Directing national effort positively

There is no doubt that Pakistan is passing through one of the most extraordinary times with politics in turmoil

A time comes in the life of nations when their leaders cannot continue with policies counter to accepted norms of democracy and its foundational principles merely to serve their personal or narrow institutional vested interests. That moment is right now for Pakistan. This is applicable to leaders of political parties as much to all state institutions. The question is whether our leaders are prepared to accept this transformation or continue in the same groove that has kept Pakistan in a bind for the last 73 years.

There is no doubt that Pakistan is passing through one of the most extraordinary times with politics in serious turmoil. Opposition is up in arms with the Prime Minister who refuses to engage and leads an unending verbal assault calling them thieves and plunderers. The PM, instead of adopting pragmatism, prefers to stick to his idealist dream of cleaning up politics by getting rid of the top leadership of the political parties. This pursuit of his — if it were to succeed — could lead to a one-party system which is contrary to all norms of democracy. Moreover, if the PM remains consumed with the passion to set the opposition politicians right, he may in the process have not much to show about his government’s performance, as is the case so far.

To gain support of the masses the opposition is playing up on rising inflation and also hoping that this would reduce pressure from the pending NAB cases.

The overall performance of the government falling far below expectations has facilitated the opposition parties to form a united front, hold huge rallies in major cities, and pose a serious threat to the government.

There exists extreme negativity in politics with a mutual blame game and this cycle is continuing endlessly. Not realising that vitiating the political environment has serious consequences for the country.

The media has fallen a victim to this raucous discourse. Most of the time there is no substantive discussion or analysis of the political situation. The state of economy is hardly discussed in a serious manner. Even foreign policy issues do not attract the media attention these deserve. Apparently, the reason being the people are more interested in domestic matters and draw pleasure in watching verbal duels. It is not surprising that top leaders and spokespersons excel in personal remarks and are rewarded in perfecting this art. This is in sharp contrast to the maturity and seriousness in discourse that generally takes place in international media.

The continuous harassing of media personnel and curbing dissent is becoming a norm of the government. These recent attempts of suppressing the media is a reflection of the lack of confidence of the government in its performance and policies. This policy has backfired and soiled Pakistan’s reputation abroad.

Placing a ban on TikTok and withdrawing it were signs of insecurity. Social media, be it Facebook, Twitter or other web blogs, play a significant role in strengthening democracy and provide an opportunity to all shades of opinion.

The PM refuses to engage with other political parties and would rather rely on the military for strengthening his regime. The confrontation has led to dissipation of national time and energy with people being the worst affected.

It was expected that the PTI leadership would give parliament and its committees the importance that it deserves. On the contrary, the government has relied extensively on promulgating ordinances contrary to the spirit of the Constitution and democratic practices.

Voices are being raised that state institutions remain within their constitutional limits. But when politics is in such disarray and the ruling party is determined in cornering the opposition, it has to rely on the army. This by default creates space for the establishment to play a major role in national affairs. Democracy demands a certain degree of social integration, the existence of a political class with some concept of national interest, and a minimum of economic development.

The question is: what is the way out? How does Pakistan’s politician get out of this rut? Does the present political leadership have that ability to develop a minimum national consensus on basic issues when they are all up in arms? What comes to mind is that when the political temperatures cool the PTI leadership should aim at:

Conducting parliament affairs in a civilised manner allowing sufficient time to the opposition.

Focusing on legislation and desisting the issuances of ordinances.

Bringing in meaningful changes in Pakistan will not be an easy task as the institutions are powerful and there is considerable inertia in the system. Besides, our political effort is fragmented with one party or the other using institutions to be propped up rather than relying on the people’s power. Our national experience has been that we all know the failures and its root causes, yet efforts at fixing them have been mostly illusory.

At the same time if we fail to address the democratic decline our economy will continue to suffer resulting in tighter controls, widespread strikes bordering on anarchy.

The issue of governance is closely related to civic peace and the power structure of the state. The inability of the economy to generate jobs in sufficient numbers to absorb the growing young is a sure recipe for social disruption.

In this grim scenario there are positive developments that give hope that not all has been forsaken. The judgment of the Supreme Court in the Qazi Isa case vindicated the rule of law. Pakistan also fared well by staying in the grey list with a hope that the FATF may clear the remaining six points on the action plan by February next year.

There is nothing to be gained by merely focusing on the blame game. The political structure and imbalance in the power of institutions is largely the legacy of our colonial inheritance. It is time for us to shed this legacy and develop a shared interest in strengthening democracy; and more importantly have something solid to show in terms of development and price stabilisation for benefit of the poor.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2020.

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