Pathway to redemption

Kudos to the one who wrote PML-N’s roadmap to redemption. Three jalsas down and two to go the heat is turned up already and many articles of faith are being questioned. If it also helps to take eyes off allegations of massive corruption, that’s a windfall. What the PML-N seeks in revision to its political philosophy is patently doctrinal and politically correct; if indeed what they propound is what they actually seek. With the PML-N — given their track record — suspicions abound. Till date they have covertly or overtly sought a compromise to get out of a testing political or personal situation.

PML-N’s vociferous demand is for the army to keep out of politics. It is constitutionally right and legally correct. Parse it further. Their slogan “vote ko izzat dou” (respect the mandate) assumes that the PML-N may have actually won the 2018 elections but the army which largely ran security duties during the elections interfered with the process and influenced the vote-counting to award PTI a win. The easiest way out for all parties to ensure that the army does not interfere in any manner in the election process — the way it is being alleged by the PML-N — is to keep the army entirely out of the process. For it the Election Commission will need to be strengthened and equipped to undertake the elections under its own arrangement only seeking the support of the army or the army-affiliated security institutions for security on the day without having to do anything with the process of balloting.

Despite the two years and more that have elapsed between the last election and now, none of the political parties or their representatives in the parliament have as much as bothered to put forth a draft proposal of how it may be done. Per the PTI the few times that a parliamentary committee meant to undertake the task was convened to meet the opposition simply refused to attend. They are unable to resolve the differences between them and will not do anything to allay their biggest apprehension about the fidelity of democracy. Yet questions of electoral accuracy keep the nation in turmoil and the state in a dysfunction.

The 2018 elections were as fair or compromised as any other election in our political history save an odd. It is zeroed in on by the combined mainstream opposition for throwing up a non-traditional Imran Khan at the helm. Events before the elections and the resultant gripe by the senior PML-N leadership are the reason why the PML-N sounds angry and leads the charge. In such recourse they have already crossed many a red-line of acceptable political norms by threatening the state and the nation with disclosing sensitive information which they were privy to when in government. It amounts to holding the gun to the state’s head to win back favours they assumes are theirs. I avoid the term ‘blackmail’ here. Alternately, and as a further sign of ridicule, they suggest that if the sensitivity is high to a claimed disclosure it implicitly proves its veracity. The argument is manipulative and extractive and betrays a continuing proclivity to assault conventional restraints. Denial of non-existence is affirmation of existence. Either way it harms the state.

The other crib of the PML-N is about NAB and how it may seem to hound the opposition with its high-handedness. This formulation assumes innocence against allegation of rampant corruption. Such assertion is patently false. There is huge evidence to suggest otherwise much of it under trial in courts with convictions and sentencing of individuals involved establishing the guilt. There cannot be any other way around it nor should it be the need to enable escape to those under investigation or in custody for such allegations and indictment. The procedures at NAB can be improved and made fairer for enabling a chance to those under scrutiny to clear their name but it cannot and never should enable a quid pro quo for safety to those in the dock for peace in the country. It is time that the guilty be brought under law regardless of how high they stand in the political mantle. The only thing that needs to be done better is to leave the cases to the courts and not be seen to be zealous about ensuring punishments that deem a suspect guilty. Even if that is the case. That is for the courts to decide. Separating justice from politics is as important as separating crime from politics. All sides need to limit their domains of indulgence.

What may also be termed as exceeding the mandate by the non-political forces in matters of governance can be the much-touted hybrid model that is claimed to be in practice under the PTI. It isn’t a deliberately planned way of doing state business. The nomenclature is cleverly introduced to the discourse by some and then pasted over the single-page iteration to become an acceptable classification. Two things stand out: one, the PTI was successful in agitating a dormant electoral base and convert it into votes; and two, a government in power is within its right to seek assistance from a subordinate functions to assist in governance. This isn’t unconstitutional even if distasteful. The parliament is just the right place to seek a reversion of the trend. Legally and constitutionally the PTI is within its right to induct the army for support in areas where it deems fit. When it is the turn of another government at the helm it should simply dispense with such recourse. How large may be the domain circles and where all they may intersect is for a government to decide. Circumscribing a government’s options should neither be dictated nor termed unconstitutional.

One way to keep the army out of politics is to do all that is necessary through political and administrative hands only. True, the military can be called upon by the civilian authority to assist but if politics makes it into a habit the army too gets into the same habit. Just to recap within the last two years only, the army has been asked to take over the management of a pandemic, eliminate the locust spread, resolve issues with the IPPs, discover stolen stocks of sugar and wheat, and assist with all kinds of investigations through JITs. It has had to intervene to get essential legislation passed in conformance with international statutes to which Pakistan is a signatory and keep the country from defaulting sovereign guarantees. It must play its part to keep CPEC moving or else it will badly and irrecoverably stall adding to our collective national woes. None of this is military’s domain and yet without resolving these, the state and the society will enter a tail-spin to eventual disintegration of both. It is time the governments carried their burden and let the military confine itself to the barracks.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2020.

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