An Outline of Comprehensive Plan for Performance Improvement in Public Prosecution Department

We have already seen in the article “KPIs for Public Prosecution Department” that standardized and quantifiable parameters are required to assess uniformly performance of the prosecutors so that improved service delivery, effective career planning, transparency and appropriate decision making may be inducted in the administrative set up. These key performance indicators, actually, may be made a basis of a comprehensive plan for performance improvement in Public  Prosecution Department. 

On the basis of these KPIs, such a performance assessment and performance improvement system may be devised which, not only, would identify deficiencies in the performance of prosecutors,  but also undertake necessary measures to remove such deficiencies through administrative measures and  training programmes aiming at removing such deficiencies. For the purpose, data of criminal cases in terms of each stage of prosecution  (e.g. investigation level; remand level; evidence level; bail level; argumentation level etc.)  would be collected. In this way data relating to prosecution timeline would be available and the department would be enabled to analyze performance of prosecutors and the causes of delay at each stage of prosecution and to remove such causes through administrative measures and training programs, if necessary. 

The proposed performance assessment and performance improvement system may also fix benchmarks of performance and fix performance targets for prosecutors, keeping in view such performance benchmarks so that service delivery may be improved.  Moreover, promotion prospects of prosecutors would also be linked with their performance viz a viz fixed performance benchmarks so that it may be ensured that only higher performance is rewarded. In this way it would be ensured that only the prosecutors showing higher performance are promoted. In other words, the higher we go, the better performing stuff would be found in the Prosecution Department. Such a scenario also warrants attractive salary packages to be offered to the prosecutors so that better talent may be retained in the department. In short, the objectives of proposed KPIs may be summarized as given below: 
1. To induct a standardized procedure of inspection and reporting for performance assessment uniformly;
2. To link inspection reporting systems with standardized assessment of training needs;
3. To link reporting system with structuring proper training programs;
4. To link inspection reporting system with standardized procedure of inquiry initiation;
5. To link inspection reporting system with progressive performance improvement system through assigning performance targets;
6. To link reporting system with career planning and promotion policy;
7. To make inspection  reporting system a tool for taking appropriate policy decisions.


 

The Greatest Casualty of 9/11 (2)

               

In part (1) of this article we have seen that there was every likelihood for Pakistan after conducting nuclear tests in 1998 to assume a leadership role among the Muslim nations. But, in the aftermath of 9/11 event, Musharraf regime’s short sightedness dragged Pakistan into so called war of terror and provided India with secured and peaceful borders. Consequently, on the one hand, Pakistan was held back from assuming the leadership role among the Muslim nations, and, on the other hand, India, by developing its economy, was allowed to grow into a hurdle in Pakistan’s way of assuming leadership role among the Muslim nations. 

Now that USA is leaving Afghanistan and Taliban suicidal attacks have subsided in Pakistan to a great extent, Pakistan may have space, on the one hand, to revise its policy viz a viz India and reinforce, on the other hand, its efforts to enhance its political and military ties with the Muslim nations. Luckily, in the backdrop of new regional and world scenario linked with China emerging as new world power, Pakistan’s geo-strategic importance offers it new prospects to assume role of regional leadership. Pakistan, due to its geo-strategic position, may become a linchpin of new Economic and Political Alliance consisting of Afghanistan, CIS, China and Gulf States; Gawadar Port may act as economic vanguard in fabricating such an alliance. Such a pivotal position attained by Pakistan in such a strategically important alliance would add to Pakistan’s strategic importance viz a viz India in the eyes of Muslim nations and pave the way to Pakistan’s leadership role among the Muslim nations (for details plz see my articles “Muslim Millat” and Pakistan's Role in Ensuing Decade" and "Pak-Iran Gas and Gawadar Port Projects".

As for as India concerned, Pakistan may take all necessary steps to convince India to solve Kashmir dispute peacefully. But, if India does not come to terms, Pakistan may employ the strategy of making India a bad destination for foreign investment. For the purpose, whole India may be converted into a country marred with internal battlegrounds like India had developed internal battlegrounds in Pakistan. Kashmiri freedom movement may be supported not only morally but also militarily. Pakistan is a legal party to this Kashmir dispute; Pakistan has every legal right not to allow the other party i.e. India to change situation in Kashmir in India’s favor.

The logic of engaging India militarily in Kashmir is usually rejected with a counter logic that first Pakistan should strengthen its economy and then take effective steps to force India out of Kashmir. Such a counter logic is not tenable when assessed in the light of fact that both states are nuclear powers; Pakistan, using its economic clout,   can never force India out of Kashmir; nuclear power of a state can never be undone by using economic power. It is true USSR was disintegrated under economic pressures but those pressures were built through military might by western powers. Any world economic power lacking in military might could never build such economic pressures; Japan could never break up USSR, despite all the economic might it had.  

