Strengthening of institutions key to preventing intervention: Asma

ISLAMABAD: Against the backdrop of perceived tensions between the civilian and the military leadership, rights activist and former SCBA chairperson Asma Jehangir suggested on Wednesday that national institutions should be made ‘fiercely’ independent to help prevent future military interventions in the country. “We need to learn lessons from Latin American countries to be able to have smooth transitions,” she told reporters at the Supreme Court in response to the ongoing friction among institutions. Ms Jehangir cited the example of Latin American countries, apparently to stress the historic transformation of countries like Cuba, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay which have become leading democracies only by strengthening their institutions, ensuring civil liberties and developing economy. “We need to make civil institutions fiercely independent so that whenever the military is enticed to step in it faces huge challenges,” she said. Ms Jehangir asked the political governments and the military establishment to focus on larger issues confronting the nation, instead of wasting their energy on petty matters. She regretted that institutions were pretending to be so sensitive as if they were the paragons of virtue and said she would support freedom of expression at all costs, but never support media houses which carried out smear campaigns against institutions. Although people must understand the importance of security forces, they also had the right to criticise them whenever excesses were committed, Ms Jehangir said, adding that at the same time the military should understand that right or wrong eventually decisions taken by civilian institutions must prevail. “But this doesn’t necessarily mean that civilian governments always have the skill to govern in harmony with the military establishment,” she added. Advocate Ahmed Raza Kasuri also had a word of caution, saying the situation developed after the last statement of the army chief that the army knew how to protect its dignity and honour showed that “we have travelled quite ahead”. He said the situation created in the aftermath of criticism of the ISI and its director general, especially in the wake of an armed attack on senior journalist Hamid Mir, was identical to the one prevailed before October 1999. But he hastened to add that he hoped sanity would prevail and the end would not be the similar the nation had experienced on Oct 12, 1999, when the military stepped in. Mr Kasuri said the situation became all the more complex when the prime minister had gone all the way to the hospital to inquire about the health of Mir whereas the army chief visited the ISI headquarters. This was construed by many as a tug of war between the military and the government. “I personally feel that the chief executive should have sent his information minister to the hospital which would have helped balance the situation,” he said. He was of the opinion that instead of going to the UK, the prime minister should have visited the GHQ to attend Yaum-i-Shuhada.