On July 14, an English daily published on its website a report about a ministerial level stakeholders’ meeting held a day earlier on a proposed China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority Bill 2020. The contents of this proposed bill are not even known to members of the parliament and it has not been circulated for eliciting opinion from a legitimate stakeholder: the public. Instantly, this report began circulating on social media platforms.
Curiosity about the bill thus aroused, I tried to search the report but found that it had been taken off the website. No one knows why it was taken off within an hour of uploading and who ordered it. If tongues started wagging, people cannot be blamed.
The bill chucks out the civilian Minister for Planning and Development as co-chairman of the strategic decision making body, the Joint Cooperative Committee (JCC) of CPEC. The minister is replaced with a chairman of the CPEC Authority who will now sit on the podium with the vice chairman of the National Development and Reforms Commission of China, the other co-chairman of JCC.
Under the Rules of Business, the CPEC Authority works under the Planning, Development and Reforms Division and its chairman is responsible to the planning minister. The bill places it directly under the prime minister, but how?
The prime minister’s directives and policy guidelines will be complied by the authority only “to the extent that these are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act,” the bill says.
The scope of the authority is that of coordination. Enlarging it, the bill empowers it to also conceive, plan and execute all projects under CPEC.
Presently, the CPEC Authority has a chief executive officer (CEO) who is a Grade 20 officer, and two other executive directors from civil bureaucracy. Perhaps finding them to be an inconvenient nuisance, the bill abolishes the posts of two executive directors and replaces the CEO with an unheard of entity in a civilian set up, the “chief of staff” who will “assist the Chairman of the Authority.”
The proposed bill empowers the chairman of authority to order investigations against public office holders even without reference to NAB. In case a public office holder did not cooperate with the authority, the chairman will have the power to order an investigation against him, it says.
To appreciate its implication, it would be helpful to keep the following facts in juxtaposition with the proposed legislation.
First, the present chairman of CPEC Authority is a ‘not so retired’ lieutenant general. He was appointed within two days of retiring as corps commander. Recently, he was also appointed as special assistant to the prime minister for media matters with office in the PM House in addition to being the authority’s chairman.
Second, sometime back, a special CPEC security division was also created in the army. Reportedly, the issues of funding the security division had also resulted in some tension with the Finance Ministry. But more on it later.
Third, CPEC is a multibillion dollar project involving huge contracts in communications, energy, railways, infrastructure development and petroleum transportation to name some. Perish the thought that military’s business and construction conglomerates FWO and NLC are eying huge contracts, often without bids. But there is a serpent of doubt that bites the soul.
Only last week a subcommittee of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee was informed that FWO was given a Rs2.4 billion project by the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation without bids on single tender basis in violation of PPRA rules. Both FWO and NLC are exempt from 8.5 percent of government taxes on two out of five sections on the Hakla-Dera Ismail Khan CPEC road project, each costing nearly Rs30 billion. The civilian contractors on the other three sections are required to pay full taxes.
Last year, the FWO entered into oil business as well when the contract for building a 470 kilometre oil pipeline project costing over Rs50 billion was awarded to its subsidiary, the Frontier Oil Company (FCO) in a highly questionable manner. Another bidder, the Interstate Gas Systems - whose earlier bid had expired - reportedly was persuaded not to pursue the project.
Fourth, sometime back in the run up to the merger of tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunhwa, a proposal was mooted by the not-so-secret quarters to appoint a “chief executive officer” for tribal areas when it was declared that over Rs900 billion of development projects will be executed in these areas during the next decade. The CEO was to be a Grade 22 civil or military officer, and responsible for all development works in erstwhile FATA.
The proposal was, however, shelved when it echoed in the parliament and a number of MPs smelled blood in the title ‘CEO,’ recalling how General Musharraf had initially similarly designated himself after overthrowing the civilian government.
With this background, it is clear that the proposed CPEC Authority Bill 2020 is yet another manifestation of the hybrid system of governance. It is yet another demonstration of the de facto controlling both the levers of power and strings of purse without accountability and of the de jure held accountable but with no authority.
According to economist Hafeez Pasha, the DHAs have already become the country’s largest real estate enterprise, the FWO the largest construction contractor and the Fauji Foundation the largest industrial and commercial complex of the country.