Pakistan by engaging India militarily- by developing internal battlegrounds in India- may put unbearable economic pressures on India and consequently bring India to terms. 

A state may build up its power through combining its military, economic and political influences. History tells us that military and political power always leads to economic power as well. After the Second World War, USA’s military and political power was the supreme but its economic power (though world's largest) was much lesser than its military and political power. The USA's per capita income in 1945 was above $10,000 which grew to $40,000 in 2008 (inflation adjusted). Using its military and political power, USA gradually developed into present economic might. Similarly economic power may also be translated into military and political power.  But conversion of political and military power into economic power is much shorter process than the process of conversion of economic power into political and military power. Pakistan has been blessed with opportunity to convert its political and military power into economic power through forging regional Economic and Political Alliance.  What Pakistan requires is to focus on formation of regional Economic and Political Alliances and to put military pressure on India simultaneously.

We may conclude that it is high time for Pakistan to revise its Indian and regional policy as well as to step up efforts to forge close military and political ties with Muslim nations. It is the only way to undo the impact of wrong policies pursued in the past.  

The Greatest Casualty of 9/11 (1)

                 

Pakistan declared itself a nuclear power by conducting underground nuclear explosions in 1998. This single event was going to have far reaching regional and international implications which might lead Pakistan to assume a leadership role among Muslim nations. Such a development would mean replacement of existing regional and world order with new one which would be unacceptable to India and western powers shaping the existing regional and world order. Hence the prime consideration of India and western powers was to keep Pakistan away from assuming leadership role among the Muslim nations. The event of 9/11 provided India and western powers an opportunity to bring Pakistan to their terms and Pakistan’s Musharraf regime, due to short-sighted political considerations, helped western powers and India to achieve their nefarious designs and Pakistan was kept away from assuming much needed leadership role among the Muslim nations; the same short-sighted political considerations are still part of policies adopted by present regime in Pakistan. Pakistan’s likelihood of assuming leadership role among Muslim nations in post 1998 nuclear explosions era was the greatest casualty of 9/11 from Pakistan’s view point.

Pakistan’s declaring itself a nuclear power in 1998 was strategically important not only for Pakistan but also for regional and world powers, and for Muslim nations particularly Afghanistan, Gulf states, CIS, Israel’s neighboring states. A nuclear Pakistan might extend security assurance to the Gulf and Arab states against Israeli threat. A nuclear Pakistan might encourage newly born CIS to come out of Russian clutches to make new regional alliances. A nuclear Pakistan might keep India away from becoming investment paradise for western powers. In return Pakistan might forge close economic and trade relations with CIS, Gulf states and other regional states including China which was poised to become economic super power in coming decades.  The new political and economic alliances at least at regional level would result in re-distribution of military and economic power at regional level and resultantly at world level too at the cost of military and economic power of India and western powers. The accumulative impact of all these developments would be a nuclear Pakistan with a leadership role among Muslim nations. Hence prime objective of India and western powers, in post 1998 era, was to keep Pakistan away from assuming a leadership role among the Muslim nations. 

The event of 9/11 provided India and the western powers an opportunity to achieve their objective; they adopted two pronged policy to achieve their objective. Firstly they kept Pakistan busy and weak by involving Pakistan in so called war of terror; and secondly all out efforts were made to develop India’s economy so that India, which was also Pakistan’s competitor in winning over military and political friendship of some important Muslim nations, might create hurdles in Pakistan’s way to assuming a leadership role among Muslim nations.

The so called war of terror Pakistan was involved in after 9/11, proved to be fatal for Pakistan’s economy. The hundreds of suicidal bomb blasts conducted by so called Taliban and causing more than fifty thousand human casualties virtually made Pakistan a deserted place for foreign investment and also for local investment in KPK. This war kept consuming Pakistan’s military resources for more than a decade and kept Pakistan’s military power busy in dealing with local insurgency. Consequently Pakistan’s hands were kept too full to assert its presence internationally and to assume a leadership role among the Muslim nations.

As a parallel strategy all out efforts were made to develop India’s economy. India had adopted the policy of liberalization of economy during 90s but India was not able to attract such a huge foreign investments from western powers in 90s as it was able to attract in a decade in post 9/11 era. During 1991-2001, India received only US$ 17000 m (est) as FDI; whereas during this decade, India’s GDP grew from US$ 274 b in 1991 to US$ 493 b in 2001. Whereas during 2001-2010, India received US$ 178331 m (est) as FDI; during this decade India’s GDP grew from US$ 493 b in 2001 to US$ 1708 b in 2010. We can see that India’s economy grew by lesser than 100% during 1991-2001 i.e. pre 9/11 era; but India’s economy grew by almost 350% during 2001-2010 i.e. post 9/11 era. What makes the difference is the FDI. During pre 9/11 decade i.e. 1991-2001, India received only 17000 m as FDI; but during post 9/11 decade i.e. 2001-2010, India received 178331 m as FDI. In other words, India received more than 9 times greater FDI during post 9/11 decade than that received during pre 9/11 decade. 

