The dominant forces in Pakistan have not allowed democracy to function and flourish in the country as on papers Pakistan is a democratic country, but every election was rigged by these forces, said Dr Kaiser Bengali, Advisor to Sindh Chief Minister for Planning and Development.
Speaking as guest of honour on the occasion of 13th annual conference of Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) session titled "Federalism: A Challenge to Conflict Management in Less Developed Countries/South Asia," he said that "dominant forces" have always tried to exploit the rights of small provinces such as Sindh and Balochistan.
These forces never wanted to see small provinces flourish, as according to him, people from Punjab are holding key positions in other provinces, "which is an injustice to the people of smaller provinces." The session was chaired by Business Recorder Islamabad Resident Editor Anjum Ibrahim while Arshad Khan, Yunas Samad from UK and Bishnu Upreti from Nepal were other participants of the session.
Bengali cited Islamabad's repeated obstruction to the NFC Award implementation, which is evident from the fact that "the dominant group [which according to him is Punjab-based] simply does not want to share power". He said there was an exemplary spirit of co-operation and compromise between the federating units during the NFC negotiations, but in the months following, Islamabad created "one obstruction after another."
Bengali bemoaned ethnic fragmentation in Pakistan and the failure of the establishment to construct a genuine vision of national identity, arguing they were instead pursuing personal aggrandisement and a policy of "beating heads" in Balochistan, which was similar to the centre's strategy towards East Pakistan. Chairing the session, Anjum Ibrahim said that conflict resolution needs the political will and only through political process conflicts could be peacefully resolved.
Giving the example of UK's conflict resolution with Ireland, she said that on the same pattern Pakistan could resolve all the internal issues, including insurgency in Balochistan and tribal areas of the country. In another panel discussion of the forum titled "Sustainable Development and Respecting Religious Diversity", MNA Marvi Memon proclaimed a jihad against what she termed religious intolerance in Pakistan.
"We find massive discrimination against and massive intolerance towards minorities," she said, adding that "definitely there is a huge area where blasphemy laws are being misused." Memon quoting the example of Madina Accord commonly known as Meesaq-e-Madina said that it is the essence of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and that parliamentarians have a responsibility to ensure that the misuse of the blasphemy laws does not continue.
Earlier during the opening session the Federal Secretary Environment Javed Malik, underlined the need for change in thinking on the relationship with India. "A paradigm shift in policy towards fostering peace is a must for achieving sustainable development in the region," he added.
He noted that people on the ground across South Asia desire normalised relations between states in the region and that collaborative efforts for attaining peace would help divert resources from security to confronting the catastrophic consequences of climate change.
Dr Saeed Shafqat, Chairperson, Board of Directors SDPI agreed with the comments made by Federal Secretary Environment and said the regional governments were manipulating the situation as they wanted to maintain status quo in the region to get benefit. He slammed the manipulation of inter-state conflicts by regional governments to strengthen the status quo: "In South Asia and many other cases, the states themselves have used the "instrument" of 'external enemy' to perpetuate rivalries and curb inner peace and societal reforms," he said.
Dr Shafqat urged the South Asian leadership to bring a cultural revolution to dismantle, disrupt and destroy the nexus of poverty, social injustice and economic inequalities. "For peace, internal reform is a necessary precondition," he said, arguing that expanding economic opportunity, improving social justice and, most importantly, pursuing democratic process are the key to normalise relations in the region.
Dr Abid Qayyum Suleri, Executive Director of SDPI said that "one of the prerequisites for a stable and prosperous Pakistan is a sustainable Afghanistan and one of the prerequisites for India to top the league of emerging economies is a sustainable Pakistan."
Suleri said, Nato is unlikely to leave Afghanistan without peace and development in Afghanistan's neighbouring countries. He said that the TAPI gas pipeline project and the Pak-Afghan Transit Trade Agreement showed a commitment to collaborative initiatives on the part of the international community.
Indian feminist and historian Urvashi Butalia gave a comprehensive account of how people at the grassroots level were trying to catalyse steps towards peace between Pakistan and India. Butalia noted that the common masses are more concerned with earning their bread than engaging in inter-regional animosity and are demanding of their respective governments to deliver on issues like climate change, sustainable livelihoods and food security.
In a concurrent session on sanitation and water issues, experts called for an integrated poverty alleviation program in Pakistan. In another separate session on disaster preparedness in light of recent floods, experts emphasised the need to shift from a disaster management paradigm to a disaster risk reduction.
They emphasised the need for community-led reconstruction model as a method to promoting democratic participation, increasing transparency and accountability mechanisms, and thus directly addressing the pervasive perception of government corruption. The conference will continue on Wednesday.