We see a careful manipulation and omission of facts to support a spectacularly outrageous case.
KARACHI: This is with reference to Taj Haider’s article titled “Pot calling the kettle black” (August 23). If only the PPP was half as honest as it is shrewd!
We see a careful manipulation and omission of facts to support a spectacularly outrageous case. Firstly, is Mr Haider claiming that the PPP’s performance and popularity at the end of their tenure justified a result other than the one that was reached? Does he really think that this was all the doing of the TTP and had nothing to do with their stellar efforts to run all state institutions into the ground? Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the leaders of the PPP, democracy also presupposes a basic level of honesty, both in action and in word.
Instead of quoting the case of just one constituency — NA-1 — it would be more pertinent to check the overall performance of these parties in the by-election. The PTI made significant gains in the by-elections in K-P, how many more seats did the ANP, the PPP and the MQM take in them?
The writer claims that democracy presupposes a “civilised political culture” (one that is being harmed by Khan shouting in front of the National Assembly, but not by the holding of wedding receptions in the Sindh Assembly, or by taking bribes for government appointments) but forgets the fact that one of the foundations of democracy is a clean election.
Moving on, the PPP’s argument that it suffered badly in the 2013 election because of the TTP threat ignores that it was the result of a deal with General Pervez Musharraf in 2008 that the party won that election. Does the party expect us to believe that the establishment in no way aided their cause then? Was that not rigging in favour of the PPP?
Let’s go further back, to the ones that started it all, 1970, when Mujeeb won a clear majority in the election, what was the PPP’s response? Did they graciously accept the result in aid of “strengthening democracy”? Did a PPP government not dissolve the democratically-elected assemblies of Balochistan and the NWFP?
The fact of the matter is that the PPP has always supported democracy — when and where it could win by doing so. The wily old politicians of the PPP should stop playing these tricks and grow a conscience. It’s interesting that the article was titled “Pot calling the kettle black” when it should actually be called “Painting the crow white”.
Amin Hussain
Published in The Express Tribune, August 26th, 2014.
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