It needs not overemphasized that trend of FDI inflow in any state is greatly influenced by the level of investment security in that state; a state having hot borders cannot be labeled as safe heavens for FDI. The prevailing hostility between Pakistan and India during 90s was not allowing foreign investors to choose India as safe heavens for FDI. It was 9/11 event which brought Pakistan under pressure to discontinue hostility with India especially with reference to Kashmir dispute. It was Musharraf’s regime which paved way to make India safe heavens for FDI and compromised over Pakistan’s vital national interests due to its short sighted political considerations and lack of political vision and political courage. It was bad luck of Pakistan that at a crucial juncture of its history its reins were in the hands of a person whose shortsightedness could push Pakistan at least 15 years back, and help India and the western powers to achieve their nefarious objectives.  

By imploying successfully two pronged policy, explained above, India and the western powers were able to keep Pakistan away from assuming leadership role among the Muslim nations. Now 14 years after the 9/11event, India is a strong economy of US$ 2 trillion (est) and posing a serious challenge to Pakistan to win over Iran and Afghanistan to its side. Moreover India is also forging close defense ties with Saudi Arabia and is having good relations with other Muslim countries too. In short, India, basing on its economic might and developing close defense and political ties with some important Muslim nations, is able to block Pakistan’s way to assuming leadership of the Muslim nations.  The western powers, particularly USA and UK are also extending all out support to India to win over friendship of important Muslim countries. That is why we see that USA did not block India’s way to have commercial transactions with Iran though USA had imposed economic sanctions on Iran; but when Pakistan tried to undertake gas pipeline project with Iran, USA did not approve it. Similarly western powers are encouraging India to assume greater military role in Afghanistan and to develop close military ties with Arab nations as well (continued).

Reality of Human Heart- a religious perspective

         

Apart from being considered as a blood pumping organ, heart is also commonly associated with human liking/ disliking and other human emotions; in this way, heart is connected with rationale of human deeds.  Let us look into this emotional aspect of heart functions in the succeeding lines in the light of revealed knowledge. 

We have already seen in the article “Concept of ‘qalb’ and ‘fuwad’ in Quran”, that, scientifically looking, human brain is associated with various functions and attributes including feelings, decision-making, intellect, hearing, seeing and all kinds of bodily instructions. In Quran, nowhere the word ‘ brain’ has been used, but the various functions and attributes assigned to human brain are described with words ‘ qalb’ and ‘fuwad’.   Word ‘fuwad’ is used for human feelings; whereas word ‘qalb’ is used for all brain’s functions. In other words, in Quranic terminology, words ‘qalb’ and ‘fuwad’ are used with the meaning of brain or mind. Now the question arises if word ‘qalb’ means human barain/ mind, what is meant by word ‘Heart’ which has been mentioned in various traditions and religious scriptures.

Before dwelling on the concept of ‘heart’, we need to clarify the emotional rationale of human deeds in the light of revealed knowledge i.e. Quran and Sunnah.

 We have already seen in the article “Reality of Human Soul”  that every human body is created out of its soul and then is appointed mate/ pair of such soul. We can find example of this phenomenon in rays striking against screen and making picture on the screen; that picture is actually within the rays already. Just like picture on the screen, human body is created out of rays of human soul. Every human body is a true reflection of its soul; human body contains all the characteristics which are embedded in dormant form in its soul. The greater a human body actualizes these characteristics, the more it functions like a soul. Depending upon the level of actualization, a human body can be weightless like a soul; it can fly in the air like a soul (as our Aulia Allah do); it can travel with immeasurable speed like a soul; it can see beyond the limits of ordinary human sight as a soul can do; it can be so refined like soul that no shadow of it can be formed (Hazrat Muhammad’s (saw) body had no shadow).  Human body always acts according to dictation of its soul; if the soul gives good direction, the human body acts in good way; if the soul gives bad direction, the human body acts accordingly.  That is why when a human body expires, its soul is rewarded or punished according to human body’s actions. It is a misconception that soul always leads towards Allah; if it were so, why should it be punished for bad deeds of human body?

