No to anything but me

We are in a situation in which one side will not accept a decision if its own position is not vindicated

When one gets fixated upon one’s own infallibility, wisdom and belief that there do not exist any democratic or constitutional methods by which a government — due to its economic mismanagement, international isolation, failure in fulfilling any election promises or governance setbacks — can be ousted through a normal parliamentary no-confidence vote, then one resorts to conspiracy theories, that all the credible institutions of state repeatedly deny exist.

One then keeps on getting sucked into a vortex of deniables and half-truths that have no feet in solid ground.

If one demands that a Judicial Commission be formed to enquire into the supposed conspiracy cable, one is presuming that the commission will only endorse one’s own version otherwise it will not be believed or will also be castigated as part of a grander conspiracy.

The same goes for the demand for the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner when his appointment was made in consultation with PTI as confirmed by Imran Khan himself as well as Shireen Mazari.

The reason why this demand is being made is obviously to put pressure on the ECP not taking any decision in the PTI’s six-year-old prohibited foreign funding case which is ripe for decision that goes against the party or its leadership. Even if for argument’s sake the CEC does step down, which he has adamantly disavowed, since the PTI has already resigned from the National Assembly, the appointment of a new CEC will not be possible as under the Constitution it has to be made in consultation between the PM and the opposition leader. Neither thus will it be possible to move forward on the prohibited funding cases nor will an early election fructify due to intractable legal issues involved arising from the matter of appointment of the CEC. Two out of the four posts of Members of the ECP are already lying vacant.

Nor is the demand that the decision of foreign funding of all political parties be made simultaneously reasonable as it amounts to making the rather strange claim that, for instance, all murder cases occurring at different times be decided together.

Without going into the unstated but clearly evident reasons for the demand that elections be held before November 2022, when an important appointment occurs, the demand for early elections is also not without being specious and impractical.

Firstly, the ECP is already undertaking delimitations made necessary due to merger of ex-Fata districts into K-P. This process will take, as stated by ECP in Supreme Court, no less than seven months.

Even if early elections after seven months, say in November or December, take place, what is the guarantee that Imran Khan will accept any result other than a thumping majority which he and his cohorts are already claiming. Perhaps the size of the crowds gathering to listen to Khan’s popular and saleable narrative of anti-Americanism and conspiracy campaign is leading to such conclusions forgetting that his crowds of 2014 protests were no less bigger but those rallies did not convert into a clear parliamentary majority and government had to be formed on the stilts of a shaky coalition that was on critical stages kept together through telephonic prods or veiled minatories.

The combined coalition comprising no less than seven political parties, when in opposition, had always opposed the holding of elections through EVMs due to suspicions about credibility of results therefrom. No cross-party consensus was built around the electoral reform bill that was ramrodded through the Parliament without any discussions making the then government’s intentions even more suspect. Any elections under the electronic voting system would thus render the elections suspect or unacceptable, ab initio, not ending the political crisis.

So we are in a situation in which one side will not accept any decision if its own position is not vindicated or it doesn’t come the front-runner. Rules, Constitution or laws become of secondary importance as do civil security and law and order in opposition to the attainment of power through any or all means. To put everything at stake involving social order is playing with fire which in a nuclear state the guardians of national security will not accept. One hopes the alarming noises being made are mere political pressure tactics but passions of innocent crowds can also have a human price.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2022.

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