Let saner advice prevail

The recent combined opposition rally was an anti-climax. For those who had high expectations that it would shake up the government, it turned out to be a deep disappointment. More significantly, it exposed the sad state of Pakistan’s politics and the low quality of discourse of its leaders.

Apart from some segments of Imran Khan’s speech where he talked of development it was nothing but character assassination of the Sharif brothers. Certainly they deserve criticism for many acts of omission and commission but this is what we have been hearing ad nauseam for the last one and a half years. The theatrics of Sheikh Rashid, however, took the prize for most bizarre scene. He who seemed so determined to bring parliament down has now announced his resignation. Though it appears appalling, Imran Khan not only fully approved of Sheikh Sahib’s diatribe but also gladly announced that he will seriously consider following his lead. It was indeed an ironic twist of events as the discourse stretching over months was to bring down the house of Sharifs.

One can overlook such an impulsive move by Sheikh Rashid but coming from a leader who aspires to be prime minister of a nuclear-capable country that faces gigantic challenges, a more reasoned and mature response is expected.

We hardly need to remind ourselves that foremost priority of the political class is to strengthen democracy in which parliament has a pivotal role. To demean it is to strengthen the very forces that have been waiting in the wings to upend democracy for good. If our leaders would seriously reflect they would realise that among the serious challenges Pakistan is facing is fragility of its democratic institutions. This has resulted in the military and judiciary continuously expanding authority in their areas of responsibility.

Not a day passes when the chief justice of Pakistan or chief justices of high courts are not taking suo-motu action on cases that would normally fall in the purview of the political government. These actions further undermine the public’s confidence in the government. With the army dominating foreign, defence and security policies, the space for government’s authority keeps shrinking leaving it with hardly a few subjects where it has a lead role. This vicious cycle can only be broken if the government wins back the confidence of its people by attaining a certain level of efficiency. And the other institutions also start looking inwards. The backlog of judicial cases runs into millions and the quality of many judgments leaves much to be desired. This is causing severe misery to those affected. So if every institution and every province were to look inwards and take corrective measures and set higher standards of efficiency it would be a far better approach. That would motivate others to follow.

Having watched several messiahs during the last 70 years, one is convinced that trespassing does not work.

Moreover, in the case of a political party or its leadership, it has to pass through the court of the people at a regular frequency where they are judged for their performance. If this process had been sustained in the past by now the quality of our democracy would have been very different.

Despite this experience, cynics and opportunists among us leave no opportunity to promote tried out and failed solutions of a technocratic or military takeover. To counter these forces, politicians have to develop a consensus to strengthen democratic norms irrespective of their differences. Benazir and Nawaz Sharif did once sign the “democracy pact” but it was short lived and remained poor in execution. It was essentially an alliance to counter non-democratic forces from manipulating one major political party against the other.

Our current challenges demand major corrective measures at the institutional and overall national level. Elections should be fought on issues and political parties assessed on their past and recent performance. The country will become ungovernable if institutions continue to pull apart and leaders aim only at seizing power without effectively addressing the common people’s needs. Moreover, with hardly any oversight by parliament, the judiciary, military, bureaucracy or media will have to do mostly corrections from within. The challenge they face is much greater provided they are prepared to look inwards.

The disturbed security situation in Balochistan and political uncertainty prevailing in the country could affect our realising the full potential of CPEC. Besides, Pakistan has yet to redefine certain economic policies and adopt models that are recommended by the Chinese to increase output in agriculture and industry. Restoring normalcy in Balochistan and keeping pace with the Chinese in terms of efficiency and implementation are no easy tasks.

Moreover, the coordination between provinces and between the federal government and the provinces has to improve considerably to maximise the benefits of CPEC. The Chinese may be politely nudging their counterparts to correct these weaknesses but are we really listening?

Meanwhile, our internal weakness provides the US additional leverage to exert pressure on us. They generally deal directly with the military knowing where the power lies. Had our country’s political leadership been more astute and greater cooperation among institutions we would not be pushed around. Last week, at the UNSC meeting delegates from the United States, India and Afghanistan accused us of our presumed support for Afghan militant groups.

The recent declaration by FAFEN, a proactive broad coalition of NGOs, very aptly lays out the ills and challenges that the country is facing at a time when elections are only a few months away. It advises that politicians should rise above their narrow and parochial interests and address the vital issues that are squarely facing the country. It stresses alleviation of poverty, reduction in widespread inequalities in distribution of wealth and resources, wide-scale illiteracy, measures against suppression of human rights and rise of social conflicts, deprived status of women and deep polarisation of society and the fight among political parties. These are serious issues that demand a major change in our strategic trajectory. It is time we listened carefully to these sane voices and acted upon them.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2018.

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