Back to Square One

The consequences of the agitation started by the opposition from day one could not have been different from what the legal and constitutional crisis we are having today. We have made every institution controversial. The fairness and transparency of no subsequent election after the fateful elections of 1970 have been recognised. The Armed Forces of the country, the superior judiciary, the Accountability Bureau, the law enforcing agencies, the election commission all have been mauled at the altar of our petty political controversies.

This is not the time to lament our disappointing tryst with democracy in the past. It would be in order to review the current political crisis in correct perspective. The elections of 2018 were held under interim governments in the centre and provinces, chosen by both the ruling party and opposition by the election commission headed by a consensus chairman. The law and order was maintained by the army and rangers. The election results were, as usual, challenged by the loosing political parties. They even announced to not take oath.

However, this controversy resulted in the formation of PDM for political agitation. This agitation intensified with the increasing pace of the accountability of the known political leaders finding its way in the parliament with the ruling party and the combined opposition trading barbs and using highly provocative, vituperative and derogatory sobriquets against each other. The National Assembly practically remained dysfunctional. Even issues of national importance got obscured in this political hostility and bitterness though the deadly Covid-19, the tottering economy, Modi Sarkar’s cruel raid on the autonomous state of Jammu and Kashmir, the fast-changing situation in Afghanistan, and the Gulf Region all demanded a concerted national move.

The armed forces, the superior judiciary, the accountability bureau, the law enforcing agencies and the election commission have all been mauled at the altar of our petty political controversies.

This was not the first time the politicians have landed this country into such a legal and constitutional absurdity. The second half of 1970s was marred by a more absurd political controversy culminating in the overthrow of an elected government by a dictator, the ominous slogan of accountability first and elections later, the arrest, mock trial and execution of the most popular leader of the country, the eleven years of absolute dictatorship and a renewed cycle of agitation for restoration of democracy. The years of 1990s witnessed the repeat of the earlier political controversies paving the way for another extra constitutional takeover. Can our worthy politicians tell us how long this vicious circle of political intolerance, immaturity and hostility will last?

The Prime Minister Imran grossly erred in handling the heightening political move against him. Though the political controversy has sent his public popularity soaring to the sky as revealed by his recent mammoth public meetings, he could not muster the courage to face the No Confidence Motion with grace. In my twitters one day before the fateful session of the National Assembly, I had advised him to try to win the No Confidence Motion and then get the Assemblies dissolved for a new mandate. And that if he fails to win the NCM, he should make a graceful exit speech and go to the people. As a political martyr free from incumbency, and his surging public popularity, he will have clear majority in any fair and transparent election.

He followed a bad advice getting the National Assembly dissolved under controversial circumstances. The opposition seems unwilling to go for quick elections. Firstly, they are daunted by the sudden and unexpected surge in the popularity of Imran Khan. Secondly, they have plans to repeal certain laws relating to electronic voting machine and right to oversee Pakistanis to vote in general elections. Thirdly, they want to prune the wings of the Accountability Bureau and get relief in cases against leading opposition leaders from courts and facilitate the home coming of the senior Sharif. Fourthly, they also want to use their new-found political power to dent the popularity of their lone opponent probably by implicating him in some concocted cases.

Via DailyTimes