As explained above, human body’s deeds are actually deeds of human soul. Now we come to the point what is the emotional rationale of human deeds OR, in other words, what is the emotional rationale of human soul’s deeds done in this world.  Actually linkage of emotional rationale with human soul’s/ human being's deeds is connected with ‘youm e alast’- the day when Allah made all human beings acknowledge that HE is their ‘Rab’/ the Sustainer and Lord. As we already have seen in the article “Modes of Human Trial and Levels of Consciousness” When Allah made souls/ bodies of all human beings acknowledge His Lordship, all souls/ bodies of human beings made acknowledgement to that effect. Souls/ bodies of all human beings accepted/ submitted that Allah is their Lord, but such submissions by all souls/ bodies of human beings to Allah were not uniform; the level of submission to Allah’s Lordship by more pious people was greater than that of lesser pious people.  Not only for whole life but also for every individual event he/she was to face in his/her life after taking birth in this world, soul/body of every human being submitted to Allah’s Lordship in various degrees. The objective behind Allah’s question was to know how much every soul/ human being would submit to Allah in his life matters after taking birth in this world; the reply by each soul showed how much he/she would submit to Allah in various incidents in his/her life after taking birth in this world. These various levels of submission shown by soul/body of individual(s) to Allah’s Lordship in various incidents of future worldly life are called individual’s intentions/ ‘neyyat’. In psychological terms, these intentions are called unconscious level of human mind.  These levels of submission/ intentions shown by soul of an individual on ‘youm-e-alst’ to Allah’s Lordship about his/her future life incidents are made apparent to him in his life after he/she takes birth in this world.  That is why every individual is liable to get punishment or reward for only such deeds which are based on his/her intentions, as our Nabi (saw) states that “deeds are based on intentions/ ‘neyyat’. 

These neyyat/ intentions shown by soul/body of an individual at ‘youm e alast’ were actually the emotions granted to that human body/soul; these emotions were to be made basis of deeds of that soul/ body after taking birth in this world in the form of human being of flesh and bones.  These emotions may be divided into two categories; they may be either in line with acknowledgement of Allah’s Lordship, Or they may be contradictory to acknowledgement of Allah’s Lordship. If the emotions are in line with acknowledgement of Allah’s Lordship, they are called ‘HEART’ of human soul/ human being. If the emotions are contradictory to acknowledgement of Allah’s Lordship, they are called human mind. In other words, as mentioned above, these 'neyyat'/ emotions are  unconscious mind of human being, Heart is human being's such part of unconscious mind which is relating to those 'neyyat'/ emotions which play in line with acknowledgment of Allah's Lordship. It means unconscious mind consists of two types of emotions; one relating to good deeds (it may also be called human Heart), and the second relating to bad deeds. when these  both types of emotions/ 'neyyat' are made known to concerned human being, they are called 'wish'/ desire (for details plz see article titled '“Modes of Human Trial and Levels of Consciousness" and article "Concept of ‘qalb’ and ‘fuwad’ in Quran”).

   In other words, human Heart is not a permanent organ in human body which leads human being to Allah; actually human Heart is a relative term. At one time a set of emotions may be in line with acknowledgement of Allah’s Lordship; at some other time, that same set of emotions may play in a manner contradictory to acknowledgement of Allah’s Lordship. That is why we find satisfaction in doing a certain act in a certain scenario; but we feel anxious by doing the same act in a different scenario. But one thing is certain; human Heart always leads human being to Allah. It is not human soul which always leads human being to Allah; it is that part of human soul’s emotions which are in line with sense of Allah’s Lordship, which always leads human to Allah. That is why our Nabi (saww) told us ' whenever a person is confused as to which way/action he should go for, he should listen to his 'Heart'; in other words, in case of such confusion, he should go for such way of action which is based on acknowledgment of Allah's Lordship; in other words, in such confusions, the person's act should be based on Trust on Allah (obviously Allah may be trusted only if action is based on Allah's commandment).

We may conclude that concept of human ‘Heart’, described as emotional rationale of human deeds, and as such mentioned in religious scriptures, has nothing to do with that organ which works as blood pumping organ in human body . Human ‘Heart’ in religious perspective is actually a relative term associated with such human emotions which play in line with human acknowledgement of Allah’s Lordship. Heart is actually that portion of human mind’s functions which are relating to such emotions which are in consonance with human acknowledgement of Allah’s Lordship which was acknowledged by all human beings in ‘youm e alst’. 'Heart' is part of 'Unconscious Mind'; when a person, after taking birth in this world, becomes conscious of this part of Unconscious Mind, this part of Unconscious Mind is called 'Heart'. 

NOTE: It may be appreciated that concept of 'Heart' described as emotional rationale of human deeds -and as such mentioned in religious scriptures- has been discussed in this article. As for as Heart as blood pumping organ and mentioned as such in religious scriptures is concerned, such Heart is not emotional rationale of human deeds; rather such Heart is blood pumping organ located in the chest. For  instance our Nabi (saww) in one saying has described Heart as an organ which regulates health of human body; if that organ malfunctions,  whole body malfunctions; if that organ functions well, whole body functions well. In fact in this saying our Nabi (saww) has mentioned about Heart which acts as a blood pumping organ, not as emotional rationale of our deeds.