Newsline -- June 1999

A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

By Masood Ansari

Instead of facilitating good governance, the Khidmat Committees in Sindh have managed to further tarnish the image of the government.

As the driver applied his brakes, five young men holding pistols and batons jumped out of the jeep. One of them took the security guard outside the room hostage, and the other four charged into it. Before the old man sitting inside the room could speak, one of the youngsters put the pistol to his head and slapped him. "How dare you defy our orders," he asked. They grabbed the man by his collar and dragged him off his chair, beating him with batons and pistol butts. They left behind a threatening not: "We can get you into more trouble if you even think of disobeying our orders."

The old man is one of the most senior doctors of Larkana, Dr. Tufail Ahmed Siddiqui, who also happens to be chairman of the district Zakat Committee, Larkana. Dr. Siddiqui, who broke his arm in the brawl, got an FIR registered at the Civil Lines police station against the persons who ransacked his office. Two months down the road, the administration us yet to initiate any action because the men involved in the attack were members of one of Nawaz Sharif's handpicked Khidmat Committees. Says Dr. Siddiqui, "Babu Ghulam Sarwar Siyal, who is a member of the district Khidmat Committee, Larkana, and his colleagues wanted me to divert Zakat funds to a handful of their favourites without scrutinising the cases. They attacked my office and beat me up, when I refused to oblige them."

Soon after taking over as announced the formation of KCs. This, he declared, was a step towards sharing of power with people at the local level. His opponents, however, allege that since Nawaz Sharif was not in a position to accommodate an unlimited number of people in his cabinet, the idea of KCs was floated to give party supporters who had been left out, a share of the booty.

Soon after the oath-taking ceremony of the KC representatives, a campaign was launched in the print and electronic media, projecting the role of the committees and Nawaz Sharif's directives to co-operate with them. One official believes that his campaign was aimed at intimidating the civil servants so that they would be constrained to oblige the KC activists.

Independent observers, meanwhile, believe that the KCs have failed to establish their credibility and have gained a reputation of corruption just two years after their inception, with a pending against them. Qazi Rasheed Ahmed, senior PPP leader says, "Nawaz Sharif's KCs have proved as good as his Ehtesab Commission. Like the chief of the Ehtesab Commission, Senator Saifur Rehman, who is facing corruption charges in different courts, the central chief of the KC, Major General (retd.) Sikandar Hayat, has been removed by the Prime Minister on corruption charges."

As in the other three provinces, the role of the KCs in Sindh has proven unsavoury. Many of the activists are found to be involved in corruption, physical violence against civil servants and acts of political victimisation.

During the Kharif season last year, activists of the committees started raids in interior Sindh to check water theft and illegal diversion of water from canals. They also arrested a number of people allegedly involved in stealing irrigation water and suspended the irrigation staff for their complicity. Sources allege that the KC representatives only raided the agricultural lands of their opponents and only those officers who had refused to grease their palms were punished. Khalid Khokhar, a Hyderabad-based journalist, says, "Though the KC representatives conducted a number of raids to check tampering of canals and distributories, they made sure they didn't encroach on the agricultural lands of their own people."

The villagers of Warah sub-division of Larkana district staged a sit-in for two weeks against Imdad Cholhani, divisional chairman of the KC in Larkana, alleging that he had not only managed to get their water course closed through his official connections, but had fraudulently transferred their agriculture lands in Hamal village of Warah sub-division.

When the activists of the committee in Larkana attacked the treasury office, they not only beat up the staff, but also damaged the official record and the furniture. The next day, the staff of the treasury office went on strike and held a demonstration against the committee activists. One of the officials at the treasury office said, "The activists of the KC wanted me to pass some bills without following the proper procedure. They had actually been bribed by the party who wanted us to clear the bills. When we refused they attacked our office." The local administration initiated no action against the persons involved in the attack but managed to call off the strike by convincing the treasury office staff that they would beef up security at their office to avoid any recurrence of the incident.

The extent of the involvement of the KC in corruption can be gauged from the fact that the members of the district committee of Shikarpur held demonstrations against their own chief, J.J. Vishnu. They also sent evidence of his involvement in corruption to the Prime Minister.

When the activists of the committee in Larkana attacked the treasury office, they not only beat up the staff, but also damaged the official record and the furniture. One of the officials at the treasury office said, "The activists of the KC wanted me to pass some bills without following the proper procedure. They had actually been bribed by the party who wanted us to clear the bills. When we refused they attacked our office."

Activists of the KC in Nawabshah raided the office the deputy director, On Farm Water Management, and tried to seize the official record. A senior official at the department complained to the Prime Minister that he was being harassed by the KC activists, who, he said, had raided his office because he denied them the money they were demanding from him. When the KC activists learnt of the official's complaint, they raided his house. The dispute between the two parties was later resolved with the intervention of the people of the area.

The local administration of the Kashmore sub-division of Jacobabad district faced a worse dilemma due to the division of the KC activists into two groups. Abdul Rauf Khan Khosa and Sardar Qadir Nawaz both claimed to be the president of the KC, Kashmore. Says, a local official, "It has become quite difficult for us to work because one group is pressurising us not to cooperate with the other and we get trapped in the middle."

Passengers of Karachi-bound Fokker flight witnessed a strange scene when the divisional chief of the KC, Larkana, Imdad Choliani, and another member of the committee, Babu Ghulam Sarwar Siyal, had a brawl, soon after the doors of the plane were closed for take-off. Both used abusive language and tore at each other clothes, accusing each other of misusing powers. The flight was delayed for over an hour at the Moenjodaro airport and took off when the local administration offloaded both men from the plane.

The members of the Larkana Bar Association had to face embarrassment when army men raided the bar office to arrest the main PML(N) leader and KC senior member, Babu Sarfaraz Jatoi. Jatoi, who is also an advocate, had continued to use electricity illegally despite being warned by the new management of the WAPDA (the army) and the electricity line to his chamber was disconnected.

Almost two years have passed since the inception of the KCs, and they have yet to play the role they were assigned. Instead of facilitating good governance, they have managed to further tarnish the image of the government with stories of corruption, blackmail and one-sided accountability.