The call from Allama Dr Tahirul Qadri to scribble 'Go Nawaz Go' on banknotes as mark of protest in the ongoing 'Dharna' or sit-in is deep-rooted in our history. However, it is a failed move because Qadri is undoubtedly a poor student of history. Gandhiji as part of his non-cooperation movement called upon the people not to wear clothes made from cloth churned out by mills in England. He also led a march against the 'salt tax' imposed by the colonial rulers. But both moves did not lead to English rulers giving even self-rule to the people. It was the World War-II which forced them to raise, equip and train the Indians in the art of warfare. This resulted in training thousands of people in the British India who could pounce on the English Army already exhausted by long years of war. Thus the Englishmen were forced to walk away from the subcontinent.
It was in 1977 when Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) movement was agitating for fresh elections that the government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in May 1977 promulgated an Ordinance, which barred SBP from accepting any currency note inscribed with political slogans. It seems that the Allama was not conversant with the law of the land when he tried a new trick to step up pressure on an embattled prime minister. In 2002 when this country became part of a coalition against war-on-terror; SBP on 14th May 2002 was forced once again to remind the public of the law in force.
The texts of Dr Qadri and 'Kaptan' Imran Khan's messages may rapidly gain traction among people. However, it is the mode of implementing their ideas that most people differ with. The Constitution of 1973 is a compact among the federating units backed by the people whereby they have agreed for social stability with certain guarantees in return. It is this non-receipt of their guarantees that is causing growing unrest. But this does not mean that the document, i.e., the 1973 Constitution is faulty. It is the fault of the people at the helm who do not follow or try to bypass the constitution or who want to revert back to a unitary form of government instead of a federal setup envisaged in the constitution. Asking people not to pay taxes or their electricity bills or scribble political slogans on banknotes making them useless will only hurt the economy and the people at large. The rich and powerful will be the less affected with the economic slide resulting in higher inflation and lower growth. The Allama and the Kaptan need not involve the economy to achieve their political objectives.
We do agree that fiscal reforms require structural changes which need to be preceded by political reforms. To ease our fiscal woes, the country needs an effective local government at district level - collecting revenue underpaid by retailers, real estate sector and agriculture. Let the people feel that taxes collected from them are effectively utilized for their betterment. The federal government can monitor and the provincial government can audit the collection as well as expenditure of local governments. Qadri's and Imran's sit-ins are a wake-up call for the nation. Let us undertake electoral reforms and hold local bodies' elections. And let us not put the cart before the horse. State functionaries are bound by the law. If the law is bad or is unenforceable it is a job of the legislature to amend it and it is for the superior court to test it on the touchstone of overriding constitutional provisions. The court shall never permit mobocracy to overwhelm the law of the land.