The writer is a former professor of International Relations and Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Karachi and can be reached at amoonis@hotmail.com
The most damaging episode for the PML-N so far has been of Shehbaz Sharif leaving the PAC chairmanship and appointing another party stalwart to the post without consulting other political parties, particularly the PPP. The leadership of both the opposition parties is facing corruption charges brought by NAB. The opposition’s inability to table a vote of no-confidence against the Prime Minister is also an indication of the pressure it faces from NAB as well as age-old cleavages between the PPP and the PML-N. The common enemy for the two parties is the PTI. The party has a thin majority in the National Assembly, but the efforts of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to unite the PPP and the PML-N against what he calls the inept PTI government have yet to bear fruit.
Can the opposition’s moment of truth provide an opportunity to the PPP and the PML-N to do some soul searching and understand why the PTI has managed to emerge as a third force? Is it possible for the opposition parties to unite and dislodge the PTI government from power? One also knows the fact that political stability is essential for economic progress and development, but regrettably the focus of the opposition and the PTI-led government is not to pull the country from a possible economic collapse but to let each other down in an endless political squabbling. For the opposition, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s growing confidence in dealing with political challenges is because of the support he gets from those who matter. The PTI government is blamed by the opposition for indulging in the worst kind of political victimisation, incompetence, nepotism and corruption. But only allegations will not change things for the opposition unless it puts its own house in order and rise above petty issues.
The opposition’s moment of truth has arrived and needs to be analysed from three angles. Firstly, the failure of the opposition, particularly the PPP and the PML-N, to play a leadership role in countering what they allege as the PTI’s incompetence to deal with governance and economic matters. For the vast majority of the people of Pakistan, the July 2018 elections were a ray of hope as far as improving their quality of life and ridding the country of deep-seated corruption and nepotism are concerned. But all such hopes got shattered because those who came to power proved to be no different from their predecessors. The ‘great betrayal’ to the expectations and the trust of the people is a reality given the fact that adherence to merit and the rule of law are nowhere to be found while corruption and nepotism are still prevalent. Members of the national and provincial assemblies belonging to the PTI, instead of solving the people’s problems, got involved in seeking perks, benefits and positions. Opposition parties are alleging that NAB and courts are looking the other way by not taking notice of what they call large-scale corruption in the BRT Project, Peshawar. As a result, frustration, anger and antagonism in the people of Pakistan now buried under enormous price hike, bad governance, corruption and nepotism have augmented. That there is just the change of faces, and no qualitative change, is a reality which the PTI leadership cannot escape from just by accusing their predecessors of deep-rooted economic malaise.
Second, in order to effectively challenge the PTI over what they call ruining the economy and governance system of the country, the PPP and the PML-N must come clean on the charges of corruption and money laundering. When the top leadership of the two main opposition parties is perceived to be involved in years of loot and plunder, it is time that they should be removed by those who do not carry the baggage of corruption and nepotism.
Third, the opposition’s moment of truth provides a valuable opportunity for the PTI to implement its election manifesto of transforming Pakistan into a welfare state. Charges of nepotism, corruption, lack of accountability and incompetence levelled by the opposition against the PTI, coupled with infighting within the party’s rank and file, raise a question mark as to its competence to bring the change it had promised. Most of the PTI’s committed leaders and diehards, who had been with Imran Khan since 1996, have left him and he is now surrounded by those who are either sycophants, opportunists or with no sacrifice rendered for the party.
Reports of a ‘deal’ being struck between the Sharif family and the government may not be true, but the ‘escapist’ strategy pursued by Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shehbaz Sharif is nothing new. In 2000, both brothers went into exile in Saudi Arabia after reaching a deal with the military government of General Pervez Musharraf while announcing quitting politics at that time. However, the difference between 2000 and 2019 is that this time the Prime Minister has categorically ruled out any deal with Nawaz, Shehbaz or the Zardari family. Unless the Prime Minister takes a U-turn, one cannot expect the 2000 or 2007 history to repeat itself. To what extent the Prime Minister remains firm in his stance of not compromising with the Sharifs and Zardaris remains to be seen.
However, in that tug of war between the government and the opposition, it is the people of Pakistan who are suffering. Never before in the history of Pakistan had such a serious and dangerous economic crisis engulfed the country putting at stake the lives of millions of people with almost stagnant levels of growth. Yet one can witness lack of seriousness, prudence and perseverance on the part of both the government and the opposition to provide relief to more than 200 million Pakistanis.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 10th, 2019.
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