded an honorary PhD degree to a
fellow British citizen, who also doubles as the Interior Minister of
Pakistan. The Leader of MQM has taken oath of loyalty to the Queen of
England, her heirs and successors, while the Auditor General of
Pakistan is a Canadian citizen. Dozens of other constitutional
appointment holders including an estimated 30-40% of all
Parliamentarians possess foreign nationalities and owe their loyalties
to other countries. This is despite Article 63 (1) of the
constitution which clearly states that a person shall be disqualified
from beingelected or chosen as, and from being, a member of the
Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament), if he ceases to be a citizen of
Pakistan, or acquires the citizenship of a foreign state. It took
some 150 years before the East India Company could begin to place
British officers in position of authority in India. It took much
lesser for the new imperial order to do so in Pakistan.
There is evidence to suggest that the phenomenon of foreigners
occupying top decision making slots in Pakistan is far deeper,
widespread and systemic. Who all and how many is a closely guarded
secret and foolproof mechanisms are in place to protect this
information from getting public. The only lawful recourse for a
citizen to uncover this information is by invoking the ‘Freedom of
Information’ law. Unfortunately this law is one of the most talked
about ('seminar prone') and least utilized laws of Pakistan. It has
the great ability to defeat, deny, cover-up, remain silent or deflect
any attempts at seeking any information, and there is nothing one can
do about it. Here are some examples of how all the government
functionaries suddenly closed ranks and took a common stand on hiding
the truth, trashing the law and refusing to provide any information
about hundreds of foreigners who hold vital constitutional and
decision making assignments in Pakistan.
On Sept.12, 2009, under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Ordinance
2002, I requested the Ministry of Information Islamabad to provide
names of all parliamentarians, Ministers and Senators who hold
nationality, passport, green card or permanent residence for any
other country, besides Pakistan. When no response was received for
four months, the Wafaqi Mohtasib was approached to order the Interior
Ministry to do what they ought to have done in 21 days. On the
intervention of Wafaqi Mohtasib (letter HQR/0000854/10 dated
27-01-2010) the Ministry of Information sent an interesting response
(Letter 3/2/2009-citz dated Feb.11, 2010) stating that “this subject
does not relate to the Ministry of Interior and falls within the
domain of Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.” This
bureaucratic technique of not providing the information may also
called ‘denial through deflection’.
The dead FOI law was flogged once again and the Ministry of Law,
Justice and Parliamentary Affairs was asked to provide the
information on those who hold dual nationalities. The Ministry’s
response (F.23.35/2000-PA-Admn dated 27thApril 2010) was simple. “The
information is neither available nor falls within the ambit of this
Ministry and may be obtained from other organizations such as Cabinet
Division, National Assembly, Senate etc.” It was getting clear that
the concerned ministries were using the standard operating procedure
of ‘passing the buck’ to hide the information on the foreigners who
rule this country. Without waiting for further ‘ask so and so”
responses, in May 2010, I decided to directly seek this information
from five key institutions, the National Assembly, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Senate, Cabinet Division and of course the most concerned
(and the least interested) - the Election Commission of Pakistan.
As expected, there was a stony silence from all five departments and
the Wafaqi Mohtasib had to be once again requested to intervene. The
response however was only a repeat of what others had said before -
“we have no information and this subject does not fall within our
ambit”. One can only conclude that there is not a single ministry or
department in Pakistan that either knows or is willing to provide
information on the foreigners who sit in our assemblies and hold
various key appointments. The only bewildering piece of information
that trickled through this watertight information prevention network
was a response from National Assembly Secretariat (Letter no.
8-1/2010-C&L dated 22nd July 2010). It states “as per available CVs,
259 of the Members of National Assembly, the Honourable Members hold
Pakistani Nationality”. The response is worth placing in a museum to
demonstrate the apathy and disinterest of a Parliament in finding out
the nationality of its remaining 83 MNAs or to determine if the 259
“Pakistani” MNAs hold a dual nationality or not. Are we as
citizens not entitled to know the ‘other’ nationality of our rulers
and also establish if they will throw their weight behind Pakistan or
a foreign country in a situation of moral or military conflict?
Naeem Sadiq
------------------------------
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