Calling this house to order

The evolutionary process has started and the best way to do this is to take this nascent democracy to the next step.

There are days when it’s nice and quiet in Pakistan. No bombs, no violence. Extremism takes a day off. But just when you think you can sit back and relax, a coalition partner walks out on the government — again. The nation lets out a collective groan, there’s never a dull moment in Pakistani politics. The consensus, however, is they’ll be back but at a price.

The PPP leadership talks about reconciliation and the politics of consensus, there’s a school of thought which says that while all that is terribly noble, what’s also needed are credible democratic institutions. It’s not all about keeping everyone on board, its not about sharing the spoils or paying a price; it has to also be about building a system that ensures the continuity of the democratic system. To be fair to the government, we have spent the past three and some years lurching from one crisis to the next firefighting. Which is disastrous, it depletes resources, saps energy and slows down the growth process.

There has been some growth, some development, but it’s been slow and, thanks to the smoke from all the fires, has largely gone unnoticed. So if we put aside our biases and take a look around us, we will see that some things have changed. For example, the chairman of the public accounts committee is now the leader of the opposition and the military are being called to account, albeit very gently, by parliament. Nonetheless, it is change.

Evolution is a long process; it took millions of years for man to stand up and walk on two legs. Our parliamentarians may not be evolved enough to understand what their real role is. They may not understand that its not all about patronage, not all about individuals having power, but rather about a system that holds them all accountable and, by doing so, ensures their survival. While they do not have the power or the ability to hold anyone, civilian or military, accountable the process has begun and needs to be strengthened. The best way to do this is to take this nascent democracy to the next step.

And that step has to be to develop institutions like parliament. Parliament in Pakistan is not seen as the forum where legislation is made, where important issues are debated and discussed. Where elected representatives are held to account by their peers. Where every action is scrutinised and no one can get away with circumventing the law or misusing or wasting public funds. Parliament in Pakistan is still seen as this place where a few, with no real power, play with the lives and fortunes of hundreds of millions. There is no debate, no move forward, nor any attempt to get out of the mess that has us bogged down.

The budget for the fiscal year 2011–2012 was recently passed by parliament. No one can recall the debate. For months before the budget was presented, there was discussion in the media about the need to tax income across the board. This was a discussion that needed to happen in parliament. Television commentators and talk show hosts are in no position to decide fiscal policy. And while they may expose corruption and other scandals, they cannot hold anyone to account. Parliament, on the other hand, can and must do both.

So, as the MQM walks out of government, this time one hopes that it isn’t about a renegotiation of the terms by which they went in in the first place. Rather, one hopes that they will sit out of government in the centre and the province and play the role of a strong and effective opposition. One that will raise the level of debate, ask those difficult questions that a good opposition, not seeking to bring down a government but seeking to be part of a strong parliamentary democracy, must ask and lay the next stone needed to give the state that solid foundation.



Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2011.