Opposition must align with national interests

For the last two years the opposition has spent so much time and energy trying to defend and prevent the accountability of its accused leadership on corruption charges that it has actually forgotten the importance of embracing with open arms matters of national interests. The state wants to align with a rapidly changing security environment and wants politics to engage in a ‘crisis response activity’ yet politics has its sights not on the consequences of the failure of this alignment but on how to extract political benefits from a state that fears the consequences of such non-alignment. The rejection of the FATF bill in the Senate reflects opposition’s preference of viewing politics only within the context of politics — it’s a shame that the opposition couldn’t see the bigger picture and failed to understand that two months from now how deeply this non-alignment with national interests can cost this country.

Pakistan clearly faces some strategic choices, but in a democracy, making those choices is a matter of developing consensus and as long as the leadership of the opposition continues to face corruption charges, democracy hardly seems to be the political system that would lead to any political activity of consensus building between the government and the opposition. For over 24 months now, the opposition has been performing the role of a spoiler. It has consistently marketed hopelessness, despondency and fear both to the domestic as well as to the international audience. FATF black-listing Pakistan is not their concern; what concerns them is the concessions that they may end up getting for their ‘return on the investment’.

But I want to talk about the future and how Pakistan is going to fare in the months and years ahead. FATF for me is not a matter of concern. The last die is still to be cast and most likely individual politicians in the joint session of the Senate and the parliament will demonstrate enough Pakistaniyat to ensure that the bill is passed. Only then the Paris-based watchdog may favourably review our status and we may be spared the embarrassment and indignity of joining the list of already blacklisted countries — Iran and North Korea. We have our problems but we don’t deserve such a treatment by the outside world because we have fought so hard in the War on Terror and given so many sacrifices as a nation. From the outside world we deserve positive recognition, admiration and relief not condemnation, marginalisation and economic deprivation.

Our victory in the War on Terror set in motion our great transformation as a nation. We have left an era behind and have entered a new era. Personally I think it is only a matter of few years when most of the ‘mistakes committers’ the authors of the ‘political script that failed our next generation’, all of them will fade away from the political limelight for one reason or another. That time would actually be the beginning of new era — an era without the Sharifs, Zardaris, Maulanas, Mushahids and Rabbanis. If we could realistically scan the history of our politics and the evolution of our democracy and how little it has contributed to the welfare of the people and the state, most of us will be too glad to see the back of some of these politicians who along with some military rulers only gifted this country a debacle after debacle.

Their job was to transform Pakistan into a next generation state. What they have gifted us is a ‘dysfunctional country’ whose biggest cosmopolitan city Karachi literally drowned in the ongoing spell of rain. Politicians in Pakistan didn’t serve democracy nor did they serve this country, they only served themselves and created a political, social and economic disorder that ruined this country.

Whether it is landslides, earthquakes, floods, elections, fight against the pandemic, internal security situations or the solid waste management, the failed politics only knows one number to dial ‘9-1-1’. No other civilian government in the world dials the ‘9-1-1’ emergency number and calls its army as consistently as is done by our civilian governments. This despite the military’s huge national security and defence responsibilities. What separates the military from politics is that despite the mistakes it has committed, the military remains focused on nation building and state building activities. On the other hand, politics in Pakistan has only been setting itself up for confrontation not only internally with itself but externally with the military as well.

With the coming of Imran Khan’s government this pattern finally changed and today there is a strong civil-military realisation that it is not about dealing with many threats in the given environment but most importantly collectively strategising and dealing essentially with the ‘environment of threat’ created by more than a decade of failed democracy and politics. This environment of threat is more political and state blackmailing in nature. Politics in this country warrants a change in its behaviour. We cannot afford politics that cheats, lies, twists facts and lets down the country yet gets away with it. Surely, such politics must be held accountable.

In 2018, while talking to a group of journalists the current military chief emphasised on the need for reshaping policies in this country. The media picked up that story and quickly dubbed it as the “Bajwa doctrine”. What the general said at that time was that we need to reshape our policies such as peaceful coexistence with our neighbours, border fencing where necessary, improvement of relations with India and constitutional changes that create balance and order in the society. Put it simply, Pakistan needed to progress, move forward and reinforce those parts in policymaking that were pulling us back. Gladly, the current civil-military synergy in policymaking is leading us now to these ends.

Barring India, Pakistan is doing everything to improve its relations with its neighbours. It is continuously pushing for Afghan peace. PM Imran Khan recently spoke to Abdullah Abdullah of Afghanistan who is likely to lead the intra-Afghan peace talks and whom PM Imran Khan invited to visit Pakistan. The PM has also spoken to the PM of Bangladesh and our significantly improving relations with Iran speak of the emphasis being laid on this policy aspect. As far as construction of border fencing is concerned it is proceeding at great speed. Had the Indians not created such an adverse environment, dialogue with them may also have been possible. Where there is only government and the military involved in policymaking there is progress but in matters of parliament — legislation and constitutional changes — it is difficult to bring ‘accountability facing opposition’ on board.

The die is cast, the plan is simple — no compromise and no NRO and as long as Imran Khan and his government sticks to this plan this country will have hope to finally witness something coming out of the long and tiring process of accountability.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2020.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.