The bill marks a quantum jump to further expand the military’s industrial, commercial and business empire. It is furthering of the creeping coup. It may or may not be intended, but it will result in tilting the economic and strategic playing field against civilians and de jure arm government. In this uneven and tilted playing, the state and society cannot remain stable.
The writer is a former senator
Curiosity about the bill thus aroused, I tried to search the report but found that it had been taken off the website. No one knows why it was taken off within an hour of uploading and who ordered it. If tongues started wagging, people cannot be blamed.
The bill chucks out the civilian Minister for Planning and Development as co-chairman of the strategic decision making body, the Joint Cooperative Committee (JCC) of CPEC. The minister is replaced with a chairman of the CPEC Authority who will now sit on the podium with the vice chairman of the National Development and Reforms Commission of China, the other co-chairman of JCC.
Under the Rules of Business, the CPEC Authority works under the Planning, Development and Reforms Division and its chairman is responsible to the planning minister. The bill places it directly under the prime minister, but how?
The prime minister’s directives and policy guidelines will be complied by the authority only “to the extent that these are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act,” the bill says.
The scope of the authority is that of coordination. Enlarging it, the bill empowers it to also conceive, plan and execute all projects under CPEC.
Presently, the CPEC Authority has a chief executive officer (CEO) who is a Grade 20 officer, and two other executive directors from civil bureaucracy. Perhaps finding them to be an inconvenient nuisance, the bill abolishes the posts of two executive directors and replaces the CEO with an unheard of entity in a civilian set up, the “chief of staff” who will “assist the Chairman of the Authority.”
The proposed bill empowers the chairman of authority to order investigations against public office holders even without reference to NAB. In case a public office holder did not cooperate with the authority, the chairman will have the power to order an investigation against him, it says.
To appreciate its implication, it would be helpful to keep the following facts in juxtaposition with the proposed legislation.
First, the present chairman of CPEC Authority is a ‘not so retired’ lieutenant general. He was appointed within two days of retiring as corps commander. Recently, he was also appointed as special assistant to the prime minister for media matters with office in the PM House in addition to being the authority’s chairman.
Second, sometime back, a special CPEC security division was also created in the army. Reportedly, the issues of funding the security division had also resulted in some tension with the Finance Ministry. But more on it later.
Third, CPEC is a multibillion dollar project involving huge contracts in communications, energy, railways, infrastructure development and petroleum transportation to name some. Perish the thought that military’s business and construction conglomerates FWO and NLC are eying huge contracts, often without bids. But there is a serpent of doubt that bites the soul.
Only last week a subcommittee of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee was informed that FWO was given a Rs2.4 billion project by the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation without bids on single tender basis in violation of PPRA rules. Both FWO and NLC are exempt from 8.5 percent of government taxes on two out of five sections on the Hakla-Dera Ismail Khan CPEC road project, each costing nearly Rs30 billion. The civilian contractors on the other three sections are required to pay full taxes.
Last year, the FWO entered into oil business as well when the contract for building a 470 kilometre oil pipeline project costing over Rs50 billion was awarded to its subsidiary, the Frontier Oil Company (FCO) in a highly questionable manner. Another bidder, the Interstate Gas Systems - whose earlier bid had expired - reportedly was persuaded not to pursue the project.
Fourth, sometime back in the run up to the merger of tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunhwa, a proposal was mooted by the not-so-secret quarters to appoint a “chief executive officer” for tribal areas when it was declared that over Rs900 billion of development projects will be executed in these areas during the next decade. The CEO was to be a Grade 22 civil or military officer, and responsible for all development works in erstwhile FATA.
The proposal was, however, shelved when it echoed in the parliament and a number of MPs smelled blood in the title ‘CEO,’ recalling how General Musharraf had initially similarly designated himself after overthrowing the civilian government.
With this background, it is clear that the proposed CPEC Authority Bill 2020 is yet another manifestation of the hybrid system of governance. It is yet another demonstration of the de facto controlling both the levers of power and strings of purse without accountability and of the de jure held accountable but with no authority.
According to economist Hafeez Pasha, the DHAs have already become the country’s largest real estate enterprise, the FWO the largest construction contractor and the Fauji Foundation the largest industrial and commercial complex of the country.
The bill marks a quantum jump to further expand the military’s industrial, commercial and business empire. It is furthering of the creeping coup. It may or may not be intended, but it will result in tilting the economic and strategic playing field against civilians and de jure arm government. In this uneven and tilted playing, the state and society cannot remain stable.
The writer is a former senator