After subjects of the landing of a fictitious Israeli plane, the subject that our TV channel stars are trying to sell to the viewers is the transfer of Islamabad’s IG, under orders from the competent authority. On the one hand the subject has gained special significance because of the CJ’s prompt intervention on the grounds that there is no way the state will be run on the whims of the ministers in complete disregard of the procedures and rules; and on the other hand it has ignited a debate regarding the boundaries from where the authority of the Chief Executive begins and those where his authority attains questionable character.
For me here the issue is not the behaviour of an individual called Azam Swati, who happens to be a Federal Minister, and whose family’s personal dispute with a citizen of a much lower statue has triggered this sad controversy. For me the issue is not Mr Azam Swati’s frantic efforts to drag the highest police authority of the Federal Capital into what looks like a pretty petty issue. For me the issue is not even Mr Azam Swati’s desperate move to involve the office of the country’s Chief Executive in the matter. For me the issue is whether or not the prime minister of the country enjoying the mandate of the masses has the authority to act against an officer who has shown ‘disrespectful’ disregard for the Federal Cabinet. In my view Azam Swati in this case is not just an individual. He is the Federal Cabinet.
And what is Federal Cabinet, if not the extension of the office of the Prime Minister himself?
The Prime Minister might have acted in haste, and not observed the relevant rules before acting against the IG Police. But then let the honourable CJ himself remember the haste in which he had ordered the removal of the Jail Superintendent of Karachi jail after catching Shah Rukh Jatoi, a convicted criminal enjoying special privileges in the jail?
I have been the head of very large organizations in the past. I still am running an organization that has six fully authorized and empowered senior executives functioning in various areas. If any of these senior executives complains to me about the ‘insubordination’ of any functionary under him, I will not hesitate to act against the culprit. In my opinion insubordination is, in a good management system, a higher offense than violation of procedural rules. In the military it is unthinkable that a junior will not pick a senior’s call.
Not meaning thereby that there are no remedies for ‘actions against rules’ or moral high ground.
Imran Khan is running an administration in which he is justified to suspect that every third government official may secretly be taking orders from his or her former benefactor.
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